To support our web-site for  The Pelican Code, our new eBook thriller about Shakespeare  not writing his own works, we have two blogs:

  • Was Shakespeare a Fraud? - You Decide. We look at the authorship question – did Shakespeare actually write his own plays? Or did someone else write them for him? With Shakespeare said to have had a vocabulary of 20,000 words and to have created around 2,000 new words for the dictionary it does seem a little rich we are being asked to consider Shakespeare was a creative and literary guru when his education stretched only as far as high school. Equally, Shakespeare had two daughters, Susanna and Judith.  Both were illiterate. So does it really stack up that the greatest exponent of the English Language and purveyor of beautiful prose and iambic pentametre would not pass the beauty of the English Language on to his own children? Makes you think doesn’t it? There are often quoted examples of other Elizabethan authors, for example Christopher Marlowe, The Earl Of Oxford, and even Sir Francis Bacon who have all been associated with the writing of Shakespeare. We will delve into the major arguments providing  many articles and links to help you take a balanced view as to whether we have all been conned or is it just another conspiracy theory?
  • Launching & Marketing an e-book in 60 days. Originally The Pelican Code started out as a screenplay. After five years researching, writing and developing the script (with the help of organisations such as Parnassus Den – a great collection of actors and writers) , we received very positive feedback from the film industry and came fourth in a major Screenplay competition. That said, given the time it takes to produce a movie from the initial script – it can be up to 20 years – I decided to also novelise The Pelican Code script to not only provide additional options for my own writing and also for the film professionals (if a novel such as The Pelican Code is available at the time of film release they both cross-promote each other), but also to provide me with more control over my own work. That was all well and good until something happened…
  • Columbia were launching their film Anonymous, which has as one of its themes the idea of Shakespeare being a fraud – the first time in movie history this issue has been explored formally. I needed to formally market & launch my novel not only to take advantage of the increased awareness that will be generated by Columbia’s vast PR budgets but also to take advantage of the increased use of Kindles and Ipads for reading books. If I didn’t do anything eight years work could have been wasted. My blog takes you day by day through the process I used to launch, market and produce an e-book in 60 days with next to no budget. I will give you a blow by blow account of the problems I faced, the solutions, the costs and ultimately the results. By exposing my journey I hope it will inspire others to do self publish their own books and to say ” I can do this ….” but to have the advantage of not making the same mistakes I have. You can visit the blog here.

Finally in my book The Pelican Code,  a letter, a painting and three leather bound books are found in Padova, in Northern Italy, which together are coded according to Elizabethan Ciphers. If decoded and released into the public domain, they would prove once and for all that Shakespeare’s works were written by at least one of his contemporaries. Competing interests come together in a David and Goliath struggle between passion and greed – the passion to prove Shakespeare was a fraud and the need to protect powerful, vested interests.
The Pelican Code is a contemporary thriller that takes you on a journey, flashing back to 1593 as it twists and turns, providing an insight into the authorship question and culminating in a climax you won’t predict.

Was Shakespeare A Fraud? You decide………but be aware that sometimes fiction can be a little too close to the truth…….Read The Pelican Code and make up your own mind…..

If you are interested in buying The Pelican Code you can do so here, or if you would like a free sample of the first 20% of  The Pelican Code you can obtain those here

I hope you enjoy reading the book as much as I enjoyed researching and writing it.

Tim Lea

17 November 2011