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Angus Watson

Goodreads Author

Born

September 18, 1972

Website

http://www.guswatson.com

Twitter

GusWatson

Genre

Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Thriller

Member Since

July 2014

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In his twenties, Angus Watson’s jobs ranged from forklift truck driver to investment banker. He spent his thirties on various assignments as a freelance writer, including looking for Bigfoot in the USA for the Telegraph, diving on the scuppered German fleet at Scapa Flow for the Financial Times and swimming with sea lions off the Galapagos Islands for the Times. Now entering his forties, Angus lives in London with his wife Nicola and baby son Charlie. As a fan of both historical fiction and epic fantasy, he came up with the idea of writing a fantasy set in the Iron Age when exploring British hillforts for the Telegraph, and developed the story while walking Britain’s ancient paths for further articles.

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Popular Answered Questions

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Angus Watson Start. The best way to do this is to go on a course, since it will force you to write something every week or so.

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Did you write all three books straight through, or have a break after each? If the second, and you published the first without having finished the second, did the publicity and publishing stuff distract you from writing the second one? At what point did you pitch to an agent?

Angus Watson I wrote all three books straight through, but while writing them I moved house twice, got married, had a baby, continued my new obsession of photograp…moreI wrote all three books straight through, but while writing them I moved house twice, got married, had a baby, continued my new obsession of photographing the landscape around Las Vegas (you can see some of that work on my Twitter Page @LasVegasHood) and went on holiday a couple of times, so it wasn’t all nose to the keyboard.
Publicity for the first book, which came out in September 2014, did get in the way of writing the third book, the first draft of which was due shortly afterwards. I hadn't realised how much time-consuming work there would be. For the next two books, I’ll make sure to have no other major projects coinciding with publication date.
I pitched to an agent pretty soon after I started writing Age of Iron (back when it was called Iron Age), with the standard 20,000 words and a synopsis. She signed me up, but advised that I write the whole thing and then suggested some changes before she showed it to publishers. So the agent got only a rough idea of the book, but it was effectively a second draft before publishers saw it.
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Angus Watson’s books

Average rating: 4.02 · 7,854 ratings · 724 reviews · 20 distinct works • Similar authors

	Age of Iron (Iron Age, #1) 3.87 avg rating — 2,952 ratings — published 2014 — 24 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Clash of Iron (Iron Age, #2) 4.02 avg rating — 1,499 ratings — published 2015 — 15 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Reign of Iron (Iron Age, #3) 4.17 avg rating — 1,164 ratings — published 2015	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	You Die When You Die (West of West #1) 3.96 avg rating — 1,128 ratings — published 2017 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Land You Never Leave (West of West #2) 4.29 avg rating — 598 ratings — published 2018 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Where Gods Fear to Go (West of West #3) 4.33 avg rating — 501 ratings — published 2019 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Angus watson iron age trilogy series 3 books collection set 4.33 avg rating — 3 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Ochils by Angus Watson (Goodreads Author), Ken Laing (Illustrator) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 1995	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Memoirs of Henry Patterson. Local Preacher and Temperance Advocate. 1850 - 1939 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Faith of a Business Man 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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2 posts
Angus Watson's Blog

Why my book set in ancient times is written in modern language

The Age of Iron trilogy is set in north western Europe between 61 and 54BC. I wrote it in modern English, including slang. A couple of people have commented about this. “I hardly think they used the word ‘hot’ to describe attractive people in the Iron Age” said one. “Some characters say ‘OK’, even though that term was invented in mid nineteenth century America” said another.

I agree with both of th Read more of this blog post »

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Published on January 28, 2015 06:25 • Tags: age-of-iron, angus-watson, history, language, writing

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Series by Angus Watson

Iron Age (3 books)
by

Angus Watson (Goodreads Author)

3.97 avg rating — 5,614 ratings

West of West (3 books)
by

Angus Watson (Goodreads Author)

4.13 avg rating — 2,227 ratings

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Angus Watson is now friends with Keith Caruthers
Jun 16, 2024 11:19PM · like

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Quotes by Angus Watson (?)

“every group needs its twat, and if you’re in a group of people and there isn’t a twat, then it’s you. He”
― Angus Watson, Age of Iron

2 likes

“...a scare is always more effective than advice.”
― Angus Watson, Age of Iron

tags: advice

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“Dug looked for a flicker of humanity in her eyes. Nope, not a spark. “Do you know,” he said, “I’ve always thought that people are about as happy as they decide to be.” “What?” “Nothing.”
― Angus Watson, Age of Iron

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Polls

July/August '17 Group Read

Evil is a Matter of Perspective: An Anthology of Antagonists edited by Adrian Collins

6 votes, 35.3%

Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames

5 votes, 29.4%

Red Sister by Mark Lawrence

3 votes, 17.6%

Traitor's Blade by Sebastien de Castell

2 votes, 11.8%

The Court of Broken Knives by Anna Smith Spark

1 vote, 5.9%

Age of Iron by Angus Watson

0 votes, 0.0%

The Grim Company by Luke Scull

0 votes, 0.0%

The Mountains Rise by Michael G. Manning

0 votes, 0.0%

17 total votes

1 comment

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