Sixes and Sevens

 

Looking back on my last blog post, I can see that the smooth operation I subliminally call ‘a plan’ is nothing more really than me being all over the place. There must be a name for it; ‘confused’ probably. I’ve made no more progress on my Marcus Blake thriller other than a token attempt at adding a page or two. Same with my Clavinova practice; I am still playing the same three tunes and calling it progress. I do finger drills as well, but you can hardly call yourself a pianist by playing a kiddies’ exercise. But I digress, so I’ll move on to something more informative.

 

Remember me talking about Past Imperfect? Something like 3.7 million at the bottom of Amazon’s book pile? Well, it turns out my American publisher has sold 23 copies in about four or five weeks. And believe it or not: I may even get to meet her next year, but more about that later.

 

My attempts to cash in on the James Bond title with my book, No Time to Die, looked like a failure. But once the Amazon ads came to an end, I sold twelve copies in a month, and five of those were paperbacks. I’ve started again with the ads: both here and in the USA. I’ll need to keep an eye on them; if they are not performing, I’ll have to tweak them.

 

I discovered a new outlet for my books too: at a local bookshop in Bognor Regis. It was all because one of my writer colleagues, Helen Christmas, posted about the Heygate Bookshop now promoting local authors. I popped in a few days after that and spoke with the owner, Jason, who agreed to put two of my titles, Past Imperfect and No Time to Die, on the local author table in the front of his new shop (he moved from the old outlet he had).

 

Now back to that business of maybe me meeting my American publisher: I have registered my name with a Company that organise Writers’ events in Ireland. It is for a seven day break in Galway in June next year. The Editor-in-Chief of the Wild Rose Press, (and also co-owner) Rhonda Penders, will be presenting at the event along with their Social Media & Marketing Expert. Samantha Keating. I can’t start making any real plans yet despite being accepted for that particular event because of the uncertainty over air travel, covid restrictions etc. But once everything has been finalised (there are only twelve places by the way), I will be invoiced for the tour (yes, it isn’t just the book world, but tours as well). One downside though is that Mark Dawson has announced that the Self- Publishing Show for next year will be held in London in, yes — June, in the middle of my holiday. Can’t have it all, can we?

 

I’m planning to join a book promotion with another crime writer, David de Lee, later this month. I’ve done this a couple of times with him, but not for the last couple of years. I can only hope it goes well. Which reminds me: I won £50 on with the Premium Bonds last week. I don’t win much, probably once every two or three months, but it means I earn more with my bonds that I do with my books. C’est la vie!

 

That’s it then. I do hope you all have a really lovely Christmas with no restrictions, plenty of laughs and lots to look forward to. Stay safe!

 

 

 

Living in Hope

Well, I made the bold statement on my last blog post that I wanted to get back in the game, which meant the beginning of research, promotion, marketing and living in hope. I promoted my Marcus Blake mystery thriller, No Time to Die, and have achieved the magnificent result of two sales this month. I had to pause my ad on BookBub because I managed to spend $47 without even a sniff. Amazon, who simply refuse to take your money has cost me about $12. Not exactly pulling up any trees, am I? But I can at least say one thing: the title of my book has been on everyone’s lips this last week. All I need people to do is to think “Book” instead of “Film”.

I started fleshing out a Marcus Blake thriller. This will be No. 4 in the ‘series’. This one is set in Wyoming. Why Wyoming, you ask? I thought I might just as well jump on the bandwagon and write a ‘Jack Reacher’ type novel. Heaven knows my other books aren’t attracting any attention. My highest ranked book is at about 1.2 million on Amazon, while my lowest is at about 2.3 million. I have to say that being out of the game for well over a year is probably the reason I’ve sunk so low. So if I am to admit I have no scruples: Jack Reacher it will be. I have the makings of a plot, which my sister-in-law Carol, thought was “brilliant” when I explained it all to her while we were on holiday. All I have to do is get to work. I did have a look at my Pulp fiction sequel to Hunted (17000 words already written), but in the end,  Marcus Blake triumphed.

I went on a five day coach trip last week to Yorkshire. Went with my late wife’s brother, David, and his wife, Carol. It was a bit of a disaster. Never made it to York, which was the whole point of the trip. Our ‘optional’ York visit was cancelled because not enough people wanted to go, and that meant the coach driver wasn’t allowed to take those of us did want to go. I won’t go into detail about the holiday itself because I don’t want to depress you all.

 On a brighter note, my sister-in-law introduced me to the joys of Spotify, and I am now building up a couple of playlists. I also purchased a Bose Bluetooth speaker so I can listen to my music or the radio wherever I am around the house. Talk about modern man: hey, I’m almost there!

 As my life settles down to a sense of normality again, I hope to make positive inroads into writing and finishing that Marcus Blake thriller. My research into Wyoming has already uncovered some interesting and useable facts, but I still have a long way to go. Hopefully I’ll be able to report some progress on my next blog in about four weeks’ time.

 

Wish me luck!

 

The Way Ahead

 

Those of you who followed my weekly blog posts will know that I stopped once my lovely wife had passed away. I had already given up writing and declared that I wouldn’t write anymore because I could no longer see the point. For me, life had more or less come to an end. A year has passed now, and on August 18^th, the anniversary of Pat’s death, I watched her funeral (plenty of tears). That evening I went out to a fancy restaurant with Pat’s brother and his wife. It was my sister-in-law’s suggestion; one that I am glad I finally overcame my reluctance and agreed to join them.

 

Two days later I began what I would probably call my ‘Odyssey’. I travelled up to Norfolk to spend a weekend with my eldest son. Then I drove round to Lincolnshire, stopping off at my elder brother’s place for a couple of hours, to pick up Pauline, a long-standing friend of mine and Pat’s. Pauline lost her husband ten months ago. We came home and spent the next few days visiting my family in West Sussex, Hampshire and Dorset. Ten days after setting out, and covering 1000 miles, I was back home reflecting on the way forward, and acknowledging it had been a kind of catharsis; a move ahead in the healing process.

 

Although I had decided to no longer write, the book world never really left me; it is too ingrained in my psyche. I submitted a couple of my books to online publishers, never really expecting anything to happen, when the Wild Rose Press in America agreed to publish my romantic family saga, Past Imperfect. The book was released under their name on September 1^st. I have no control over the book, having signed a five year deal. No money changed hands; they dealt with the formatting, jacket design and metadata.

 

Shortly after WRP accepted my book, I began having thoughts about writing again. I had an email from Kobo about ‘Na-no-wromo’ (?), a yearly challenge for authors to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. I didn’t give that too much thought until I remembered I had already started a sequel to my pulp fiction thriller, Hunted. I had a look and found I had written 17000 words before I stopped writing.

 

So now I’m wondering if I really want to get back in the game. I think the answer is probably a yes but needs a little more thought. I bought myself a Yamaha Clavinova earlier this year (a digital piano) because I wanted to learn to play piano. I played keyboard for years, but playing the piano is something entirely different. I thought that would fill the empty space left by the absence of spending time on another kind of keyboard knocking out thrillers, but I think I could cope with both.

 

This blog post will be my first attempt at getting back to my book world, but instead of posting weekly, I will keep it to a monthly blog (unless something unusual happens). We’ll see.

 

Wish me luck!