Out with the Old

My old photo slides are now in the wastepaper bin. They've been waiting in the attic for a good many years.

Now they have been digitally copied, run through Photoshop and the pictures are now safely on my computer. If anyone wants the now redundant film scanner, do let me know. It has now done its job for me. 

The clarity of the digital pic is not as good as the original but since there is no way I will ever get all the old gear from the attic and set up a projector and screen in the living room, this is as good as it gets. 

I have also been busy on another new cover. Taking to heart the advice offered by Bryan Cohen's webcasts, I "saw" that some of my covers were not "genre relevant". So I am on a mission to rectify that. 

He means that a romance ought to be recognised as a romance within the first seconds of seeing the cover. That's genre recognition in action. Subconsciously we recognise a thriller from the cover style, and some  - like the Jack Reacher covers - have become almost a brand. Another thing I learned from Cathy Helms and Tamian Wood is that choice (and use) of font is as important as the picture. And finally ~ I managed to use a layer mask successfully! 

Let me introduce my main character...

There's a Blog Hop going the rounds and I've been tagged  by Laura Purcell to talk about my main character. 

1. What is the name of your character? Is he/she fictional or a historic person? The hero of my novel is Oli Ketilsson and he is totally fictitious! I see this as a dual-hero story. Oli is young, somewhere around sixteen or seventeen, no one is quite sure and although it is his story, he shares the pages with his foster-father, Flane Ketilsson, who is only ten years older and a fully fledged Viking warrior. Flane was the hero of Far After Gold, which some of you may have read. If you haven't don't worry, it's not necessary to have done so.

2. When and where is the story set? The story covers a couple of weeks during the summer of 1046, when the worst of the Viking raids were over and Vikings were settling down and farming their new lands.  Oli and Flane live in Ulli's Steading on Loch Broom in north-west Scotland (aka Alba at that time), but a good deal of the story takes place in Dyflin (aka Dublin today). 

3. What should we know about him? When Oli was six or seven, his father was lost at sea and his body never found. His mother died in childbirth soon afterwards. Oli lived in the Steading, cared for by "no one and everyone," as Flane put it. When Flane took Emer to the steading, Oli became her first friend, and when they  married they adopted him as their son. He has always idolised Flane.

4. What is the main conflict? What messes up his life?  There are not many girls of Oli's age in the neighbourhood, so when Gisla leaps aboard Flane's ship as they leave Dyflin, Oli falls head over heels in love with her. She is terrified, escaping from someone or something, and instantly Oli wants to protect her. Flane isn't so sure, especially when a Viking warship follows them home to Alba and demands that the girl return to Dyflin in order to marry Karli Olafsson. From then on, Oli risks his life for her.

5. What is the personal goal of the character? To be as brave a warrior as his foster-father Flane, and to save Gisla and have her all to himself. 

6. Is there a working title for this novel, and can we read more about it? VIKING MAGIC was published on 8th May 2014, and it is available via Amazon Kindle. 

I’ve tagged the talented Heather King continue the blog hop. She will post on 21st May 2014.

Titles and covers again

I have my new cover to match the new title on my upcoming release. For better or worse, this is it!

The worst of the double edit is behind me now. There are about six chapters printed out and waiting my attention. I've edited them on screen, but tomorrow I shall edit the print-out and make necessary adjustments. (There always are!) I think by tomorrow night I shall be finished. What a relief!

One thing I've discovered with covers is to get the size right for Amazon Kindle first of all. They recommend 1563x2071, and getting that right after you've worked on illustration can be soul destroying. To get the right size you sometimes need to be able to free up proportion constraints and that, as you can imagine, sends your illustration through the wringer. Dragons come out looking like swans and vice versa.

Colours are important. I want the cover to stand out among all the others, and somehow Black and Red just didn't do it for me this time. It looks fine close up, but viewed among many others, it just faded away, whereas the orange cover still drew the eye.
Well, OK, it drew my eye. 

