Hi, my name is Will and I write books. Well, you probably guessed that, otherwise I wouldn’t be here on Chris’ inestimable blog, wittering away as usual about stuff that might interest a tiny section of the population of the planet. Of course, as you are reading this (unless you aren’t in which case you can get lost ) you’ll probably be aware that I often write my blog in a sort of stream of consciousness style, or as my friends put it, a stream of unconsciousness.

Anyway, I digress.* I’m supposed to write a bio here, and whilst I usually treat guidelines in the way most people approach parking restrictions, this time I’m going to be a good boy. Here goes. Will Macmillan Jones lives in Wales, a lovely green, verdant land with a rich cultural heritage. He does his best to support this heritage by drinking the local beer and shouting loud encouragement whenever International Rugby is on the TV. A fifty something lover of blues, rock and jazz he has just fulfilled a lifetime ambition by filling an entire wall of his home office with (full) bookcases. When not writing, he is usually lost with the help of a GPS/SatNav on top of a large hill in the middle of nowhere.

If your computer is still working after that photo, Chris wants to know why I write. It’s quite straightforward really, unless I get sidetracked again, in which case it isn’t. I’ve always wanted to be an entertainer. But I can’t sing, can’t dance, and when I pick up my beloved Les Paul guitar and try to pretend that I can play like Gary Moore, the dogs run howling for the kitchen and hide with their paws over their ears. So I have to do something that doesn’t make as much noise, and only frightens the animals if someone reads passages aloud to them. I’ll tell you a secret now: I have a secret ambition.** Look, if I told you what it is, it wouldn’t be a secret anymore, would it? Writing lets me entertain, without all that tedious having to perform in front of people and risk having either abuse or fruit (or worse) slung at me. It’s great fun!

How did I get published? Because I was lucky, that’s why. I found a publisher who shares my sense of humour and actually found my jokes funny. Yes, he’s probably mad as well, which helps. But I was also lucky because for once I managed to send something to someone in a manner that met their guidelines. Probably I had an off day or something. Safkhet Publishing, like most small presses, have very strict submission guidelines to help them filter their enormous submission in tray into something manageable for their small team. All agents and publishers do that, and if I have one piece of useful advice to offer, it is this: if you are submitting anything to anyone, read the guidelines and treat them as if they are set in stone: because they are. I suspect that a lot of the rejection slips I treasure I received because I was too arrogant (my ex will happily confirm that bit if ever you ask her) to follow the guidelines exactly to the letter. You have been warned.

Interests: I’ve detailed them above really. I read continuously; drink plenty of beer; and if not trying to play guitar to an acceptable standard, I like walking on the hills and fells. But if any of you have read any of my rubbish, you’ll know that anyway because I find it impossible to keep those aspects of my character out of my work. Single parenting a teenage daughter takes up any remaining spare time I might have. Oh, and I am continuously trying to write a better book than the last one…

Speaking of which, here is the last one.

Yes, you can see from that piccie that’s book 5 in my collection of stories about The Banned Underground. I call this a collection now, as all the books are actually stand alone works, no prior experience needed. You can jump in at any point and have fun with the collection of one liners and more subtle gags. Yes, there are some, honest.

The sixth book, Have Frog, Will Travel is presently in copy editing for the release in the summer of 2014, and the next two books in the collection are making steady progress. There’s also another horror/paranormal work nearing completion for my US based Publisher.

So, some links:

The major comic fantasy series, released by Safkhet Publishing, can be found HERE and information on my other work – that’s the paranormal stuff, the soon to be released children’s work and the flash fiction I love to write: stuff in general

There’s a blog. There’s always a blog, isn’t there?

Willmacmillanjones.wordpress.com

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

Facebook

Twitter

Smashwords

Thanks for reading this, and I hope it wasn’t too dull.

Will

*Sorry, I do that a lot. Mybad.

** I like footnotes, OK? Bite me. Anyway, my secret ambition is this: to just once have someone tell me that they have fallen off their chair laughing at one of my jokes. Sad, isn’t it? You can see why I keep that one secret.

BTW – see TSRA’s previous article about me HERE.