Is there a silver lining in there somewhere?

Saw the haematologist last Monday and he decided to suspend Pat’s chemo for another seven weeks so they can deal with her memory loss. He was happy with the blood test and X-Ray results which suggested that the cancer is fairly benign at the moment. That doesn’t mean it’s in remission, although we would like to think that, but it’s safe enough for a short referral to the neurological department. He said Pat’s ‘mini stroke’ should now be considered a ‘stroke’, which is why the suspension of treatment and referral can go ahead. We have a GP appointment on Wednesday for her because she needs a change with one of her tablets and a progress report for the benefit of the GP. Physically, Pat’s isn’t too bad, but could do with some weight on. I’m working on that!

On the book front, I find I’m the one to whom the term ‘flat lining’ could be applied: metaphorically speaking of course. I have given up the idea of writing anything for now and am trying (TRYING) to concentrate on learning more about the mysteries of Amazon advertising. It all looks good on paper and when the expert is explaining how to crack it, but a whole lot different when it comes to the bottom line of sales figures etc. But despite all that, I do have a smile on my face because of a phone call I received during the week.

Last month, our number three son, John, wrote to the Sun newspaper and the Daily Express about my latest book, No Time to Die. He was intrigued by the fact I happened to pick on the title of the next James Bond movie just a week before the film title was released. He received a reply from David Pilditch of the Express asking about me. He was intrigued too and called me during the week. We were on the phone for over an hour. He was really interested in me and my books, particularly my latest. We had a laugh about me suing the film company or them suing me. I reminded him that titles are not copyright, but it did give us both something to chuckle about. He asked if he could get a photo of me with the book and said he would send a photographer down to do that. I posted him a copy of the paperback the next day and now I can only wait and see what happens next. To use the old cliché about being ‘long in the tooth’, and many others I could think about, I know nothing might come of this, so I won’t get too excited; I might not even hear from Mr. Pilditch again, but it brought a smile to my face. And my boy John can dream of a bigger inheritance for a while.

The book promotion I was involved in this week resulted in the sale of two books. That’s probably two more of that title I would have sold. My efforts on Amazon ads have resulted in the sale of three books, which makes it a bit pointless really. But I know there are pretty good results from the right targeting etc., so I will continue to tweak and live in hope.

Nothing to do with books, but a look at how the car company, KIA, deal with their clients. My car went in for a service four weeks ago where they discovered an oil leak. The part was placed on order, which took two weeks. Took the car in, hoping to have it back within twenty four hours, but got a call to say they had the wrong oil seal. One week later I’m told that they can’t get the right oil seal so have decided to fit a new gearbox! Wow! A new oil seal would cost about £20, but a new gearbox? Not that I’m complaining, at least they are honouring KIA’s seven year warranty. Thank goodness. Perhaps I should let them handle my book problems. Wish me luck!

It's all a worry

This week has been not too bad with Pat. It’s the last week before she’s due to recommence chemo (on Tuesday). Her hair is beginning to grow again, but it could all disappear once the chemo is back on. It isn’t all plain sailing though; her mini stroke has left its mark, and I’m concerned that she isn’t making any real progress. But that’s me worrying and wanting to see a speedy cure. Pat has had some stimulation in the visit from our number two son, Terry, our grand-daughter, Gemma and her little ‘un, Orin. Terry has just come back from our grandson’s wedding in Atlanta, so he was able to tell Pat all about that. Tuesday evening a lady friend from church came to sit with Pat while I went out for the evening. They did some flower arranging. Well, our friend did the arranging but at least it was something for Pat. She had a blood test yesterday in readiness for the haematologist on Monday. Just prior to that she’ll be having a chest X-Ray. Hopefully the doc will give the go-ahead for the chemo to begin again.

My evening out on Tuesday was to a book talk at Bognor Regis library given by best-selling author, Lesley Thomson. I’ve never heard of the lady, but it gave me an opportunity to step out of my current world and into the other one I occupy when I can: my book world. I bought one of her paperbacks, The Detective’s Daughter and started reading it on Wednesday. I know I’m going to have difficulty in getting through the book because her writing style is so alien to me, it’s a struggle. But her book sales are stratospheric, so there must be a lot of people out there who have no problem with her style. She wrote her first book years ago in Sydney while on a work visa out there, and didn’t write another book for twenty years. I know someone like that!

My Amazon ads are still drifting aimlessly, but I am beginning to make sense of some of it. I won’t be discouraged though. In fact, I’ve extended the ads for another month. It isn’t costing me any money because I’m not selling the book I’m advertising, but I am selling some of my other titles: just over thirty this month. I am now planning to launch another campaign for my latest book, No Time to Die. I’m confident I can get enough keywords that suit the genre, and I’ll be targeting Robert Galbraith in the first instance (J.K.Rowling) for the Private Investigator element.

