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The series, an essential for Indie Writers

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Indie writers get a lot of advice about how to be noticed, how to attract readers and how to keep them. One of the most consistent pieces of advice is to write a series.Three years ago I took the leap and started my own featuring a handsome, engaging Frenchman who I named Victor Roth. By the way, Victor has a liking for hot air balloons. More about that later. Der Luftballoon, Paul Klee, 1906 A series is a way of building a following. If readers like the first story and your characters they'll want more. That's why we write series. Changes of genre or style lose the most precious thing you have, readers. When the series began in 2014, Victor was 38, single, rich and a desk-bound analyst in the Paris office of Interpol. His specialty is counterfeting and forgery. He lives in Montmartre and is single by choice. He has his suits and shoes made and wears black tie when he dines with friends. He also carries a flick knife. I love him but he may not be to everyone's tast
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The Mona Lisa's room-mates

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I thought it might be interesting to have a look at the paintings that share the Mona Lisa's gallery in the Louvre. So many images of the Salle des Etats are limited to  the Mona Lisa's glass cell on the end wall and ignore the other Renaissance paintings by Venetian artists or painters working in Venice in the 16th century that are hung in her purpose designed room. The purpose of this vast space is to shuffle about six million visitors past the Mona Lisa every year. Salle des Etats, Mona Lisa on far wall Let's look at the gallery first and get that out of the way. The plain walls and austere skylight, so different to the original domed glass is very dull indeed. Of course the Salle des Etats has a much more colourful past. It was the principal state room of Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, nephew and heir of Napoleon. Napoleon's second wife, (you remember the first was Josephine of not tonight darling & don't leave me Boney fame) Marie-Therese of Aust
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Indie author/self-editor

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When we write, we edit. Everyone does it - put it down, re-read, change it. Whether it's a text message, email, the shopping list or a novel, we (hopefully) improve what we put down by editing. I write novels, not long fantasy tomes of 175,000 words. Mine are considered novels because they exceed 60,000 words. I generally come in between 70,000 and 80,000 words, depending on how long it takes me to get the story down. Even at that modest length there's a lot of editing in one of my novels and I have been painfully aware that there are a lot of skills a trained editor has that I do not. Solution? Do an editing course. Oh woe the day in February that I signed up for a year of long-distance torture. I live out of the city you see and going to daily classes just wasn't an option. I had done my first degree by distance education and thought what the heck, I can do it again. Idiot. My course in editing and publishing is all online which I can cope with. You don't
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Designing Book Covers for the Roth Series

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The base image I used today to create a new cover for Hubris. Wikimedia Commons One of the hardest things I do as an Indie author is to design my own book covers. Not having been trained as a graphic designer I find the process, shall we say, challenging . During the writing of the latest book in my current series I created 71 versions over the cover. Today I created the 73rd. Overkill you say. You bet, but it's not easy to conceptualise a story in a cover design. I've used a number of images to try and give my reader the idea of what's in this book which is a mystery/thriller about the theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre. Of course the painting itself would be the first thing you think of and I did, I used it but I wasn't happy with the result. As the book is set in the curatorial department of the museum I also tried an image of the workshops in the Louvre. I liked that. It was primarily black and white and appealed to my sense of what the story is about.
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Things I've learnt about the Louvre, one of them spooky

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The Louvre in 1615 I know I go on about it, but I do do a lot of research when I write a new novel. Over the last six months I've been researching the Louvre and thought I'd share a few things I've learnt with you. The Louvre Palace dates from medieval times and was originally a fortress. It was the main residence of Louis XIV until he moved his court and the seat of government to Versailles in 1682. In the late 16th and  early 17th centuries, Henry IV of France carried out major improvements, removing remnants of the medieval fortress, increasing the area of the Cour Carree and completing a link between the Tuileries Palace and the Louvre. Cour Carree today Napoleon used the Tuileries Palace as his home but it was  burnt down during unrest in May 1871. The administrative and conservation areas of the Louvre Museum were moved to new space under the Tuileries gardens as part of I.M. Pei's grand design for the entrance pyramid. Cross section of the ne
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Victor Roth is a South Seas kind of guy

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It's summer in Paris and time for some sun. Many Parisiens desert the city for the Riviera or Atlantic coast. Certainly that's the preoccupation of the Curator in Hubris . You don't think of Paris as a place for swimmers - those prickly, impatient exemplars of fashion donning their lycra trunks for a lazy dip just doesn't seem to fit and yet this summer a new swimming place on the canal at La Villette is having to turn away eager bathers. Temporary pontoons have been set up over the water and lifeguards are in place. Paris authorities are now confident the water at La Villette is clean enough to swim in and there are plans to open spots on the Seine to swimmers. Paris Plages Festival 2009 It's all part of an annual summer festival, Paris Plages (beaches) when Parisiens take their deck chairs and umbrellas down to the embankment beside the Seine and sunbathe. The city also trucks in some sand and creates narrow temporary beaches. Here in th
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Fine art in the Roth series

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Some examples of the fine art you'll encounter in the Roth series. In Hubris, #3, set in the curatorial spaces of the Louvre. Drouais, Family Portrait, 1756     Mona Lisa, the Louvre Mona Lisa, 16th century copy, Prado Not fine art but interesting. The Louvre showing I.M. Pei pyramid and  curatorial spaces  under the Tuileries Georges de la Tour, Repentant Magdalene Georges de la Tour, the Nativity 1644 From #2 Emperor in all but name Piranesi original, Fantasy of a Palace -  numerous Piranesi forgeries by Eric Hebborn In the Emperor you'll also encounter Cezanne and Rothko. Roth also deals with forgeries of valuable philatelic specimens. The Magenta, value $9.5m For sale at your favourite eBook retailer or buy direct at Smashwords.com https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/TLBartusch
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