# THE VALLEY - A LOST WORLD ADVENTURE



## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

This one is my homage to Conan Doyle and Ray Harryhausen

In 1863 a group of gold prospectors break through into a high valley in Montana. They are looking for gold, but find a land that time forgot, and soon they are fighting, against creatures that were thought to be extinct, for their lives, and the lives of everything in the valley.

Only $1.99 in the US


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

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## David McAfee (Apr 15, 2010)

OOh, I want this one, Willie! Any word on print?


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

David McAfee said:


> OOh, I want this one, Willie! Any word on print?


Chapbook boxed set in four parts first David, later in the summer. If that goes well, paperback later in the year.


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

You have no idea how happy I am to have my posting status as "Arthur Conan Doyle: 

The origins of the novella "The Valley" are pretty simple to trace. In Fortean circles there have been attempts to find a picture that many claim to have seen, yet no-one has been able to find. This fabled photograph is said to show a group of Civil-War era men standing in a row wearing big grins. Spreadeagled on the ground in front of them is the body of a huge bird, a being that could only come from pre-history. In some accounts this bird is a giant eagle, in others it is even stranger, a leathery, paper thin Pterosaur. Whatever the case, that image was the thing in my mind, and I had a "What if..." moment, wondering what would happen if cowboys came across a Lost World. From that single thought, the initial concept of The Valley was born. 

There's a long tradition of Lost World tales, both in movies and fiction. Over the years I've devoured as many as I can find, from Conan Doyle through Haggard, from Tarzan in Pellucidar to Doug McLure in the Land that Time Forgot. Many of these tales involve dinosaurs, but I wanted something different. For a while I didn't know exactly what "creatures" I needed, but that all changed as soon as the setting clicked. Back in 2005 I had the good fortune to holiday in the Rockies. It was while scanning through photographs of that trip that the thought of the high mountain valley came to me, and when Neil Jackson told me about Montana and the Big Hole Valley, I knew I'd found my spot. And the pictures of the ice and snow from my trip also gave me the era from which I would draw my creatures -- the last Ice Age. I now knew that my protagonists would be heading into a Lost Valley where relic animals lived, and that these creatures would be hairy and large. I had an image of a herd of mammoths by a partially-frozen lake, and that was the image that drove me on in the early concepts.

Now I needed some protagonists. I knew in advance I wanted to write a "western" and some research led me to set the story in the 1860s, when something of a mini-goldrush was happening in Montana. The characters grew on me quickly. I wasn't too surprised at that -- my early childhood was steeped in Westerns. I have my Granddad to thank for days watching Wagon Train, Rawhide, Bonanza and Gunsmoke, then later on, The Virginian and The High Chapparal. He also introduced me to Louis L'Amour and others as I devoured his collection of Western paperbacks. As I started the Valley I already knew that I was going to have six men thrown into peril, and that they'd be almost evenly split between white and black hats. Several of them surprised me as the story went on, but from the start they had a "depth" that reassured me that the story would go to all the right places.

I got them to the mining camp, and the start of the aforesaid perils. Then my muse threw a spanner in the works. I've been a Ray Harryhausen fan most of my life, and the creature that now came to mind was a Harryhausen special, one that I could "see" in my mind's eye, scuttling and "snipping". Unfortunately it didn't exist in the Ice Age, but at a time much longer ago. But I wanted it, so in it went. I won't give the plot away here, but suffice to say I managed to fit it in -- I managed to fit a lot of them in. And as a result the rest of the story immediately fell into place, almost as if I was channeling a new Harryhausen movie. 

I wrote the whole thing in less than ten days, my brain thinking about little else the whole time. It's one of the most fun experiences I've ever had writing, and I hope it shows in the final product. Even now, more than a year after finishing it, I still find myself thinking about the Valley, and the creatures that inhabit it. Somewhere, the story continues, and one day I might go back to find out what happened next.


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

Currently #2 in the Smashwords horror bestseller charts

http://www.smashwords.com/books/category/883/popular/0/any/longs


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

Nice numbers today

#16 in Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Fantasy > Historical
#18 in Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Fiction > Horror > Occult
#32 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Historical

And currently on special offer at only $1.79


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

Slowly creeping up the rankings... and only $1.79

#10 in Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Fantasy > Historical
#15 in Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Fiction > Horror > Occult
#20 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Horror > Occult


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

Just a little push needed to get THE VALLEY into the top 1000... currently at 

#1050 in the Kindle store
#4 in Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Fantasy > Historical
#6 in Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Fiction > Horror > Occult
#8 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Horror > Occult


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## jpmorgan49 (Feb 10, 2009)

Just bought your book, looking forward to reading it....
jp


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

And thanks to anyone who bought it in the past hour... it's just cracked the top 1000 for the 1st time.

#886 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#4 in Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Fantasy > Historical
#5 in Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Fiction > Horror > Occult
#6 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Horror > Occult


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

Just today started outlining a sequel to THE VALLEY... the surviving characters just won't let me be.


