About the Author
Charlotte Goodwin is an Army Reservist of twenty years with just another twenty-two to go! She openly admits she is unable to ever leave through choice and will still be serving until they kick her out at sixty. Around the Army, Charlotte somehow manages to fit in being a mum to two young children, a never ending renovation project, adventures in the great outdoors and an addiction to writing.
About the Gallantrian Universe
You're being watched. Only joking, you probably aren't. The Zargons only watch the important people, or Specimens of Interest as they call them. If you happen to run a country, are a war lord or just some kind of epic super villain, then it is possible you do have an observation drone following you around. If not, you are most likely just another ordinary specimen in a sea of other specimens, to the Zargons at least.
The Zargons are watching us. But not just us, we're not that special. They monitor all inhabited planets. Most science fiction would have you believe that intelligent alien races are more interested in annihilating us than studying us. But then I guess boring aliens that just watch aren't that interesting.
The Zargons want to just watch and study, well, most of them do. But occasionally some get a bit too attached to the specimens they stare at, day in, day out. On some occasions they save a life when they shouldn't and a whole epic saga unfolds. Sometimes the boring aliens surprise us the most.
I could leave it at that, and the narrative wouldn't be wrong, but it doesn't quite paint the full picture because I didn't mention the Gallantrians. They were there first. They were monitoring planets before the Zargons even invented space travel. They monitored and they meddled. They built new worlds, they made new races, they created the Gallantrian Universe. And then they just vanished. Or did they?
The Zargons are watching us. But not just us, we're not that special. They monitor all inhabited planets. Most science fiction would have you believe that intelligent alien races are more interested in annihilating us than studying us. But then I guess boring aliens that just watch aren't that interesting.
The Zargons want to just watch and study, well, most of them do. But occasionally some get a bit too attached to the specimens they stare at, day in, day out. On some occasions they save a life when they shouldn't and a whole epic saga unfolds. Sometimes the boring aliens surprise us the most.
I could leave it at that, and the narrative wouldn't be wrong, but it doesn't quite paint the full picture because I didn't mention the Gallantrians. They were there first. They were monitoring planets before the Zargons even invented space travel. They monitored and they meddled. They built new worlds, they made new races, they created the Gallantrian Universe. And then they just vanished. Or did they?
More about the Author and her Books
I'm not going to write my CV, if you want that, please feel free to stalk me on Linked In, there's a handy link at the bottom of this page. But what I will do is give you a summary of my crazy collection of past jobs and experiences.
Sooo, jobs wise, I counted them up and I've done 13 different ones since I got my first job aged just 14 years old. When your parents give you no money, the only way to get it is to earn it - or steal it, but I'm afraid I can't confess to ever deliberately stealing anything, except when a self checkout malfunctions, but that's not my fault, its the machine, right? Or when I may have reallocated certain resources for a better purpose. The plaque I 'repurposed' from 103 Squadron's Army Reserve centre, sometime around 2009 at a guess, springs to mind. But hey, if they are stupid enough to give you a screw driver when you ask for one at a regimental function, they deserve to lose it!
Anyway, so started work at 14, and have been employed ever since. I did loads of typical jobs you may expect of someone young and waiting for their career to kick off, like bar maid, cleaner, shop assistant etc. But then, aged 18 years old, when I went to uni for the first time and decided the Army Reserves was probably a more fun way to make money than serving drinks, I joined up. And that's it. Been trapped in military service ever since! Not literally, of course, I'm still serving and don't want to get into trouble for spouting lies about the Army. I'm trapped as frankly, if I left there would be a gaping hole in my life where the Army and all the wonderful people I've met through service all these years used to be.
Joined the Army at 18, quit uni aged 18, then randomly, having never skied before in my life, I got a job as a chalet maid in the French alps aged 19. I went back to uni aged 20, graduated aged 23, and am now on (proper) career #5. Until fairly recently I worked for Amazon, and before you ask, yes I was allowed to go the loo whenever I like and so is everyone else! Its actually quite a nice place to work and thought everyone was great. In fact, Amazon is the best employer in the world... are you listening Jeff? Now please can I have free ads on Kindle when I self publish, pretty please!
So Amazon was career #4 but I'm now on #5, that's because until recently, I still didn't know what I wanted to do. My crazy CV and is testament to that, either that or it has something to do with the ADHD that I'm pretty sure I have. Either way, after smashing 6 novels in my first year of writing, I think I may have worked out what I want to do, I think I want to be a writer!
The crazy concept of putting modern military characters in a magical setting is one that has been rattling around my mind for years. I could say it all started back in 2011, when I was stood in my body armour and helmet in the oppressive heat of Afghanistan, loaded rifle in hand, staring out into the desolate streets of Lashkar Gar from a sanger at 3 a.m. in the morning. I could suggest that as I gazed upon the sorry sight of place that deserved so much more, whose people deserved more, people who just needed a hero to come and save them, that the ideas trickled into my head like sand fills a time glass.
