Welcome to gillianandrews.com!

.... You can find me on Google+ if you want by clicking the button on the left

 

If you are looking for more details about the Valhai universe please visit the valhai.com webpage first, as most of the background to The Ammonite Series can be found there. This is really the author page, and is more about me than Six, Diva and Grace! Valhai.com is all about them.

There is now a website for the second book, Kwaide, too - you can visit here

The third book, Xiantha is due to be published on 1st September, 2012.

It feels strange to be writing about myself, I feel a bit like leaving a big blank space, and leaving it all to your imagination. So you will have to excuse me if I just talk about whatever comes to mind. The photo is of me, taken by my daughter up at Es Grau, in Mallorca, where I live. It's from a mobile camera, so the quality is pretty poor, but at least I'm smiling in this one. The palm is not part of me!

I've just finished a masters in astronomy and astrophysics (International University of Valencia . . . great course . . . www.viu.es). I originally went to university to study astronomy (many years ago, as you will have guessed from the photo). I gave it up after a week having got into an argument with the Tutor. For our first practical, which lasted all night long, he told us to go out to the park, lie on our backs and count the stars. Durr . . . I pointed out that a) that was impossible, b) that it was very cold outside and that the grass would be wet, and c) that I thought it was a stupid thing to ask. He told me to leave. So I pushed off to another university to study maths and economics. Riveting. And only now have found a course to pick up where I left off. It was great to be back, although I found struggling with IRAF pretty discouraging at first.

I can't really say that the above is much help in writing science fiction. I researched everything in Valhai way before I began the course. So any faults in the book have nothing whatsoever to do with Valencia!

The semi-sabbatical meant that the follow-up novel, Kwaide, the second in The Ammonite Galaxy series, only came out a few months ago. I'm taking a short break now, before starting the third book in the series, Xiantha. Have already finished the cover and the music, and hope to kick off with the writing about mid February, to finish the book sometime towards October this year.

I'm a fan of Star Trek, Dr. Who, and Janet Evanovich. Incidentally Janet Evanovich has written a great book of advice on writing. The most important thing I got out of it was that when she is writing a book she stops reading. Nothing. Zilch. I tried to do that with Valhai, and it worked really well. Though old habits die hard . . . I love reading and I don't think I could give it up for very long. My office has three Star Trek posters and one miniature Dr. Who police box! I hope that if you are a Trekkie or a Dr. Who fan you will like my books too. My favourite series is Deep Space Nine, with Quark and Odo, and the wormhole Aliens. (That was a long time ago - about time they began a new Star Trek series. Liked the film though, especially with two Spocks!)

There are a few pages on this site about various things I know a bit about, self-publishing, typesetting, wading through Spanish bureaucracy, having a bad back. Not that I know much about anything really, but maybe some of my experiences will serve to help somebody else out there . . . I finally found some things that work for me and you never know . . .

I would really like your feedback on the website, and of course, more importantly, on the books. Please take a moment to tell me what you think of my work. I would be thrilled if you like it, and I will take careful note if you don't, so both points of view will be greatly appreciated. The contact button is up and working, thanks to thesitewizard.com instructions about how to set them up correctly. If there any hangups, please email me direct to gill@gillianandrews.com. If you prefer, you can post on the Wordpress blog which is now working well at kwaide.com. You can find it at www.kwaide.com/blog