Praise for A J Dalton’s writing
- SFX: ‘Empire Of The Saviours gives you an interesting setting and a devilishly good villain’
- SciFi Now magazine: ‘Engaging, filled with sacrifice, adventure and some very bloody battles!’
- Waterstones central buyer: ‘The best young British fantasy author on the circuit at the moment’
- Sfbook.com: ‘Different, fresh and unique’
I’ve published ten novels so far, details of which can be found on my bibliography page. If you’re wondering where to start, I’d recommend Empire of the Saviours or The Book of Dragons.
Here’s the ‘official’ biopic, most of which is nearly true, from Empire of the Saviours:
“A J Dalton (the ‘A’ is for Adam) has been an English language teacher as far afield as Egypt, the Czech Republic, Thailand, Slovakia, Poland and Manchester University. He has lived in Manchester since 2003, but has a conspicuous Cockney accent, as he was born in Croydon on a dark night, when strange stars were seen in the sky.
He is currently published by Gollancz, with whom he has put out the best-selling titles Empire of the Saviours (2012), Gateway of the Saviours (2013) and Tithe of the Saviours (2014). He maintains the Metaphysical Fantasy website (www.ajdalton.eu), where there is plenty to interest fantasy fans and there is advice for aspiring authors.”
And here’s my slightly cheesy publicity shot. I stick with this one cos it was taken a few years back, when I had a bit more hair:
You may want to read an interview with yours truly on the Chat About Books site (2016) or Strange Alliances site (2013).
Or listen to this radio interview I gave in April 2012: http://i.mixcloud.com/CBSeKS
Here’s a video about A J Dalton’s writing (filmed April 2009): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us5cUcGxFgA
And what else is there to say? Oh yes, A J Dalton is the UK’s leading author of metaphysical fantasy… mainly because all the others are dead. It wasn’t me!
If you’d like to contact me, you can find me on FaceBook or Twitter (@AJDalton1), etc, etc.
Return to home page: https://metaphysicalfantasy.wordpress.com
Metaphysical Fantasy 
Hello Adam,
I’m very proud to be posting a blog. Does that now make me a geek (you know what I mean)? I’m a very metaphysical person myself. For example, I visualised my new Ugg boots and suddenly they appeared. My next project is to conjure a Moodle version of Primark, which I will bring to our away-day.
My desk neighbour is working on a database to catalogue different categories of footwear. We are also expecting a rapturous response to this at the aforementioned away-day.
We will see you at the away-day, but until then we will be with you in spirit.
You know who…
Adam
Nice to meet you today – good luck with the book I hope it goes well. I like the article on getting published.
Regards
Craig
Hello Adam,
It was very nice to meet you yesterday at the Waterstone’s Robin Hobin Event. I totally agree with your comment about the talk she did, I could hardly hear anything she said, still I thought she did a good job she came across very relaxed.
I have still to check out Necromancers Gambit it sounds really good, once I have my copy and I’ve read it, I put up a review.
Mark
Well, howdy! Long time no speak!
Just to let you know, I’m coming to your book signing tomorrow. So… See you there! {Obviously…)
I can’t wait to see Necromancer’s Betrayal.
Dan.
Hi Adam, good to see things are going so well. Roll on book 3!
Dear Mr, Dalton,
My name is Olivia Suban and the Christmas just gone, my dad bought your book, Necromancers Gambit from Waterstones in Oldham. You signed it for me. ‘Laugh, cry and wonder why!’ (I’m quite impressed I remembered that)
Im a young author myself, and i would like to become an author when I’m older.
I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions?
How did you get into writing?
What wage do you get?
How do you publish?
Thanks, I look forward to reading your next books.
Hi Olivia-Jayne
I’ve sent a full answer to your personal email. Let me know if you have more questions or want a further steer.
Pip the toodle
adz
I met you today at Waterstones in Wigan, and want to thank you for the signed book. My name is Ashlee and I am 11 years old and have autism, which is why I did not look at you when I spoke to you, I wasn’t being rude, but I am already enjoying the book and look forward to reading the next one.
hi, i met you at waterstones in wigan and i had never heard of you but you sold me on the synopsis of necromancers gambit so i bought it. I LOVED it!! absolutely brilliant you are now on my favourite authors list so i thought i would give you the feedback 🙂
i cant wait to get hold of the next book now…
Keep Writing
Anita
Hey, Anita! Good to hear from you. Really glad you liked Gambit… and don’t want your money back. LOL. I reckon I’m getting better with practice and that book 2 is better than book 1, but my mum disagrees. I’m not the jury, eh?
cheerz
adz
Nice to see you at the Words Festival even this evening – an interesting and useful discussion…!
