Articles tagged with: book

20 days to go.....

on Thursday, 01 November 2012. Posted in Book News and Reviews

Here's the story behind the story...

Here's the story of how Beyond Fragile Boundaries was written. Just 20 days to go now.....

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Cover Has Arrived

on Wednesday, 24 October 2012. Posted in Book News and Reviews

Launch day is approaching

Today did not start too well. John and I got up bright and early and drove through the fog to Canterbury for a breakfast networking meeting that starts 7am tomorrow morning. Thought the car park was quiet. Still, enjoyed the dry run. Should be really good at it by tomorrow. Sigh!

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However, the day did get better when the design for my book cover arrived in the post. Excited! I should say! So I asked daughter number 2, Katy, who had called round, to take a picture of me holding it in an excited fashion. Which she did. In the first picture I looked a tad psychotic. It looked OK on my phone, but due to new contact lenses, I couldn’t really see it. When I uploaded it onto my laptop, I was terrified! I looked like a mad person. What has really stumped me is that both Katy and hubby John said that it was a normal expression! Hells bells and coconut shells – I must look like that all the time then! Horrific.

Anyway, I calmed my face down and we did a re-shoot which you can see here. Hope you like……

Waiting for my book to be ready for print is a bit like waiting for a baby to be born, except it’s a bit easier on the pelvic floor muscles. Getting the cover reminded me of getting the picture of the first scan – scary but marvellous.

Won’t be long now.

My New Best Friend JK

on Tuesday, 02 October 2012. Posted in Archive

Wishful thinking?

Okay so it may be a bit of wishful thinking, but I really would like to sit down with the great JK Rowing and have a chat. I watched her being interviewed on the Culture Show the other day about her new novel, The Casual Vacancy. It is really interesting to see how authors write. I am not an expert (yet) but I would think that everyone does it differently.

JK took 2 years to write her book. I would imagine there was a lot of editing going on as well. I have been surprised at how intense that can be. I sit there with my editor and we discuss the characters as though they are real people, and you know what, they have become so!

In Beyond Fragile Boundaries, all of my characters are unique people in their own right. They are not based on anyone I know. I am not sure I could have written about them if they had been. It would have been restrictive.

No, they are their own people. I can picture them in my head. I feel their emotions too. It is really odd to write a page, then read it back and cry or laugh! It has now happened to me quite a bit.

I miss my characters now that I have finished actually writing the book itself, so it is lovely to sit and discuss them at great length with my editor and work out how they would feel about a certain action or tone of a conversation. You actually do get very possessive over them. I am really lucky that I have an editor who totally understands me and knows exactly how I tick. She’s an absolute gem!

If all goes to plan BFB is going to be ready to buy in print and on Kindle around mid November time. I am looking for speaking opportunities, so let me know if you have any ideas.

First Blog as an Author

on Monday, 24 September 2012. Posted in Archive

Well, here we go!

I started my first novel, Beyond Fragile Boundaries, on the 1st of August 2012. It was a strange sensation and one that I now cherish on a daily basis. Writing is the most fun I have ever had sitting on my office chair!

I set myself a task of 3000 words a day which I am proud to say I kept to and then 4 weeks later, almost 90,000 words had appeared and I was able to tell my family.

At first, my only confident, apart from my editor and lovely friend Frances, was hubby John, who has cleaned and cooked and sat on his own each night whilst I type away. His belief in me has been the main driver and I cannot tell him how much that means to me.

Then, with trepidation and even before it went to edit, I printed out manuscripts for my two biggest critics – my Mum and my eldest daughter, Amy.

I waited nervously to hear their thoughts and for the rest of that day all was silent. I was terrified. Maybe it was crap and I was kidding myself. The next morning I work up to a text from Amy:

DSC 0493FYI. I cannot stop reading to sleep. I’m enthralled, and I have read a lot of books since March.

My Mum came in later in the day. She was grinning like a Cheshire cat and said

’Oh, Oh, I’m speechless. Can’t put it down. It’s very raunchy darling. Can I take it you are writing from experience?’

Needless to say that I did not answer that.

So, all looked good. Now the big test. Ed! Also known as Frances. I waited for ages as she was on her holidays, but then I received a text a week or so later, which read:

Loving the overall theme of being true to self. It’s SO a book for women that all men should read! Expresses lovely power of gentleness and femininity. A commercial winner!

Boom! I was in. So, we are now in full edit which takes quite a while and we have made some changes and thickened the plot even more.

I am looking forward to going out to promote my work, so if you have a gathering that you would like me to come to, please let me know. All I want is to bring my books.

Ciao!