Last November I ran a successful Kickstarter that led to the publication of my first novel, Vile, a Science Fantasy adventure about Elianor Paine and just how much she is prepared to sacrifice to subvert her masters and start a revolution. It’s got monsters, sword-fights, and arguments about ontology – what more could you want?
In this article I’ve gathered together all the best bits of material from the Kickstarter, so if you missed all that or it wasn’t your thing then you can find out all about the book here. There are videos, readings, the film of my opening my first copy, and even me singing. Yes, I was that desperate. So, if you want to find out about Vile, read on! If I had you at “November”, you can skips straight ahead to Amazon and buy a copy now 🙂
Summary of Vile: How much do you sacrifice?
Elianor Paine is a Combat Magistrate in the Kingdom of Trist. Her royalist master sends her to Shadowgate, a fiefdom on the mountainous border with the mysterious shape-shifting Kindred. Her mission is to investigate a series of reported disappearances and rumours of a murderous Black Dog.
This is no quest for justice. Elianor’s orders are to use whatever she finds to force Lord Vile of Shadowgate to return to the capital in support of the beleaguered Queen and her Warden protectors. Lord Vile was once one of the Trist’s greatest heroes, favoured by the old King and foremost amongst the aristocracy. Now the monarchy is close to collapse: Shadowgate and the nation itself are on the verge of civil war and foreign invasion.
But Elianor Paine is a Republican secret agent and a traitor. Saving the Queen would ruin everything for which Elianor has striven: the liberation of the people, the destruction of the aristocracy, and a new revolution. She has seven days to subvert her mission and supplant Lord Vile with one of his heirs, one more sympathetic to a republic, before her master discovers her betrayal and has her killed. Can her cause still be noble if she must lie, deceive and murder to achieve it? And just how far is she willing to go?
Keith talks about Vile
Ok, so it’s a book. Why a kickstarter?
Five years ago my wife Myriam was expecting our first and I was lecturing law at Sciences Po in Paris whilst trying to negotiate a contract to write a book on banking. In the dawn of the age against experts I began to think: why spend my time writing about banking for politicians who would ignore me and teaching post-grads who just wanted the exam answers, when I could be writing about spaceships and swordfights and explosions while bringing up my own kids?
So I quit my job and started writing Vile.
Alongside writing a bunch of shortlisted short stories, some staged plays, around 32 radio plays, which you can listen to here, the odd article (old habits die hard), and changing a LOT of nappies (we have three little ones now), I managed to get Vile to a point where I’m really proud of it.
I wrote Vile to be both my tribute to the epic fantasy I loved as a child and a cynical critique of the ideas that underpin it: the child destined to be a hero, the universe that resolves around the prophesied one, the natural born king, their brave companions who never get more than flesh wounds while nameless soldiers fall in their hundreds. Vile isn’t like that, although plenty of the characters think the world works that way. It is a story about betrayal, arrogance and recklessness. It looks at the way the rich and powerful always have ways of rising to the top while the rest of us risk falling by the wayside.
With lots and lots of sword fights. And explosions. And monsters. And did I mention the explosions? There are even spaceships. In my fantasy novel. Because if you’re going to write one, write the one you love.
I’m a stay-at-home Dad on a retired armed forces pension: I don’t have a lot of cash. At the point I launched the Kickstarter, the book was written. It had alpha, beta and gamma readers, and a professional developmental edit, to a point where I’d love to be able to share it with the world. But to get it over the finishing line I needed help.
The Kickstarter was to help me get Vile to print: as an e-book, paperback and audiobook, with a beautiful cover and marketing in the UK and Internationally. Having something published that isn’t about the economic consequences of bankruptcy regulation is a really exciting step for me; please help make this project real. Explosions!
Reviews
“Vile is a debut novel that reads like the work of a master in full stride. Keith Crawford combines seamless imagination, deft plotting and swirling action with lashes of original, wicked humour. From its opening scene, “Vile” hi-jacks the reader on a white-knuckle ride in the company of a fantastical array of characters who will linger in memory long past the last page.” Kai Maristed, Literary Critic and award -winning author of Out After Dark and Broken Ground.
“Vile is a very strong book whose distinctive style and flow makes it extremely readable. The action scenes are well-paced and the descriptions very vivid and memorable, from the backdrops to the characters. It’s a great example of the genre.” Rebecca Barker, Speculative Fiction and Fantasy Specialist for The Literary Consultancy
“With strong characters in a deep and complex setting, Vile is a story of a world standing on a precipice – and the people about to make it fall” Toby Frost, Author of the Space Captain Smith and Dark Renaissance Series.
Opening the First Copy
Keith does Frozen: Do you want to buy my book now?
(In which I prove there are no depths to which I will not plummet)
Readings from Vile
What Next?
Well, now that the Kickstarter is done and we’ve already made enough money to cover costs and surpass the prediction made the publishing houses that offered me contracts (why yes, that does feel rather good, thank you for asking), the next step is a blog book tour and trying to reach out to as many people as possible (hopefully people who would will tell their friends and write reviews on Amazon/Goodreads).
The blog book tour is very exciting and I’ll be writing more about that and the excellent people involved very soon!
This whole thing has been amazing. If you would like to buy the book, until the end of February the digital version costs only £1 and you can get it from all flavours of Amazon.