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

The Valley is the Spotlight Book of The Week over at http://www.ebookhighlights.com - a new place profiling ebooks


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

The Valley is featured today here: http://leaseramberm.blog132.fc2.com/blog-entry-76.html

And learn more about my thinking behind it in an interview with me here: http://www.ebookhighlights.com


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

Hitting some nice numbers today

#3 in  Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fantasy > Historical
#8 in  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Historical
#14 in  Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Horror > Occult


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

#1 in  Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fantasy > Historical

Joining THE INVASION in having topped a category. I'm pretty damned chuffed.


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

One more sale of THE VALLEY will take it into the top 1000, and up to its best ever, in the rankings... go on somebody, make an old man happy


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

Nice shiny new Five Star review on Amazon  

"Got to love this book."


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

Strange how the muse works -- got hit by a great idea for a sequel during Xmas dinner


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

Today its the turn of THE VALLEY to get some love in review
http://themaneatingbookworm.blogspot.com/2011/01/valley-by-william-meikle.html


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

The tête-bêche format returns

One of my earlest forays on my own into a second-hand bookstore, sometime around 1968 I guess, resulted in me finding an ACE double, a book you read both ways up, one short novel each way. The 1st one I got had John Brunner one way and Samuel Delaney the other -- my first introduction to two writers who are still among my favorites. Over my teenage years the ACE double series introduced me to many other writers, people like Jack Vance, H Beam Piper, Fritz Lieber and a youngster who went by Dean R Koontz. I have a lot of reading to thank them for.

That's one of the reasons it gives me great delight to see two of my novels appear in the same format. Generation Next Publications have announced the launch of a new print imprint, FLIPIT.

FLIPIT books will each contain two novels printed in the Flip Book format made popular in those ACE DOUBLES of yesteryear. Each book will be printed upside down in relationship to each other. Finish one book and FLIPIT over to read the other.

The first FLIPIT book will contain the novels The Invasion and The Valley by William Meikle. Both novels are digital best-sellers and have graced the top 2 on the best-sellers list in their respective categories on Amazon.

Contact Stephen James Price at [email protected] for more information.

Copy of the full press release here: http://www.williammeikle.com/GNP%20FLIPIT%20PR.pdf

"If the Holy Bible was printed as an Ace Double", an editor once remarked, "it would be cut down to two 20,000-word halves with the Old Testament retitled as 'Master of Chaos' and the New Testament as 'The Thing With Three Souls.'" - Charles McGrath, New York Times, May 6, 2007


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

The first print proof arrived at the publisher's today - he's as excited as I am.

It's almost time to FLIPIT. The Invasion / ʎǝllɐΛ ǝɥ┴ and The Valley / uoısɐʌuI ǝɥ┴ coming soon


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

And it's here in print - W00t!

It's here!

Two shorts novels, 384 pages.

One of my earlest forays on my own into a second-hand bookstore, sometime around 1968 I guess, resulted in me finding an ACE double, a book you read both ways up, one short novel each way. The 1st one I got had John Brunner one way and Samuel Delaney the other -- my first introduction to two writers who are still among my favorites. Over my teenage years the ACE double series introduced me to many other writers, people like Jack Vance, H Beam Piper, Fritz Lieber and a youngster who went by Dean R Koontz. I have a lot of reading to thank them for.

That's one of the reasons it gives me great delight to see two of my novels appear in the same format.

THE INVASION / THE VALLEY - two pulp adventure novels, one Sci-Fi, one Lost World, both Amazon Bestsellers in their Kindle format.

THE INVASION reached #2 in the Sci-Fi chart, #4 in Horror and #1 in Occult and THE VALLEY hit #1 in Historical Fantasy.

See the cover(s) here:

Invasion up front









The Valley up front









And buy it here:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0983279217

Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Generation Next Publications
ISBN-10: 0983279217
ISBN-13: 978-0983279211
Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

25% off The Invasion / The Valley paperback today and eligible for free shipping.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0983279217/


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

Dark Regions Press have a sale on today. You can get 30% off THE INVASION / THE VALLEY paperback there by using the code DRPTAXBREAK at checkout.

http://www.darkregions.com/william-meikle/


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

The little book that can... still selling 2 years on. I think it might even warrant a sequel...


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

A shiny new edition launched today from Gryphonwood Press after the demise of the book's previous publisher



The annoying thing though is that the sales rank gets reset back to 10,000,000 so it' s long a climb back up to where it was (#1 in Historical Fantasy at one point ).


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

If you reviewed THE VALLEY on Amazon, could you do it again please?

http://www.amazon.com/The-Valley-ebook/dp/B00D7I05DY

For some reason the reviews got lost when we went to the new edition.


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

Now also in audible edition


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

The Flipit paperback edition of this mentioned upstream is going out of print, but there will be a new shiny paperback of THE VALLEY along in its place from Dark Regions press in the summer.


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

Italian language edition coming soon...


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## William Meikle (Apr 19, 2010)

New cover!


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