Bonfire of insanity

November 3^rd. 2018

This weekend in UK there will be fireworks and bonfires when we will all be celebrating Bonfire Night — the burning of effigies representing Guy Fawkes who tried to blow up Parliament in 1605. It became known as the ‘Gunpowder Plot’. It has been said that Guy Fawkes was the only man to enter Parliament with honest intentions! My Chindi colleague, Carol Thomas, has penned a lovely blog celebrating dear Mr. Fawkes, and has included some memories from our members about their experiences on bonfire night. You can read Carol’s blog here: http://bit.ly/2P8cg42.

I sometimes feel my efforts at completing a book and immersing myself in promotion and advertising are simply stoking an imaginary bonfire, and they are all going up in smoke. But last Sunday I was at the UK Southern Book Show and managed to sell six books. That’s quite an achievement for me at such an event; after all, I was one of probably fifty authors. The competition was pretty good, so I came away with a smile on my face. I met some interesting people: some were published writers, others were wannabe authors. I sometimes feel as if I’m being tested when an established writer asks me pertinent questions about my role as a writer. Two guys turned at my table, Alex Shaw and a colleague of his who had been nominated for the Thriller of the Year by the International Thriller Writers in USA. That’s gold standard in my world. It turned out these two had nothing to learn from me, even though I’ve been in the game longer than them.

I have now ventured into the world of Instagram. Having watched Bex Gorsuch on an SPF podcast, I decided to have a look into it. That’s when I discovered I already have an Instagram account — in Spanish! I think I’m my own worst enemy at times when it comes to social media and how to use it. Anyway, I’m making a stab at it, learning from Bex’s videos and private Facebook group. Should be there by Christmas with a bit of luck. I have to change the language on my home page to English, but for some reason it will not default to that language. Yes, I went on to the support page: it told me exactly what to do except that particular operation isn’t available on my account. Must be because it originated in Spain and hasn’t been used for a few years. Perhaps I need to download the latest version. On second thoughts, why bother?

I’m making progress with my WIP and cracking the whip over myself as a result of posting part one of Natasha’s Story to my subscribers last week. I lost eighteen subs as a result of that: something that usually happens when I post to them. My open rate was about 25%, which isn’t too bad. It means about four hundred subs opened the email. I asked them to make comments about Natasha’s story if they wanted to, but nothing yet. I live in hopes.

So, what’s next? I expect to get an official response from my publisher about the eBook rights to my romance, Past Imperfect. I have had the email from them, but now need to see they have unpublished the eBook before I can republish. Wish me luck.