Complete Darkness is Nearly Upon Us

Burton Mayers Books are proud to announce that on 25th October, Matt Adcock's debut novel, Complete Darkness, finally goes live.

Complete Darkness - going live across the world on October 25th

It's been a busy year, preparing for the coming darkness, but author Matt has been relentless in his drive to tell as many people, and organisations, about his book, even commissioning a national survey about Christians' belief in hell.  

You can read some of the articles by organisations who reported on his research at the end of this blog post, no doubt there will be many more after the book's release.  Not only that, Matt has been a guest at comic conventions across the UK, including TitanCon, Belfast 2019, and Scotland's Comic Con 2019.  Matt also picked up some interesting fans:

Just a regular weekend for Matt and his cosplay pals (Matt's the one on the right).

The book launch event, on 25th October at The Parcel Yard Pub, Kings Cross, promises to be a blast.  Matt will be introducing his book and has invited a priest, a satanist and a theologian to talk about people's questions about the afterlife.  A perfect start to any weekend!

The book has already been favorably reviewed by authors, but also across social media networks, blogs and websites who have been attracted to Adcock's genre-defying novel. Some have even posted trigger warnings due to the content of extreme violence, speculative demonology, worrying possible future scenarios, strong language, and lots of things Christians might thoroughly disapprove of.

However, all critics are in agreement that COMPLETE DARKNESS is an 'action-packed literary shock to the senses that mixes flights of comic fantasy with bouts of brutal violence, offering readers a spiritually-charged, cyber-noir thrill ride into a bleak and dystopian, patriarchal future, ruled by Satan himself.'

The book is available from all leading bookshops, including Amazon, Waterstones and Blackwell's. There is also a Kindle version of the book which has been fighting for number 1 in the spiritual and religious fiction chart since pre-orders became available in August.
Links where you can see more of darkness linked to the book:

https://horrortree.com/can-some-of-us-sense-hell/

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/47575586-complete-darkness?from_search=true

https://christiantoday.com/article/complete-darkness-an-honest-review/133266.htm

https://www.premierchristianity.com/Blog/Most-churches-aren-t-preaching-about-hell.-But-loving-people-means-telling-them-the-truth

https://www.premier.org.uk/News/UK/Only-three-quarters-of-Christians-believe-in-hell-data-reveals?_ga=2.63461103.1115826492.1571651882-1578501195.1571651882

Adcock says there is a mystery around the concept of hell which makes it more difficult to understand and suggested more teaching on the subject was needed.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Darkness-Darkmatters-Matt-Adcock/dp/0957338775/ 

Watch out, Osmond's about!

Burton Mayers Books are proud to announce the release of Osmond the Toad.

Liz Noble' debut children's novel is released on 27th September 2019

Liz Noble's quirky and fun debut follows the eponymous hero of the story, Osmond the toad, as he attempts to master the art of pond skating.  The book is packed full of energetic and vibrant illustrations and is a suitable length for readers between the ages of six and nine.

There are deeper messages in here rather than just following the frivolity of a creative amphibian.  Young readers will appreciate the messages about resilience and never giving up and learning not to judge a lumpy, farty, warty toad as a creature who can not bring happiness and joy to the pond inhabitants around him.

The book is available to order on Amazon, Waterstones, Barnes and Noble and all other leading bookstores.  A #Kindle version is also available.

To follow and interact with the author, you can tweet her directly @author_noble
We hope you enjoy reading the book and welcome your feedback. 
Burton Mayers Books are always on the lookout for new talent. 

The Hedgehog's Full Moon Party

It's been nearly a year since our last post, but that doesn't mean we've not been busy.  Oh no, quite the opposite, we've been working hard behind the scenes to line up a series of new books that are going to hit the children's and adults' market.  

After much shuffling and snuffling about, we're very proud to announce the arrival of our latest star, Lavender the hedgehog, who appears in her first adventure on the 26th November 2018.

Available from 26th November 2018 at all good bookstores and online retailers. 

The process of writing a children's book is never an easy one.  It's taken nearly three years to get the project completed, this included finding an illustrator to take the job on and several redrafts to get the design and feel of the book looking just right.  There was also a great deal of care to preserve the artistry of Abigail de Montfort's beautiful artwork so that each picture kept its vibrancy.

The book is 34 pages long and includes an array of colourful, layered images which are accompanied by a fun and engaging narrative.  Each night, Lavender the hedgehog goes out for her dinner and meets different types of friends on her nocturnal adventures, old and new.

Fully Road Tested 

The book has, like all other titles from Burton Mayers Books, been fully road-tested (not something positively associated with hedgehogs, I might add); receiving the full treatment from librarians, teachers and, most importantly, readers from primary schools, you'll be wanting to hear about more of Lavender's adventures.  

The book also has a nod of approval from the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS) and the People's Trust for Endangered Species (PTES), with the narrative featuring the highway sign from the recent Hedgehog Street campaign to open up the UK's gardens to be more hedgehog friendly.