I hope the dragon head says Viking to everyone who looks at it. The story is a romance, but I didn't want to put a bare-chested man in a fur tunic on the cover. Tell me I'm wrong or old-fashioned if you must, but that sort of cover says to me that there is only romance in the story. My stories have romance, sure, but they also have adventure, death and disaster. The villain certainly gets what he deserves in this one! The hero is Oli, a sixteen-year-old who falls head-over-heels in love with a girl who has rather a lot of problems to solve. Oli was nine years old in my book Far After Gold and his life with Flane and Emer has been fairy easy up until this point. If he wants to win the girl,he has to rise to the challenge and Karli Olafsson is no normal Viking.....
Look out for Viking Magic on Amazon Kindle in the next couple of weeks.

Lightbulb Moments

We're off  gallivanting again today. We're off to Barnard Castle, click one time haunt of Richard III, where dh and I will then split. I'm off to a Border Reivers Writers' Group lunch for a couple of hours, and dh will enjoy a stroll around the country town, the antique shops and a pub lunch. He may even go as far as Bowes Museum, but no doubt I'll be driving back home!

Barnard Castle is in the south of County Durham, and it's about as far south as our group extends. It's only fair that the member who lives there should have everyone come to her instead of it always being Sue who travels miles and miles to reach us, whether we're in the Tyne valley, Morpeth or as far north as Alnwick. Today we're supposed to be discussing sex/seduction scenes, taking examples of our own writing of said scenes for discussion. That'll be fun! Maybe there will be notes on it here on Monday. Maybe I'll report my funny little experience with the Amazon tags - which all reverted back to normal when I checked a couple of days later. I've even considered re-instating them! I could at least label Far After Gold as a steamy romance....

Last night I had a lightbulb moment. I've re-written a whole chapter of the first Matho story in the last few days, and I suddenly realised the chapter would read better from Meg's POV because she has more to lose and it will give the reader a chance to feel Meg's fear and observe Matho's anger at her betrayal. So when I get home this afternoon, that's what I'll be doing.

On Kindle today!

Far After Gold by Jen Black is up on Amazon Kindle today!
Amazon

The paperback has been lying forgotten on my shelves for a couple of years since Quaestor ceased trading in 2010 due to the owner's ill-health. The book had just over a year of life as a viable paperback, and I suddenly thought - why waste all that effort? why not put it up on Amazon Kindle?

Checking my pc, I didn't have a file for it. None of my USB sticks held a copy. The thought of re-typing it all from the paperback, or scanning it, was not encouraging. Finally I found a copy on an old hard disc, which reminded me How Things Have Changed in a few years!

So I began with an old computer version. I put it into text to take out all the Quaestor formatting, and then began the laborious task of putting all the punctuation back in again. It takes time. As I inserted paragraphs and suchlike, I began tweaking the words themselves; a word here, a deletion there, but soon, I was taking out and rewriting whole chunks. All I can say is I wrote FAG, as I call it, about six or seven years ago, and I've learned a lot since then.

So, it's now a smart, sexy, romantic tale of a young Christian girl bought as a slave by a young Viking warrior.

Here's an excerpt: 

“Come with me.”

Emer stood rooted to the deck. Flane reached the gangplank, turned and beckoned.

Emer scowled and did not move.

Flane clicked his fingers. Astounded, Emer lifted her chin, turned her head and stared pointedly out to sea. From the corner of her eye she saw one sailor nudge another and both stopped what they were doing to watch what would happen next. Memories of the overseer and his cane flashed through her mind, and she decided moving might be her wisest choice even though he treated her like his favourite hound. Pride stiffened her spine as she halted before him.

“My name is Flane.” He tapped his chest and repeated the words, as if she were stupid, and then sighed. “Trust me to pick a girl who doesn’t understand the language.” He drew his dagger, and the fierce blade flashed silver in the sunlight.

Emer’s heart leapt into her throat. Would he kill her because she could not speak his language? What other reason could he have? Should she speak now, before it was too late? She met his blue glance for an instant even as she took a swift step back, ready to run, heedlessly, in any direction.

He caught her wrist and dragged her in close.

