I would like to introduce our Chindi “Author of the Week”: Helen Christmas is a West Sussex author of romantic thriller suspense series, Same Face Different Place; a saga set in England across 4 decades. Writing is something Helen is passionate about. She always dreamed of being an author and in 2012, finally took the first step in publishing her debut novel ‘Beginnings,’ the first book in the series. ‘Beginnings’, described by fans as a ‘real page turner’, is set in the dark, criminal underworld of 1970s London. Part thriller and part romance, it is a story of two young people, unwittingly caught up in a conspiracy to end the life of a British MP, forced into hiding and desperate to escape from deadly enemies. There are four books in the series, and you can learn more on Helen’s website at http://www.samefacedifferentplace.com

I’ve made reasonable progress this week on my projects — until now! This morning, when I switched my computer on, I had to wait for the dreaded Windows update to finish before I could get on. I left the blue screen ticking over and went across to our local shop for a paper, and was back within fifteen minutes. The update had reached 7%. I knew then there was going to be trouble. Eventually, at 27%, and my wife ready to go out shopping, I reluctantly left the machine on. It had been updating now for 45 minutes. When we got back from the shops, there were messages on the screen about retaining all kinds of personal information etc., and eventually I was able to get on with the reason I have a computer. No such luck; the update had wiped out all my saved passwords for different sites, rendered the ‘favourites’ icons as blank, and returned my Google mail site to Spanish, which was where we lived for seventeen years. But the biggest disaster was that it wiped out the link to the editorial section of my website where I can add blog posts, etc., etc. (I get the error 404 message all the time). It also wiped out my website email link. The result is that I had to contact Wix support to re-establish my html account (which I pay for incidentally). I’m now waiting for their response. The one saving grace is that I can access my html site on my laptop. I tried copying the web address once I was in the editorial section of my site, e-mailed it to myself and tried opening it on my main PC, but it didn’t work. I’m beginning to think the update had left a fault in my machine now which will have to be sorted by the professionals.

I made progress with my WIP, and have reached 15000 words and still moving forward. But another project I’m on is the re-design of the book jacket for my nuclear thriller, The Devil’s Trinity. I finished that and am now editing the book. Hopefully I’ll have that finished before May 31st, which is when Ingram Spark’s free update offer for old files runs out. (I don’t like that word ‘Update’ anymore).

My BookBub ads are not performing too well. My CTR is around 0.95%, which is rather low. I have tinkered with the ad, but it takes time to reflect on any changes, and to figure out where I need to make alterations. My book sales are slowing down but not stalling. However, I will have to make a decision later as to whether I stick with BB and go back to Facebook. I think BB is cheaper and probably more effective, but only if I get it right. Wish me luck