A Kindle version is also available for the book with Amazon offering a special matchbook deal when you purchase the paperback version.  RRP is just £8.99, so support small, independent publishers and order your copy today - it's perfect for any nature lover, night-crawler (in a non-creepy way), and wildlife enthusiast. 

Kids absolutely love it - you won't be disappointed.  It's the perfect bedtime story.

Guess who's having a party?

As Christmas approaches, all this talk of partying can send us into sensory overload: the food, the smells, the sights, and all those thoughts about hanging decorations in the right places and creating playlists ... the list goes on.  However, we're looking way past Christmas and into May 2018 when we hope to invite you all to a very special party being held for a very adorable hedgehog.

The Hedgehog's Full Moon Party

The Hedgehog's Full Moon Party will be the next offering from Burton Mayers Books, a charming tale about a hedgehog who makes some wonderful new friends on her nightly walks.  The story is by children's author Richard Mayers and showcases the wonderful talents of upcoming illustrator, Abigail De Montfort.  Abigail's artistic style incorporates real photos interwoven with beautiful watercolours to create mesmerising imagery that literally leap off the page.

The book is currently in development and being tested by young readers, school librarians and hedgehog enthusiasts across several counties, so you can expect a very polished and refined product when the book hits the shelves in May 2018.  We can't wait and hope you feel the same way, too.

The Making of Making Trakz

Finally...the little mouse gets his moment. 

After months of set backs and date changes, the final proof of Making Trakz was approved on 18th November 2015 after several changes to layout and some internal shuffling.

Available from all good bookstores, you can see the final product and reviews here. Released 30th November 2015 at just £7.99.

It took a great deal of planning and involved trialling the cover with an early release of the kindle version to test the market, but after some minor tweaks and adjustments, we think we have delivered another iconic cover.

In 2012 we released Spikez, but not without four years of development and design rethinks. Here are some of the initial design ideas and the final outcome of Spikez, and also some draft layouts of the future Spikez books to give you a flavour of the content and what to expect from us.

Near final cover proof August 2012

The first proof was adjusted slightly to make the green more futuristic looking and the title text to stand out more.   In the final version (below) you would hardly notice on screen but the difference with a hard copy can make all the difference, which is why ordering a proof is so important.

The final cover of Spikez October 2012

If you look closely you can see that the title was resized and given a gradient, and the author text was also adjusted to stand out more.  It really made the final product more striking.

After Spikez went to print we discussed the theme of future Spikez books, including the Making Trakz prequel.  The initial ideas can be seen below.

The idea was to make the covers more obvious when the book was opened and being read.  However, to make people pick up the book we really wanted a striking front cover.  Each subsequent Spikez book will keep the colour schemes shown above, but will look VERY different and much more striking as you will see.

Initially sketched on the back of a hotel notepad, the concept for Making Trakz relied on the idea of the mouse's feet trailing all over the book.  The font also needed to look futuristic and the blue needed a certain neon effect to it.  However, on paper the heavy use of black on blue gradient didn't make things leap out off the page and the mouse was in danger of looking more rat-like. So . . .

We started developing the idea further and added depth to the main title font and used a darker blue to contrast with title (the same way the author text of Spikez developed).  However, cutting the back cover in half created issues regarding placing text, and also the Z on the spine would have difficulty lining up with the Z in Trakz.  So we tried again...

Here we start playing with the fonts and being a bit creative with the back cover.  The book is starting to take shape, but still lacks impact.  The mouse needed some definition and the cover was in danger of being too busy.  So, with a few more attempts, we finally created...

Here you should be able to notice a few things.  Firstly, the continuation of tracks across the spine, and secondly the texture added to the rodent.  The use of binary code links with the AI theme of the book and the key words feature in the book blurb.   Adding the green in Spikez also gives the cover variation and carries on the theme into this book. 

And there it is, a brief history of cover design for Making Trakz, the latest animal-cyborg offering from Burton Mayers Books.  Sorry it took longer than expected.

We hope you enjoy reading our blog and love reading our books!

Publication Update for Burton Mayers Books 2015

Bold, sci-fi colours

E B White's classic

What a busy year it has been so far.  So busy, in fact, that the we are anticipating not one but two children's books releases by the end of 2015.

Making Trakz has been shifted back from its initial early 2015 release to this autumn. The cover for this book hopes to replicate many of the design features typical of the Spikez series of books, whilst also paying homage to classic texts like Stuart Little.

In even more exciting news, Richard Mayers is currently working with illustrator Samantha Goodlet on a children's picture book.  The project, which will be Burton Mayers Books' first venture into picture books, is based around the adventures of Lavender, a very curious hedgehog.  The story is going to be rich in content with wonderful, layered illustrations.  Release date will be late 2015/early 2016.  To learn more about Samantha and get a glimpse of her quirky, classic drawing style, you can see much of this @samdrawsthings

London's very own Vampire Hunter, John Michaelson, also contacted us recently to say that there had been 'developments' in his fight against ants.  The elusive author didn't give any further details, other than that he wanted to put right many wrongs and wrap up the loose ends from his biographical account in October's Son. We have no content as of yet, but we expect the book will be an eye-opening look into London's murky underground - certainly not for Twilight fans!