January 1^st. 2022

 

First of all I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year. I’m sure we all wish for a better twelve months than we’ve experienced over the previous batch. For me, mine has been about rebuilding. I’ve had good moments and not so good moments. I’ve had one of my titles published by Wild Rose Press in America, so now I can say I have an American publisher (whoo-hoo!). I signed up for a writers’ retreat holiday in Ireland this coming June, and although I have registered for the holiday and been accepted, nothing has been confirmed with regard to payment and travel details. So as a kind of ‘insurance’ against losing out on that (I don’t expect to by the way), I have registered my interest in the Self-Publishing Show in London which will be during the week I’m hoping to be in Ireland.

 

Since my last blog post I have ventured back into advertising again, but with little success. I’m not too fazed by this; it is kind of ‘par for the course’ for me. I have also been researching a novel which will be fourth in the Marcus Blake series. My efforts there have been sporadic too, but I have learned certain things I never knew. For instance, I thought a Grand Jury was permanent in the States and covered the whole country, but not so; a State Grand Jury has to be raised each time there is a question about bringing someone to trial. State Grand Juries are not trial juries (this is where I could do with some help from John Grisham). I have also followed the drugs trail from Colombia to Canada, paying attention to the various ‘mules’ used along the way and seen how each mile increases the value of the drugs and the cost to the end-user. I have watched videos, been to the local library and used Google extensively. I have hatched out a steady plotline (up to a point) and have been told my story sounds very exciting and I should get it done ASAP. But that’s not me, is it? Mr. Prevarification, that should be my by-line. I do have some worthwhile excuses though, like most of us in the build up towards Christmas.

 

I went to see my Great Grandon, Orin (he’s four) in his school nativity play. Me and his Mum (my granddaughter, Gemma) could only see the top of his head because he had been put behind the bigger kids. Gemma watched from a standing position like some of the other parents. It was great fun though. It’s always good to see the toddlers trying to perform, even though some of them insist on waving to their mums and dads. I’ve put decorations up and taken decorations down. I’ve had a new TV installed and spent ages learning how to operate it and the new remote control. I also enjoyed our last Church House Group which was a Christmas affair and went well. I was also persuaded to take my neighbour and her friend to the Fish & Chip Bingo night (Christmas edition!). I don’t like bingo but agreed. I won’t be doing it again though.

 

The residents of the Park Home Estate on which I live have formed a Facebook Group: ideal for advising people of developments, events, problems etc. I offered to help anyone who had dreams of writing a book but didn’t know where or how to start or were maybe too embarrassed to admit they had such pretensions. I said I would do this for free, and would probably need a couple of sessions, an hour or so maybe, to get them on their way. I had one response, and that was from a lady who was asking on behalf of her husband. She wasn’t sure she could persuade him even though he wrote short stories but had nothing published. I suggested the three of us meet for a coffee, have a chat, and see what develops. She thought that was a good idea. I’ve heard nothing since. Bit like my promotional work.

 

Oh, I received three books for Christmas: Captain Tom’s Life lessons; The Glamour Boys by Chris Bryant, and The Pathfinders by Will Tredale. I might have finished Captain Tom’s book when I come to write my next blog post.

 

So, that’s it for another month. I do hope that whatever you do, whatever you plan and whatever you hope for, your wishes will all come true. Good luck for 2022.

 

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!

Work: just another four letter word.

 

15^th. August 2020

When I worked for a living, I did a lot of twelve-hour shifts. Never liked them, but at least at the end of my shift I could go home, go to bed and relax for a while. Yesterday, Friday, my day began at around 6 am, and finished last night at 2.30 am — just over twenty hours. Looking after Pat is hard work. I did manage to get my head down but was up again at 7 am to start the shift again. There’s a lot to this ‘Full-time carer’ business. Pat’s situation isn’t good, but I have to accept it for what it is and hope I can keep her as comfortable as possible. We have a steady stream of nurses coming in. One came this afternoon and dressed Pat’s wounds, checked her physically and departed. Pat seems a little more settled at the moment. We have the positional bed in the front room, which has been an absolute boon: so much better for Pat. It’s amazing just how much support is out there, most of which is free.

Tuppence goes away tomorrow, probably for about three months or until this is all over. If Pat goes into a nursing home, I will have Tuppence back. It won’t make a great dal of difference to me in regard to how much time I have, but it will make a heap of difference to Tuppence.

In my book world, I see no changes in my sales or my expectations. Now that I don’t write, I ignore a lot of advice that comes pouring on to my PC by way of social media book groups. But one thing I do see, and understand, is that as a stand-alone writer, I have very little chance of attaining high rankings and sales in the indie world. I have even seen patronising comments about stand-alone writers as though we were some sort of interlopers in the world of series authors. I did get a smile on my face when I saw one author complaining that her book sales were down, and what on earth were Amazon up to for goodness sake? — “I’m trying to make a living as a writer!” — seemed to be the complaint as though Amazon should pull their socks up.

As I mentioned last week, I am joining 10K Readers author Mike Donald on a thriller promotion, due to begin on September 1^st. I downloaded Mike’s book, Louisiana Blood (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07WVHCL6S) so that I could have something to say when the promotion gets under way. Mike’s book is set in the USA and UK, and what struck me about this was the fact that his characters are playing out their scenes in their own language (English of course), and that he uses double speech marks, which is normal for American publications. I’ve seen authors on some the FB groups of which I’m a member, worrying themselves over the use of the American way or the British way. They’re often told to go with whatever they feel comfortable with, something which Mike Donald is doing with no hang-ups. I’m hoping I can reach a lot more readers through Mike, but I have to say that in terms of which of us is the longest in tooth, it’s me. So perhaps Mike is hoping to hang on to my coat-tails. Hope I don’t let him down. Wish me luck!

