Saturday 17 September 2011

Byker Books: The Radgepacket Series of Anthologies


Several years ago one man had a vision. It was a bold vision. It was an ambitious vision.

** Cue inspirational music **

It was a world dominating, Lily the Pink's medicinal compound, universal panacea of all that is good, pure and right kind of vision. A bold man, hero if you will, strode out of the mists among the bodies, rubble and detritus.  In his hand he held aloft a Newcastle Brown bottle.  In his other hand he held a shining pen.  Over his shoulders he wore a Newcastle United scarf….

** The sound of a record being removed from a turntable and thrown loudly against a wall **

That vision was called Radgepacket and right now writers from across the Country are without fingernails as they nervously wait to find out if their story will be included in Radgepacket 6.

I don't know if Byker Books mysterious head honcho, known only as Ed, envisioned that his drive and passion would bring together such a range of talent when he started out but I suspect he did. Radgepacket has launched more writing careers than the Queen (Gawd bless her) has launched ships. Including my own.  Byker Books showed me that I could inflict my own brand of fiction on the world and that there were others who wrote this kind of fiction. It is described as industrial strength fiction on Byker Books website, which is a pretty accurate tag lane.  The Radgepacket series brings you stories with swearing, sex and violence. Some of the fiction has a hard edge to it, a gritty feel that resonates with the nasty things that sometimes happen in the real world.  Radgepacket authors don’t seek to shock, they seek to entertain. These are great stories told in urban environments. Nasty or sometimes unfortunate characters are brought kicking and screaming to life within the Radgepacket books. Why not check out what they get up to?

Byker have been on the go quite a few years now but I write this article now because Byker have now made the whole Radgepacket series available for digital download. Each of the five titles is UNDER A POUND.  These publications feature writers such as Danny King, Ray Banks, Sheila Quigley, Rod Glenn, Ian Ayris, Paul D. Brazill, Lee Kelly, Nick Boldock, Nick Quantrill, Andy Rivers, Steven Porter, Pete Sortwell, Craig Douglas, Carol Fenlon, Martyn Taylor and many, many more.

Many apologies if I have missed anyone out but if I have it only highlights my point that there has been such a vast array of talent within the Radgepacket series of books.

Now a call to arms addressed to the Radgepacket authors and avid readers of the series. You can directly help Byker Books in this tough and competitive marketplace and also yourselves (authors) by doing the following: “Like” each of the publications on Amazon and Good Reads.  Leave a review, even if it is only a few lines, for each of the publications.  These small tokens of appreciation help to show readers what is out there and that others have found it worthwhile. Otherwise they won’t stand out like the shining beacon they are against the bland masses of homogenised Tesco shelf fillers that are out there. You could also share this review on your Facebook pages and Twitter accounts.

If you want to check out all of Byker Books titles, including the critically acclaimed Maxwell's Silver Hammer simply type Byker Books into your amazon search box.

Find Byker Books website HERE

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