Christmas & Friends

Well, Christmas is over for another year, your guests have gone home, there’s a lot of tidying up/cleaning to do in the house before you can get back into the routines that you are so used to. Our friends went back home this morning. They came up from Andalucia on Christmas Eve with their little dog. We’ve known them for about fourteen years. Met them out here on the Costa Blanca when they lived just round the corner from us. The husband had a tragedy in his life which he never talks about (this is his second marriage by the way): his daughter and her son were murdered about fifteen years ago. It happened in America and was on all the main TV channels. His son-in-law shot them on one of the big bridges across a busy water-way. The police had closed the bridge off and were trying desperately to persuade the man to release his wife and son. But he wouldn’t listen and shot them. I didn’t know my friend then, but do remember seeing the tragedy unfolding on TV in UK. For a few years after that, my friend would find a church on the anniversary of his daughter and son’s death and sit quietly. I’ve no idea what went through his mind during those moments of quiet and solitude. He doesn’t do it now. Perhaps he has come to terms with it and doesn’t need to find comfort in the church.
So what now? For me I have promised myself that I will knuckle down with my writing and set a target for finishing my next book. I will also try to promote my paperbacks and Kindle books, and see if I can make sense of the amazon sales rankings. My books have been going up and down on the Amazon graph like a fiddler’s elbow. One day I’m somewhere near the bottom, and the next I’ve shot up about 100,000 places. There are peaks and troughs on my charts like spikes on Neptune’s trident. Am I selling well? I’ve no idea because I can’t access my true sales figures; that is done for me by Acclaimed Books. I get an update about every two months, so for now I have to be content with Amazon’s fairy land figures.
So, no more now, lots to do and already it’s past mid-day. See you soon…..