I could say that, but I'd be lying. I wrote a novel back in 2010. It was a bit pants. It never went anywhere. Then I thought up an idea for another one, probably just when I was bored, and it rattled round my head for the next eleven or so years, surviving two previous attempts to get it down on paper, until eventually, in 2021, I started to write again. Then I got addicted. I wrote book 1, then 2 then 3. Then I missed my characters. So I wrote books 4, 5 and 6, and now I have some ideas for a few more.
I find writing words flows into my laptop like a wave flows over the sand. But editing? Yuk. It's dull, it's tedious, but it has to be done. Right now I'm editing. I'm working on getting all 6 books ready before I launch book 1 in my series. Personally, I hate it when you finish a book in a series only to find out the next one won't be out for over a year. So I'm going to get them all ready, then release them three months apart. As you might imagine, polishing a total of over 700,000 words takes time, so it's going to be next year before book 1 goes live. If you want to be be the first to find out when, be sure to sign up to my newsletter!
Thanks for reading,
Charlotte :)
Sooo, jobs wise, I counted them up and I've done 13 different ones since I got my first job aged just 14 years old. When your parents give you no money, the only way to get it is to earn it - or steal it, but I'm afraid I can't confess to ever deliberately stealing anything, except when a self checkout malfunctions, but that's not my fault, its the machine, right? Or when I may have reallocated certain resources for a better purpose. The plaque I 'repurposed' from 103 Squadron's Army Reserve centre, sometime around 2009 at a guess, springs to mind. But hey, if they are stupid enough to give you a screw driver when you ask for one at a regimental function, they deserve to lose it!
Anyway, so started work at 14, and have been employed ever since. I did loads of typical jobs you may expect of someone young and waiting for their career to kick off, like bar maid, cleaner, shop assistant etc. But then, aged 18 years old, when I went to uni for the first time and decided the Army Reserves was probably a more fun way to make money than serving drinks, I joined up. And that's it. Been trapped in military service ever since! Not literally, of course, I'm still serving and don't want to get into trouble for spouting lies about the Army. I'm trapped as frankly, if I left there would be a gaping hole in my life where the Army and all the wonderful people I've met through service all these years used to be.
Joined the Army at 18, quit uni aged 18, then randomly, having never skied before in my life, I got a job as a chalet maid in the French alps aged 19. I went back to uni aged 20, graduated aged 23, and am now on (proper) career #5. Until fairly recently I worked for Amazon, and before you ask, yes I was allowed to go the loo whenever I like and so is everyone else! Its actually quite a nice place to work and thought everyone was great. In fact, Amazon is the best employer in the world... are you listening Jeff? Now please can I have free ads on Kindle when I self publish, pretty please!
So Amazon was career #4 but I'm now on #5, that's because until recently, I still didn't know what I wanted to do. My crazy CV and is testament to that, either that or it has something to do with the ADHD that I'm pretty sure I have. Either way, after smashing 6 novels in my first year of writing, I think I may have worked out what I want to do, I think I want to be a writer!
The crazy concept of putting modern military characters in a magical setting is one that has been rattling around my mind for years. I could say it all started back in 2011, when I was stood in my body armour and helmet in the oppressive heat of Afghanistan, loaded rifle in hand, staring out into the desolate streets of Lashkar Gar from a sanger at 3 a.m. in the morning. I could suggest that as I gazed upon the sorry sight of place that deserved so much more, whose people deserved more, people who just needed a hero to come and save them, that the ideas trickled into my head like sand fills a time glass.
I could say that, but I'd be lying. I wrote a novel back in 2010. It was a bit pants. It never went anywhere. Then I thought up an idea for another one, probably just when I was bored, and it rattled round my head for the next eleven or so years, surviving two previous attempts to get it down on paper, until eventually, in 2021, I started to write again. Then I got addicted. I wrote book 1, then 2 then 3. Then I missed my characters. So I wrote books 4, 5 and 6, and now I have some ideas for a few more.
I find writing words flows into my laptop like a wave flows over the sand. But editing? Yuk. It's dull, it's tedious, but it has to be done. Right now I'm editing. I'm working on getting all 6 books ready before I launch book 1 in my series. Personally, I hate it when you finish a book in a series only to find out the next one won't be out for over a year. So I'm going to get them all ready, then release them three months apart. As you might imagine, polishing a total of over 700,000 words takes time, so it's going to be next year before book 1 goes live. If you want to be be the first to find out when, be sure to sign up to my newsletter!
Thanks for reading,
Charlotte :)
|
|
|
|
