Decorations going up, a few more words added to my WIP and another book sale. Three actually. An elderly lady came round to the house during the week to buy two of my books. She wanted them as a Christmas present for a friend of hers who has read a couple of mine and wanted to read more. I sold one at the HSBC stall earlier in the week — well, not me really, one of the Chindi volunteers — so that makes three. You know, even then I can’t be sure because D2D keep adjusting my previous months sales, even though we are well over a week into December they’ve adjusted the number up by a count of three. Add a couple already sold this month on D2D and, hey, I’m looking good!

Staying with D2D, I received a royalty statement telling me I had earned $0.56 for the sale of three books on Bibliotecha. No, that’s not a typo: $0.56! I tried to log on to the Bibliotecha website, but it wasn’t available, so I contacted D2D asking them to confirm the royalty. They have contacted me and said they will have to consult their accountants and get back to me. It could be a library loan, but unless I see something to convince me otherwise, I’ll be asking D2D to remove all my books from that site.

I’m looking ahead to 2019 and the re-launch of my novel, Past Imperfect and wondering how best to promote it. I know I could do a countdown deal with Amazon, but I’m reluctant to let it remain exclusive to them for three months. That’s a decision I’ll come to later. I finished the read-through and made a couple of changes to the book. That makes two readings in less than two weeks, and I still think it’s good. I’ve been in touch with Christine Hammacott, a member of our Chindi group, and we will be producing a new jacket for the launch. Christine has been a graphic designer for over twenty years and has done a couple of jackets for our members. This is a professional contract by the way, not a freebie.

I am committed to a book talk next year at the local women’s friendship club in our village hall. This was booked a year ago! The event will be the first week in March. I hope the women get real friendly and buy lots of my books.

I would like to mention one of our Chindi authors, Rosemary Noble, who has written a trilogy about a corner of Australian history, each a stand-alone novel, but all linked. The trilogy was inspired by the transportation to Australia of British felons in the 18th and 19th century. Rosemary has attracted some terrific reviews, and is currently on blog tour. Why not look her up? https://dbgreviews.blogspot.com/2018/12/sadies-war-australian-saga-by-rosemary.html

My current situation at home with Pat still means I am the chief cook and bottle washer. I cooked a stir-fry last night. Pretty good it was too! Pat’s leg swelling is going down but at a very slow rate. Next Tuesday she has her lung biopsy for the cancer treatment, which we hope will start as soon as possible. Pat’s in good spirits under the circumstances, but it’s something we have to deal with. We have Christmas to look forward to though. After that? Well, wish us good luck.