Her heart thudded wildly at the sudden contact of chest, hip and thigh. Mesmerised by his steady blue gaze, she stood there in the thin sunlight with the sound of water lapping against the ship and the smell of seawater and seaweed in her nostrils. She drew a swift, choked breath of air. Her last moment in the world had arrived, and she could not free her tongue to speak. Dear God…. She shut her eyes, awaiting the bite of cold steel at her throat. Dear Lord, accept my soul this day…

He hooked one finger under her leather slave collar. Surprised, she opened her eyes and flinched at the sight of the steel blade flashing wickedly in the sunlight.

“Steady, steady,” he murmured, as if to a nervous animal. “I thought you’d rather be free of this.” He gave a couple of gentle tugs on the leather collar at her neck, and before she grasped his intention, the steel sliced through the hated thing. She never even felt the coldness of the blade.

He dangled the strip of leather with its attendant piece of rope in front of her. “Do you want to keep it?”

Furious at being frightened and then gentled like a nervous horse, Emer seized the hated collar and hurled it far out over the loch.

A talk, the torch and changes

Durham Cathedral

Had a great day with Jean Fullerton on Thursday and Friday. She came up from London to talk to our writers group, The Border Reivers and we all enjoyed a welcoming BBQ at the home of one of our members even though it was far to chilly to stand about outside. Only the actual barbie stood outside!
At one stage I thought the Olympic Torch going through Newcastle was going to jam up our arrangements for getting Jean back on time to the 4pm train to London, but all worked out well.

She spoke of cringing when she looked back at some of her early works (books that didn't get published) and I so sympathise with her, because I recently set out to get an old title ready to go up on Kindle and got quite a surprise as I started reading.

The storyline was fine, but there were signs of muddled motivation and a fair bit of repetition, not to mention some odd sentences here and there. As I read through I certainly cringed - and immediately started putting the thing right. Far After Gold has been truly re-edited over the last fortnight, ready for its second debut. I've almost re-written it!

The uploading process to Amazon had updates in April this year and the process certainly seem to work better for me than they did last time I tried it. I have a cover to sort, but in a few days, I'll chance uploading my story and see how it goes.

Requiem

My publisher, Quaestor2000, is closing. Copies in stock will be sold for another month but after that, it’s over. So if anyone wants copies of Far After Gold or Till the Day Go Down, get them now, otherwise they’ll be pulped.

My sympathies lie with Roger Bennett, who began the Quaestor venture. Publishing is harder than people think. Or rather, to make a success, a profit-paying venture, is harder than it might seem. Getting a book printed is easy enough today, but the trick is in selling it. Faced with 500 copies of a title, where do you off-load them?

The big chain booksellers go through their chosen hubs, and select only what they think will sell in multiples. Persuading them to accept a novel from an unknown author is like trying to push a snowball uphill, in my view. Or, they accept politely, and eventually it dawns that nothing is really going to happen. The precious book never appears on their shelves. Or if it does, it's there for one week and then vanishes.

Some people are built for the task of selling their own work and enjoy it, but the mere thought of filling the car boot with copies and touring the countryside as a salesperson fills me with dread.

So, my brief time with paperbacks published and available is soon to be over. I’m sad about it, but console myself with the thought that I still have two e-books available – Banners of Alba and Dark Pool.

And soon I’ll have a contemporary ghost story, Shadows, coming from Sapphire Blue. As with everything else, its Onwards and Upwards and Don't Look Back.

(The pic? Prudhoe Castle in the snow.)

Compliments

Avery nice thing happened today. someone I don't know sent me an e-mail. Nothing strange in that, you may say; but this lady complimented my writing. To be more precise, she said:

"Just finished reading Far After Gold which I loved and couldn't put it down. I did a module on the Vikings at Aberystwyth University and loved visiting the world of Flane and Emer. It was interesting to focus on what it would have been like to be abducted as a slave and own only the clothes you happened to be wearing. I thought your comparison between Emer and Katla who in the end were both exchanged for silver very interesting.

I look foward to reading more of your books in the future."

Needless to say, this gave me huge encouragement! I won't put the lady's name here in case that would embarrass her, but I certainly send her my thanks!

