Turning words into stories.

Publishing. Writing. Blurbs. Covers. Fiction.

Discover my novel EXO – a story of murder, multi-dimensions and the end of the world

'A must-read that recalls the work of
Kim Stanley Robinson' Library Journal,
SFF Debut of the Month

From Colin's blog . . .
Exogenous: 5 weird works that changed Exo
Exogenous: 5 weird works that changed Exo
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Ex libris: 5 books that shaped Exo
Ex libris: 5 books that shaped Exo
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Exo Extract 3: Year One
Exo Extract 3: Year One
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Exo Extract 2: Day One
Exo Extract 2: Day One
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Exo Extract 1: Day Zero
Exo Extract 1: Day Zero
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Exploring Exo – the headland of Dungeness
Exploring Exo – the headland of Dungeness

Discover Dungeness, the real-life inspiration for my novel Exo.

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Extra! Extra! Announcing Exo – a novel of murder and the end of the world
Extra! Extra! Announcing Exo – a novel of murder and the end of the world

After writing the words on the outsides of several thousand books, I’ve decided to take a shot at the insides of one.

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8. The Irresistible End
8. The Irresistible End

‘But wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the Forest a little boy and his Bear will always be playing.’ – The House At Pooh Corner, A.A. Milne

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Blurbs in the wild: It is a publishing cliche that 'this book is for everyone.' When an editor makes such a claim the comms team groans: they hear the opposite. In other words, they see a book for no one. But @4thestatebooks and Craig Brown's A Voya
Blurbs in the wild: 'Which they were. But now they are not.' These two short, plain sentences early in this blurb for @headofzeus and Kelly Link's The Book of Love provide the hinge for this pitch. Three dead teenagers are no longer dead – why
Blurbs in the wild: A goatherd sets out to become a magician, but true magic is on the wane. That's the pitch for @ursulakleguin Earthsea quartet. Four books. Four stories. One @penguinukbooks omnibus. The trick here, because you don't want to spoil
Many thanks to Library Journal and Meagan Shay for calling Exo their SFF Debut of the Month and a 'must-read.' https://www.libraryjournal.com/story/exo-by-colin-brush-sff-debut-of-the-month I'm off now to get a badge made, declaring: 'Look on my Bo
Blurbs in the wild: Sell one, sell the them all. The blurb for @orbitbooks_uk and @ann_leckie @clarkeaward winner Ancillary Justice is a two-parter. First, it tells you why should read this landmark trilogy (many prizes, a masterpiece, contemporary
Blurbs in the wild: Science fiction often takes an idea or metaphor and makes it real, concretising the abstract. In this @gollancz blurb for @ursulakleguin The Dispossessed, the SF is stripped away so that we are pitching the big ideas: a story of w
Blurbs in the wild: Pitches are the words we put in and the words we leave out. Ursula Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness is a foundational text of science fiction but to read the blurb on @gollancz new edition you wouldn't know it is SF, you'd neve
Three-part pitch: in three paragraphs @versobooks blurb for Izumi Suzuki's Terminal Boredom uses the classic publicity formulation: what is it? how does it work? why do it? Paragraph one tells you what you're holding. Paragraph two pitches the seven
Tantalise and be bold. Most publishers would wax lyrical over an author's short story collection, giving it the works, like the salesman who thinks that if he can only keep you talking he's still got a chance of making the sale. Not true. In @faberb
Three questions to explore a world. The blurb on @pelicanbooks and Timothy Morton's Being Ecological follows the series' style of posing three provocative questions, each one tending to get larger or more all-encompassing than the last. We begin doub
Many trees, one wood. For a book with multiple characters and told from multiple perspectives, the blurb for @grantabooks & Eleanor Catton's Birnam Wood audaciously mentions just one: the billionaire. Why? Because he, intentionally or otherwise,
A name and a place. The blurb for @headlinebooks and @octaviaebutler Parable of the Sower is light on specific detail: just a character, Lauren, and a country, America. The world is broken, we are told, but she has both power and vision. This is blur