I made another decision during the night as I lay wide awake next to my soundly sleeping wife after a short drama. I realised that my efforts to continue with my current WIP were like sowing seeds on to stony ground. I came to the conclusion that I needed to package my Marcus Blake thrillers (three now) in the way the majority of series authors do, and come up with a fourth novel. I would need to redo all the jackets and remedy the impact of the fonts, but there are plenty of examples on Amazon of those successful authors whose book jackets are literally all identical. It has to be my project for 2020, beginning as soon as I come up with an idea for the fourth “in the series”.

I’m involved in a book promotion over the next five days. Hasn’t cost me anything, but the last one I did with this group netted a dozen sales for the book, which was good. This time it’s for The Eagle’s Covenant. The price has been dropped to £0.99 for the duration of the promotion. The link to the thrillers available is https://storyoriginapp.com/to/L6ZLlIe. Why not have a look? You’ll see my jacket there alongside the sixteen other books. We have a combined reach of 41,000 subscribers, which is pretty good.

So, where to now? Tomorrow is our harvest festival at church. I took some grub in today after getting my flu jab. Monday is the hospital day and Tuesday will be chemo day. Once I’ve finished posting this blog, I’ll be doing the ironing and watching footie on the TV. Oh, one other thing: I gave nine hardback copies of my romance, Past Imperfect, to the lady who looked after Pat during the week for her book group. I passed those on to her earlier last week. She said she was surprised at the ‘quality’ of the prose, and then apologised because she didn’t mean she thought I wouldn’t be able to produce anything like that. She loved the book too. It’s always nice when you hear unsolicited comments like that. I just wish I could use them to sell more books. You never know though. Wish me luck!

Tolerance and Tuppence

Monday kind of started well; Pat seemed to be improving, although just a little. But it was a comfort to know she wasn’t dealing with chemo as well as the after-effects of a mini-stroke. This emboldened me to spend a little more time in the garden, clearing away a lot of stuff that was taking over. It left little time for creative work in front of my PC, but I am trying. We had a church house group meeting here on Tuesday. This is good for Pat’s stimulation: mostly women! Wednesday I took Pat over to the house of one of our church friends so she could spend some time with two more ladies having a natter in a beautiful sun-filled conservatory. All good for Pat’s mental recovery. We had a visit from our Pastor. He’s younger than our youngest son, but a smashing bloke, so that was good. And through all that we were getting photographs of our grandson, Sam, getting married to Taryn in America where they live. Naturally Pat and I would have been there, but Pat’s illness made that impossible. It was good to see lots of photos though on Facebook.

On the book front, I did manage a couple of lines of my pulp fiction thriller. I managed to write the incident on the bus that I needed to move our hero forward in the story. Now he’s off the bus and about to help one of the victims of the incident. Very Jack Reacher! I’m now about 2000 words into the story, so a long, long way to go.

My book sales still suck. The Amazon Ads School, of which I am a student, isn’t helping much. No doubt that’s down to me because I’m not really paying attention. I will soldier on for another week and then, reluctantly, scrap the ad and begin again. The annoying thing is that the book I’m advertising has a blurb written by Bryan Cohen, one of the top men in the business, and the jacket design by Stuart Bache, another top industry man. The only answer I can come up with is that my marketing skills, like my sales figures, also suck.

My number three son, John, phoned during the week to tell me he’d read my latest book, No Time to Die. Took him one day! He thoroughly enjoyed it (I would know if he was lying), but pointed out some typos and another observation he had to make about the page numbers. Fortunately I was able to correct all that in about ten minutes. I have uploaded the edited files and have ordered one copy, just to check. I made a small change to the jacket as well.

Mark Dawson’s Self-Publishing Show Live event, of which I spoke last week, has really taken off. So much so he has had to hire another venue having sold over 800 tickets for the event (he expected about 300). Members of the group are coming in from all over the world for this. Some of them are staying on for the London Book Fair which begins the day after. And one thing that Mark and his team do at each event they attend is to offer to buy the SPF members a pint at a local hostelry (this week it’s in Vancouver), and he has put out the same invite for next March. It now looks as though he will have to hire a venue just to get the people in so he can buy them a pint. It doesn’t take much stretch of the imagination to see that it could become a big annual event if Mark and his team decide to run with it. They already have some top authors lined up for March, so it isn’t unreasonable to think it could become permanent.

And today I had to take our little Cockapoo, Tuppence, to the vet. Poor little girl has some kind of problem that the vet believes is pain in the hip joint. She had an injection (the dog, not the vet!) and is on tablets. No walkies then for a day or so. And I have a pain in my wallet; it cost me £65 for that consultation, and Tuppence didn’t even blush when I paid it. Now I have two sick girls to nurse at home.

But tonight I will at least be able to watch one of my favourite sporting events: it’s the British Speedway Grand Prix at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff. It’s often billed as the biggest indoor sporting event in the world. I don’t know if that’s true, but I know I’ll enjoy it. Wish me luck!