Football to KING KONG

Arsene Wenger is manager of a football club and has this to say in Saturday's Times..."The common denominator of successful teams is that the players are intelligent. That does not always mean educated. They can analyse a a problem and find a solution. The common denominator of a top-level person is that they can objectively assess their performance. You speak to a player after the game and ask him to rate his performance and if he analyses well, you know he is the sort who will drive home thinking, 'I did this wrong, I did that wrong.' His assessment will be correct and, next time, he will rectify it. That player has a chance. The one who has a crap game and says he was fantastic, you worry for him. This is also true in life beyond football."

Well, how true that is. Rafa Nadal certainly qualifies but I'm not so sure about me! I hope I'm learning as I go, and I certainly look back on things I wrote a year or two ago and wish I could edit them again. I think I can look back objectively on a day's writing output and say if it is good, mediocre or bad. Usually I twiddle with it next day, and that always improves it. Well, nearly always! H'mmm, maybe I qualify.

However, I was much chuffed to receive a compliment about FAR AFTER GOLD last week and it really cheered me up:

"(The book) irresistably hooked me in. I think what I really adored about it was the way you really gave your characters realistically and believably ancient sensibilities and moral codes. You so rarely see this done well it was wonderful to read - thank you!"

I watched KING KONG on tv last night. At the point where the ape seizes the coloured man and looks as if he's going to bite his head off, I clicked the remote and gave up. It was an ugly film, nasty to watch and not redeemed, as far as I was concerned, by computer images and back projection. Clever doesn't always mean good.

The pic? Matfen Hall, where we sometimes go for a meal.

Marketing magic

"From the day I got the book deal I started marketing."

Lisa McMann has something to say about marketing her best selling book WAKE and I know I can learn from her. Catch her blog here

Nathan Bransford is talking about the same topic and he says "There's no such thing as "just an author" anymore, and I suspect there never was." (How that man keeps up with his day job I'll never know. His post has been up 2 hours and already there are 38 comments. For any newbie writer who has not discovered him, he is the man who must be read)

The bottom line is that however much we dislike marketing ourselves and our work, publishers are much more ready to put the money behind the author if the author is willing to work at marketing as well.

So now FAR AFTER GOLD is happily with a distributor who knows the business, it is time for me to start work. People can actually get the book now. I picked up a copy from my local library today. Imagine that! My book, the book I wrote, on the shelves in my local library! I feel faint with happiness.

The picture looks through the Debden valley towards Cragside. Armstrong's old iron bridge has been refurbished, repainted and opened up for people to walk across for the first time in a great many years. It trembles, rather like the modern Millenium pedestrian bridges, which is why it is rather blurry in the photograph.

Me, at Cragside

Me, the other day at Cragside. Splendid day out

and the National Trust would be pleased that so many people wanted to visit the house - there was a queue!

Not just for a little while, either, but all the time we were there. The estate is big enough to absorb an awful lot of people so we didn't feel crowded out.

I'm at that tricky time writing wise. I need to start something new, but can't decide among several ideas. Which one do I want to work with for the next three months? Or six months? FAR AFTER GOLD is out and TILL THE DAY GO DOWN is scheduled for November as long as the sky doesn't fall down. I'm waiting on an agent's response to RELUCTANCE and not getting too hopeful, but I need to start on something else. How does anyone decide?

Tudor time period, perhaps? A follow up to FAG? M'mmm, I'll sleep on it. Again.

Eventually I suppose I'll make a decision. Maybe I should try roughing out an outline for several storylines and see which comes easiest? I think it is always easier to start with an outline. I know some authors sit down and say Goody, what shall I write today? and then they just go with the flow and see what comes. They must have very good subconcious minds to get it all to fit together when they don't know what the the next chapter will bring, and I'm not sure I could do that. I'll try the outline method. I suppose if I wrote a historical character's life I'd know what the ending would be - that would make it easier, and if the personage is well known, then there's no hiding it. Start the first page with Mary Stuart's beheading, because we all know that's where she ended; the question is How Did She Get There?

Have Reviews changed?

A review of Far After Gold slid into my in-box this morning and I wanted to share it in spite of the fact that the holiday season means everyone is away and not reading blogs right now! You'll find the review here
"It brings the time period to life and the characters are described so vividly that you feel you get to know them as you read. This is a book that is worth reading. You get to take a wonderful trip back in time and live in the times of Vikings."

