What me? Nervous?

March 16^th, 2019

My pulp fiction thriller, HUNTED has now sold 50 copies; probably more than I expected, so I can’t be too disappointed. My advertising sucks, but that is something I know about and need to dig deep to turn it round. My opportunity may come later this month, but more of that in a while. I have now resurrected my main MS, my ‘WIP’, and have been going through it, scene by scene, chapter by chapter making corrections and changing direction somewhat. The word count stands at 36,000, which is a long way from where I would expect to finish (80,000 words), but when I look at the whole thing laid out on Scrivener, I seem to have written an enormously long book. But the word count doesn’t lie, so I have quite a way to go yet.

Looking ahead in the book world, I am getting rather nervous. On Monday, I expect to receive the results of Book Lab 5 and I fancy I might be in for a pasting. Isn’t it strange how we feel we are good, competent writers, but as soon as we throw our hats into the competitive ring, we suffer from self-doubt? Well, I do anyway. Despite being told time and time again how good my books are, I see the sword of Damocles hanging over me. It would be nice to think the three professionals who will be taking my work apart found nothing wrong with any of it and praised me to the rafters, but I doubt it. So, Monday the 18^th, which is my birthday by the way, I’ll be getting a present of sorts. I will need to spend money on advertising the book, but will follow the advice I’ll be getting with the Book Lab.

Last week it was the London Book Fair. I would liked to have attended, but circumstances prevented it. After my lonely trek to the Fair three years ago, I believe I would feel more at home now I have been involved in the Indie book business for so long. I see a lot of ‘happy’ reports about the meetings, not to mention the free drink at the local pub with Mark Dawson and James Blatch. James will be interviewing me as part of the Book Lab process (it will be on You Tube), so that’s one bloke I could merrily talk to. We also have something in common: we have both had a flight in the Harrier jump jet. James was with the BBC when he flew, and my trip was with my son, Terry, when I retired (I was 55 at the time — still young!). So, common ground there.

I had a major disaster earlier in the week; my false tooth bridge fell out! Horror of horrors. Now when I sit in front of my laptop for the podcast interview, I’ll be showing an enormous gap. I can’t see my public liking that at all! Hope it doesn’t put them off buying my books. I need some teeth removed too, so it will be a lengthy process at the dentist before I can wear new dentures. That will take about three to four months.

Pat’s prognosis goes on: we are still no closer to learning which cancer she has, although lung cancer has now been discounted. We will be seeing the haematologist on Monday or Tuesday for a consultation and a decision on what to do next. Poor girl is going through such a lot.

I received a nice comment from a neighbour about the book talk I did at the village hall. One of her friends said she is enjoying my book so much that she’s reluctant to put it down, and when she has to, she can’t wait to get back into it. I asked my neighbour which book it was, but she couldn’t remember. However, she thinks it was the romance, Past Imperfect. Another fan! Will there be any more? Wish me luck!