Presentation counts for Peter

Peter Lancaster Walker is a WN subscriber with a lot of achievements under his belt with many novels, plays, audio books and children’s books published. The latest of these is Space Travellers Land At Buckingham Palace, a children’s novel that imagines a spaceship landing on the palaces gardens and the events that spin out of this strange occurrence.

Though Peter already had a rough idea for the book, inspiration struck when he was invited to the garden party at Buckingham Palace. He was shocked at the size of the garden, which gave him the location he needed for the book.

He then researched online to find a publisher and eventually came across Bouncing Ball Publishing.

His first submission was rejected with a letter saying ‘never send a submission like this again’. The problem was not with the manuscript but the presentation of the submission and so he tried again.

This time he was successful, demonstrating the importance of presentation and perseverance. Peter has had a lot of success in the past but has also had his share of rejections, ‘enough to paper the walls’.

At first the book was a short story around 5,000 words long, but Bouncing Ball asked Peter if he could bump it up to a full length novel and so the previous 5,000 words became the opening chapter of the new 15,000 word version. The format of the book changed once again however when they suggested that Peter divide the story in half, after noticing a natural break roughly midway through the story. Thus Space Travellers Land At Buckingham Palace is now the first instalment of two 60,000 word novels, with the sequel to follow soon if sales are good. He has found Bouncing Ball good to work with and is exceptionally pleased with the presentation of his book.

No stranger to writing, Peter has previously had over thirty plays and novels released. Shortly after his retirement in 2005, however, he underwent a serious operation that rendered him immobile. At this time writing was all he could do and he took advantage of that by focusing entirely on crafting stories. Space Travellers Land At Buckingham Palace was something highly positive that came out of the experience and Peter is now able to walk once again.

Apart from the operation, he also had to contend with an initial lack of computer literacy, feeling that it was crucial to his success he taught himself not only to type but also to use a computer.

Peter now has a lot of balls in the air and has several books with publishers, one of which, 7 Dreams of Poppy Parks, has already been accepted. He is still writing plays and audio books and has organised a talent contest for singers called ‘Stars in their Midsts’.