Some reviews take longer than others but are always welcome. How much effect do they have on readers' choices? There was a time when I read the reviews in the up-market newspapers every week and pushed in a few requests on Monday morning. So easy to do when I worked in the public library - and a good way of ensuring that our branch got a good selection of new fiction all through the year! But now I find that the reviews don't tempt me so much, sometimes not at all. It makes me wonder - has my taste in reading matter changed so radically over the years? Or has the type of book being written and reviewed changed instead? Or both at the same time - and heading in opposite directions?

Spring at last

I promised lambs and daffodils to celebrate Spring, so here are the lambs...carefully marched away from us by anxious mum.

We attended our first BBQ last night. Invitation arrived in brilliant sunshine at 2pm. By 3.30pm the skies darkened and the rain slashed down and we gave up all hope. By 8.00 it was fine and bright again, so off we went, and stood under huge umbrellas when it rained again. It could only happen in England - but it was a fun evening.

Now that I'm re-working the old story that was once published by Triskelion, I find it is growing and changing out of all recognition and I shall gave it a new title. I hope that is legal. The story side of it is fine, but I cannot shake off the formatting imposed by Trisk, so I've decided to start again in a whole new blank document, which is just as well as so much of it is changing.
I've also been trying to make Document Map work for me after someone sang its praises but I think the instructions I have must be for a later version of Word than I have, for I didn't achieve anything helpful.

After a day of exasperation and wasted time, we sneaked off for a day out on Friday and walked at Wallington. The magnolias are coming into bloom in the walled garden, and the blossom on the wild cherry and rhododendrons was a welcome sight. Makes me feel good on the inside.

I checked today and saw that Far After Gold is listed by both Gardners and Bertrams, major book distribution centres in the UK, which means that Waterstones and other bookshops can order it as a stock line for their shelves. Perhaps it is time I introduced myself to the local bookshops....and if anyone has been disappointed that they couldn't find it anywhere but Amazon, take hope. One day you might find my books sitting on your local Wasterstones' shelf. And if you ask, they should certainly get it for you.

I'm bloggin' and TILL THE DAY GO DOWN

The snow has gone. Started disappearing the very next morning,
leaving us with a slippery, slidey mess and all those little red sledges are tucked away in the back of the garage once more. The forecasters are promising more on Thursday. I bet the kids are praying they're right.


I'm blogging over at Historical Novel Review this week, so make sure you pop by and leave a comment. I'll feel lonely if you don't.


Some good news - my publisher is keen to take on my Tudor story TILL THE DAY GO DOWN, so I'm very pleased about that.



I promised pictures of characters in
FAR AFTER GOLD, and you saw Flane leaning against the tree.
A tease, right?
Far too far away to really see him.
I might remedy that soon. Stick with me...

Over to the right is a picture of Emer, as she exists in my imagination.
You might have a different idea of her!

I started out doing another video trailer to put on Youtube, and then thought it would be far simpler and much quicker to post the pics on here. I don't suppose anyone will miss the video!

My book and the Australian Open

Since my book is published this Friday I thought I should let everyone know the good news.

This picture is of Ullapool - but not of the Ullapool of today. This is my view of Skuli' Grey Cloak's Steading, the place where Flane takes Emer when he buys her in the Dublin slave market. As the week progresses I'll add my impressions of Emer, Flane and Oli.

I am still immersed in the Australian Tennis Tournament. Today Murray was beaten. I wonder what the headlines will scream tomorrow? The British press can be cruel I think, in the way it pounces on a UK player and lauds them to the skies before they've ever won a Grand Slam. I've watched it happen so often over the years. The players must come to believe a little of the hype, and then the fall must hit very hard. Far better to wait until Murray wins a Grand Slam before touting him as the favourite before players like Djokovic and Federer. Nadal is always polite, and so avoids confrontation. It looks like being a Nadal-Federer final, and I know who I want to win.

Reviews

"In Far After Gold, Jen Black brings history to vivid and passionate life. The book gripped me from the very first page and drew me in. The writing is lovely, fluent, powerful and evocative. The exploration of the clash between the Viking and early Christian cultures adds layers to the conflict. But it is the characters and their love story that compels the reader’s attention.