Hi,is the Empire of the Saviours ebook (Amazon,B&N etc.) going to be available on 17 May ? I don’t see it listed yet anywhere yet even though your publisher has it listed on their site –
http://www.orionbooks.co.uk/authors/dalton-a-j
Hiya Jon. This is a very important question, of course, one I need to find out the answer to as well. Let me check with ye olde contacts. Watch this space!
Hi Jon
Good news, Amazon Kindle, those fine purveyors of literature, are now listing the Kindle edition of Empire of the Saviours. It’ll be available 17 May. Hurrah! I think I get a better royalty on ebooks too ; )
cheerz
adz
Hi Adam,
congratulations on Empire of the Saviours – just got my copy delivered from Amazon!
Office here much impressed!
Firzana
Was a pleasure and honour to have had the oppertunity to meet you today in Wigan waterstones. You signed your book for my son. Thank you. Keep writing. Looking forwad to your next book.
Hi Deborah, good to hear from you. Yes, it was a nice day in Wigan. The next book (Gateway of the Saviours) should hit shelves in March 2013. Meantime, I need to get started on book 3 (Tithe of the Saviours) – probably in Sept 2012, once I finish my summer teaching job. Rock and roll.
Hello. I stumbled across your blog (doesn’t one always) and read a few entries. It struck me that you might be the right person for my question.
I am in the process of sending a YA science fiction novel to agents. Negative replies so far, but one very positive negative reply, which is good. Anyway, I’ll soon have exhausted the UK agents who deal with my kind of book, and am considering the US. Which brings me to my question.
Do I need to change the book to US English before sending it off to US agents? Perhaps its a stupid question, but one never knows in this business. Perhaps they don’t care, perhaps it irritates them immensely. What’s your feeling on this?
/ Paddy
Hiya Paddy
I don’t personally have a lot of experience with American agents and publishers. However, Gollancz have edited ‘Empire of the Saviours’ with an eye to the American market (albeit that they’ve left the ‘u’ in ‘Saviours’, thankfully). The amends Gollancz asked of me were in the main to conform with American stylistics.
Now, American publishers tend to ask for the submission of the entire novel (by contrast, British publishers only want the first 10,000 words), so that’s quite an editing job you might need to undertake. I’d recommend therefore just doing a ‘find and replace’ on the obvious stuff, like ‘colour/color’, ‘controller/controllor’, etc. I’m not a professional editor, so I can’t list all the types of changes to watch for. If you need more of a steer, a Google search would work, or you could try my mate Mike Ranson (a qualified editor), whose site is http://www.proofreadingandcopyeditingservices.co.uk/.
Hope it works out for you.
All the best
Adam
Hello. I was the woman with the royal pythons that you met on the train to Manchester. FYI and your mother’s amusement: the little sudoku book came from Sainsbury’s. I looked in WH Smiths last weekend but didn’t manage to find one of your books but I will read one at some point as I am curious-perhaps a proper bookshop would be a better option.
Regards, Kate
Hi Kate, yes I remember you. WHSmith’s have a particular approach to selecting and stocking books. They’re not the best if you’re looking for anything beyond ‘best-sellers’ – but they can order anything you want, I imagine. Pretty much every Waterstones carries my titles tho. I swear, civilization would crash without Waterstones. Having said all that, the mass market paperback (smaller size) edition of Empire of the Saviours comes out on 14 Feb 2013, and stands a good chance of being in any WHSmith with a decent sized fantasy and scifi section. Toodle pip. Adam
Thank you for the reply Adam. Yes, I was thinking Waterstones but just happened to be in WH Smiths for something else. Regards, Kate
Hey Debs, Good to hear from you. Hope you enjoy the ol’ tome. I did my best! adz
Just meet A. J. Dalton in the Leicester Waterstones,such a nice guy and a joy to chat to,got two signed books for my collection so im well pleased.How much you say these are worth? LOL.
Worth thirty odd quid each on e-bay… and thousands when I’m dead, probably!
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Dear Adam, I recently attended the Man Met creative writing summer school, which is where I learned of your work.
I bet you get asked this all the time, so I won’t be offended if the answer is “no” – but would you be prepared to cast your eye over a manuscript from a first-timer?
It’s fantasy, it’s Manchester-based, and there may even be a troll (there is a troll) … go on, say you’re tempted… I can buy the beers if that’s any inducement…
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