Today's The Day!

 Yey! Finally, it’s arrived! Today is the publication day for my debut novel.

 

I’ve been writing for many years now as long term readers of this blog will know, and although I’ve had some success with short stories, that elusive book deal has always been, well, elusive.

 

When I sent Things They Never Said to Choc Lit, I felt as though it was my last chance. I’d decided that if Choc Lit didn’t want it, then I would publish it myself. I had faith in my book and I was determined to see it published one way or another.

 

But to my delight, Choc Lit offered me a 3 book deal and the time in between has been a roller-coaster ride. 

 

First came the edits which initially scared the heebie-jeebies out of me. The extent of work required was staggering especially as it was suggested that a suitable turnaround time would be two weeks. At the time I was due to go on holiday in two weeks’ time, and what with work and family commitments, I wondered if I would be able to do it time. But I did and as I worked through the edits I felt I was making it into a much better book.

 

Two more rounds of edits, each one easier than the last and the book was finally finished. 

 

The next excitement was receiving the book cover which I was delighted with. 

 

The book became available on Amazon on pre-order and I began to grow increasingly nervous as people I know said they couldn’t wait to read it. Was it any good? Would they enjoy it?

 

And then last Friday I received the audio files for the audible version. I downloaded them and with both eagerness and trepidation began to listen. I couldn’t believe my ears. The actress had brought my book completely to life. For the first time the characters who had been living in my head for some many years sounded like real people. And as I listened, I realised that all that time spent editing had been well worth the work. I won’t deny I shed a tear or two then.

Yesterday I received this.

 

 

 

And today is publication day. It's a moment I've bee waiting for, for years. I can't believe it's actually happening.

Things They Never Said is available on Amazon on Kindle, Audible and paperback. At the moment it's on offer on Kindle at an introductory price of 99 pence,

Finally - It Happened to Me!

If you are long term readers of this blog, you will know that for many, many years, I have been trying to become a published author.

I've had a lot of rejections along the way but for some strange reason (insanity maybe?) I refused to give up. 

I have been thinking and learning about self-publishing for a long time because I'd decided that if no one wanted to publish me then I would do it myself. 

But something inside me wouldn't give up the dream.

I'd been working on what I will call here, for now, Book 1, for a very long time. In fact in a very different format it was one of the first longer pieces of work I ever wrote. Over the years, I worked to improve it (in fact I wouldn't recognise it now from the original). I came across the rejection letter from Mills and Boon from that very first attempt, and I have to say I whole-heartedly agree with them. 

Book 1 has been through 2 critiques through the RNA's New Writers Scheme, and my online writer friends have also been kind enough to comment on it on numerous occasions.

After finally getting Book 1 to be the best I thought it could be I decided to submit it to Choc Lit.

And, I'm delighted to say that this is the result

To say I'm chuffed to bits is the understatement of the year.

I'm so looking forward to working with the Choc Lit team who seem a very friendly bunch.

The other Choc Lit authors seem lovely too, and I've already have lots of encouragement from them.

So, now the hard work really begins, but I'm looking forward to getting my teeth stuck into it and can't wait for the day when I can say I'm a published novelist.

Its been a long time coming!

Catching Up

 

I haven't posted for a while but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy. In fact, life has been a bit of roller coaster ride - as ever.

In February of this year, my eldest son left home to join the army. It wasn't something I was particularly comfortable with, considering the current unrest in the world, but you have to let them make their own way in the world don't you?

Ten weeks later he was back at home after having decided that army life was not for him. But at least he tried and got it out of his system, and to be fair to him, he soon sorted himself out with work and has now found himself a job close to home which he seems to be enjoying.

We've also had the highs and lows of A Levels this year, very stressful at times (understatement!) for both my youngest son and myself. He's now studying history at the University of Huddersfield. It's taking a while for him to settle in but I hope he'll find his feet soon. He's coming home for reading week in November so I'm looking forward to seeing him then.

So what with all the comings and goings, I've found it difficult to establish a writing routine. I'm notoriously bad at putting my writing before the family and household tasks, and this is something I'm determined to become better at. 

As I mentioned in a previous blog, I've been working on a romance novel which has previously been through the RNA New Writers' Scheme. I finally got it to a place I was happy with and submitted it to various agents, with no success. I'd always had the thought that my novel would be suited to Choc Lit - a dedicated publisher of romance, so I took the bull by the horns and sent it off in early September. The selection process takes several months, so to take my mind off the outcome, I've been working on redrafting a novel which I started to write during NaNoWriMo a few years ago. I set myself a target of writing 500 words a day on days I was working and 1,000 words a day when I wasn't doing the day job. It was a target I found I was able to sustain and I was enjoying the process until I ran out of plot. I literally don't know where I'm going with this book so I need to go back to the beginning and do some serious plotting and restructuring.

To take a break from this and hopefully gain some perspective in the interim, Ive been editing some short stories which have been languishing on my hard drive. I'm aiming to develop these into short story anthologies which I will self-publish. At the same time, I'm working on developing my own author website. 

As ever I'm trying to do a lot, and do it all at once, and I often get the dreaded feeling of overwhelm. But I'm determined to keep going. To help me along the way, I ask the question:

"How do you eat an elephant?'

The answer of which is:

"One bite at at time."

Not that I would want to eat an elephant, but you get my drift. 

How do you cope when there seems to be more to do than time to do it in?