Emer is a wonderful heroine, sympathetic and engaging. Even when she is in desperate straits she displays dignity, strength and generosity of spirit. She draws others to her through her kindness and warmth. Flane is a hero to match her, courageous and strong. The chemistry between them is scorching hot and the love story both seductive and tender. Watching these two characters change and grow throughout the book is a delight. Well-drawn secondary characters also add depth and charm to a compelling love story. This book lived on in my imagination long after I had finished it."
Nicola Cornick

As might be imagined, I was up in the air with this review.

Yesterday I found another one from the Northern Echo . This is the one in which the last line is "Don't be put off by the hippy-style book cover. All in all it's not a bad effort for a relatively new writer."

Ice grotto

I found the picture of the cable car amongst those taken by Paul, so I hope he won't mind if I put three of his up here. You may need to look closely but there is a cable car holding about 40 people packed like sardines swinging in the gap. If you look even closer you can see the lines leading up to the peak where the car enters the rock.

Once inside, the delights of the ice grotto await. Figures carved out of ice loom up out of the darkness, and everything you touch, walk on, look at, is ice. Fissures open up in the ceiling, cracks and holes loom up beyond the guide ropes and it is surprisingly dark. Sometimes the ceiling looked like quartz crystals glittering in the lamplight, at other points it looked and felt like glass. I'd been once before but because the glacier constantly moves - not that you'd notice, I assure you! - everything had changed. No creaks and groans as the ice shifted but perhaps that was because there were six people in there, all moving, talking, taking pictures. On my previous visit it was just dh and I, and we stood still and listened.
The ice goats were not life size, but easily three feet high.

Here is a picture of moi, poleing across a fairly flat section, anxious to get back in the sunlight and out of the cold. It's a tedious and exhausting business when the slope flattens out and the skier loses momentum, but it sure is good for the stomach muscles. Fit young things "skate" across the snow, of course, but yours truly usually manages to get her skis tangled up and judders off balance when trying it. I often think longer legs would help.

Memories of holidays are good, but everyday things are now taking up my time. I must promote my new book, work on the one I'm writing, and try and convince an agent to take me on. Yes, I'm trying that again. Lets hope I have more success this time. I had a review in the Hexham Courant just before I went on holiday and you can read it HERE. That reminds me that I must go Google myself and see if anymore have turned up. Newspapers don't always let you know that something is about to be published, and I'd hate to miss one.

Zermatt and FAR AFTER GOLD

Good snow, good weather, (it only snowed at night!) beautiful food, everything worked according to plan. Hotel better than ever - this was fourth visit. Transit Newcastle to Zermatt accomplished without a hitch, though having to wait an hour for our baggage at Newcastle airport on the return journey kind of spoilt the run of perfection. Ah....superb holiday, now over.

Because we were skiing at between 8 and 10 thousand feet, some days higher than that, I am now a good deal fitter than when I went. The human body, and the way it adapts, is truly amazing. Now I must keep up the good work - and of course the English weather is not appealing - horribly windy, damp and grey. Makes me want to sit at home with a good book.

Returned home to another review for Far After Gold:

"This is a heart-warming romance set in the Hebrides at a time when the ancient Norse religion was being eclipsed by Christianity. Two sets of values, sometimes similar, often contradictory, fight to win men's hearts and minds, much as the hero and heroine struggle towards mutual understanding in the course of the novel.

Jen Black is a writer to watch. Her turn of phrase can be most evocative, and she uses it to best advantage to create a strong sense of place. This is not a romance set in a blank nowhere where the characters are forced to act out their dramas on a stage bare of everything save the most basic of props. In Far After Gold the setting is lovingly described and it lends richness and texture to Emer and Flane's story. There is the odd minor stumble with anachronism, where the choice of vocabulary might be more rigorous, but word choice is a very personal matter and this in no way impedes the flow of the story.