Decisions, decisions.

8^th. August 2020 

I’m sitting here eating a bowl of cornflakes wondering what the day will bring in my on-going struggle with Pat. She’s fast asleep on the settee having been up since about 4.30 (and a pit stop during the night). I just love the way she catches up on her lost sleep while I mooch around, bleary-eyed, showered, changed and wondering why I’m eating cornflakes instead of a full English to build me up. Yesterday we were expecting a nurse to come and change Pat’s dressing. I phoned at 5.45 and asked where the nurse was only to be told it had been deferred until today. I blew my top: why didn’t we get a phone call? This happened last Tuesday as well, but they managed to find a nurse quick after my mid-day call. Last night two ‘Twilight’ nurses came and changed Pat’s dressing. No doubt the day nurse will turn up today. Or maybe not.

Now, I have a BIG, BIG decision to make. Tuppence is coming home on Monday. She’s been having a wonderful time with two doggy friends, playing together, going down the beach and even going in the sea. Now, our No.2 son, Terry, has suggested that he takes Tuppence to live with him and their little dog, Saxon, until…. Well, even Terry couldn’t say ‘Until Mum dies’. Sounds awful, doesn’t it? I have to admit that it would probably be fairer to Tuppence, rather than getting under my feet, getting into trouble and not getting the exercise she needs every day. The problem of course is me: I don’t want the little blighter to go. But my heart needs to be ruled by my head in this case. My son is coming over tomorrow to talk about it and will almost certainly persuade me that it’s the right thing to do, given the circumstances.

 

Now, about my book world. We won’t even talk about my book sales. I made a decision to finish with Voracious Readers. Over the last year I’ve attracted about 300 subscribers through giving away The Devil’s Trinity. (A lot of them unsubscribed as soon as they had the book). I think I attracted a handful of reviews on Goodreads. I’ve been thinking for a while about finishing with them, but it took a new venture to persuade me. I’ve joined in a promotion being run by a 10K FB author Mike Donald. He’s new at it and wanted to give it a shot. But to achieve the email sign-ups, I had to upgrade my Book Funnel account. I did this and cancelled my VR account. Works out about the same price each year anyway. Once Mike has all his ducks lined up in a row, he’ll start the ball rolling. It will take very little of my time to support the promo although I don’t hold out much hope for it; these things never seem to work for me.  So, all I have to do is hang on to that hope and make a decision about Tuppence. Wish me luck!

With love comes hope.

1^st. August 2020

If I had to write up a detailed report of what has happened to Pat this last week, I would be able to publish it in book form such would be the number of pages. Suffice it to say we have had four visits from medical professionals, a late evening consultation with an emergency nurse, and the delivery of a contraption to help Pat get up and down: the first of several items promised, including a hospital bed. In the seven days since my last blog post, Pat has had one good day. She was so bright, I even managed to persuade her to let me take her out for a drive. This meant the ramp had to be assembled, but that didn’t prove a problem. In fact, I was so pleased with it, I gave it a second coat of paint. If Pat recovers some of her good health, I will get her out a little more often, but at the moment she is too unwell.

 

My book sales are just holding at one sale a day spread between Amazon and D2D. Total sales 31. Cost of ads? Massive! Doesn’t make sense to carry on at the rate I’m spending money. But I remain optimistic and will start another campaign on BookBub, which seems to outsell Amazon in my case, and keep an eye on targeting etc. I do have small opportunities from time to time to look at my results and figure out what kind of changes might improve my sales. What I can’t do though is spend time on videos and following explicit instructions.

 

Oh, I made a pitch to an on-line publisher too. Well, not so much a pitch, but a tongue in cheek approach that will almost certainly yield nothing. The SPF bosses, James Blatch and Mark Dawson, have set up an on-line publishing company called Fuse Books. They have one author on their books (yes, one). They have asked the members of the SPF group for crime/mystery submissions but have warned that they will only take on a couple of authors with at least 3 books in a series. My tongue in cheek submission was to offer my three Marcus Blake thrillers which were never intended as a series. A betting man wouldn’t put money on my books even getting past first post, but I live in hope.

 

A book was released on Amazon yesterday: one in which I contributed a small piece. It’s called With love, comes hope: stories & inspiration during the 2020 pandemic. It’s available here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Love-Comes-Hope-Inspiration-Pandemic-ebook/dp/B08CRWWT82, and all proceeds go to Bridge 2 international humanitarian charity based in Guernsey. Why not have a look? My piece is on page 242.

 

I made a decision this afternoon to send Tuppence away for a short period, simply to stop her leaping all over Pat, getting under our feet, barking at every Tom, Dick & Harry, and generally being a nuisance whenever the nurses or paramedics turn up. I contacted Barking Mad, a franchise dog boarding organisation I’ve used a few times, and within one hour, the agent was here having sourced a ‘host’ for Tuppence. The woman who will be looking after Tuppence has had her before. So, two hours after making the decision, Tuppence has gone and peace reigns in the house. Aahh….. Wish me luck. (Well, Tuppence really).