Jen Black knows how to use drama to help with narrative drive, and the conflict between the hero and heroine is kept clear at all times. Towards the end of the book however, there is a sense that the novel might gain more depth if the two main characters and the conflict between them was further evolved. "

So far so good. The last sentence and the next paragraph show me where I might have done better, and I am grateful to Carol Townend for sharing her thoughts on this. I have learned a great deal since I wrote FAG and I'm still learning. Carol goes on to say "Emer's thought processes become a little repetitious; and it would add yet another layer to learn more about Flane's motivations and the way his relationship with Emer highlights his inner conflicts and increases his self-knowledge." I can see exactly what she means, and I agree. I only wish I'd seen it at the time of writing!
She concludes: "Far After Gold is an evocative novel, the characters are appealing and they develop convincingly during the course of the story. I enjoyed very much."

Needless to say I am very pleased!

Writing, Nathan and Bookbag

"There's good reason for this rule to apply -- one of the absolute most important attributes of any successful writer is the ability to scrutinize their own work in order to improve it and make it better. The minute a writer starts thinking what they write is genius is the moment they stop scrutinizing their work for places where it can be improved upon, changed, or, most importantly of all, removed. A healthy skepticism is an essential tool in a writer's arsenal. Also bourbon."

This quote comes from Nathan Bransford's blog and it is so true.

However, it is too late for FAR AFTER GOLD. In exactly one month's time, my book will out in the world for public scrutiny. I cannot improve it now, but believe me, I worked hard on it, and I learned a great deal about writing while revising it. The picture above is my image of Oli, one of the characters in the book. Elaine Dingsdale of Bookbag says in her review: He's a beautifully depicted character who really brings the book to life with his hero worship of Flane and his empathy with Emer, whom he immediately recognises as a kindred spirit and fellow misfit. His maturity and attitude were tremendous and with wisdom beyond his years, I was moved close to tears on several occasions."

This time of year is for reflection on what has gone and what is to come. I'm comfortable with what I've achieved in 2008. I'm not one for making resolutions and even less do I broadcast the ones I think about in my deepest thoughts. What I will do is spend the next month publicising my book whenever and wherever I can. It needs my help. I'm an unknown name and I don't want Quaestor to regret that they took a chance on me.

I'll still be working on KEEP TRUST, which is going well, but I must become a PR person. It doesn't come easily. Those who ask me about my writing must think I don't want to talk about it, because I can never think of anything witty or interesting to say about it. To say creative writing takes up most of my waking hours sounds pretentious and dreadfully snobbish, and unless the person you speak to does it themselves, it is hard to make the subject interesting.

Perhaps when (if, girl, if) I become established, (if ever) I'll have learned how to talk about what and how I write and an interesting and friendly way. I remember how Phillippa Gregory performed so confidently at Bowes Museum and applaud her. At the moment, I feel tongue-tied with embarrassment. And I notice my over use of the word interesting in this piece.

Another one gone and now the long wait...

Sent off my Tudor story today to Roger at Quaestor to see what he thinks of it. I'm sure he'll tell me if it's not up to scratch.

I now have two reviews for Far After Gold. I was particularly pleased by this chunk about my hero:

"Flane is an attractive character, cheerful and humorous. He comes over as just a little bit immature at the start of the novel, wanting to have his cake and eat it, acting on impulse without much regard for the consequences, and unwilling to make a difficult decision until he is forced into it. He seems genuinely baffled that Emer doesn’t fall into his bed at the first opportunity, and his willingness to wait for her to do so rather than force her seems to be due in about equal parts to a belief in his own irresistible attractiveness and a desire for a quiet life."

I couldn't have put it better myself! Has the reviewer been reading my character notes? I will post the link to the full review when I know it has been"properly published" but I was so pleased by this excellent appraisal of Flane that I couldn't resist a taster. (Heh, heh - and just for the record, darling Flane has little idea that his easy going world is about to disintegrate!)

The other surprising thing is that the book is up and available on Amazon.co.uk* already - for orders. The release date is 30th January. I must check and see if it's up on .com tomorrow but right now I'm off to bed to finish the Geras story. More on that later.

*One click will take you to amazon and my book. Go on, have a peek!

PS The picture is the corner of Wallington Hall and the ancient yew tree against the winter sunshine. Interesting shapes, I thought...