The week began for me and Pat with an appointment with the London consultant who carried out Pat’s op. He has referred her to the haematologists now having seen confirmation that there is no lung cancer. We now wait for the results of the biopsy tests from the same three London hospitals that gave that confirmation as they now look for signs of T cell lymphoma. Since Monday it’s been a case of getting Pat’s sleep patterns restored and building up her energy levels and getting some weight back on. The waiting goes on however and we just have to hope and pray that the experts will determine what cancer it is so they can begin treatment.

Although I’ve had to shoulder the burden of looking after Pat and getting on with the household chores, I have managed to get some work done on my WIP. I began by reassembling the whole story-line using Scrivener, and creating another draft. I now have an almost complete plot line right down to the last gasp page. With luck I’ll see the end of this particular draft in a couple of weeks, and from there I can get an edit done and think about a suitable book jacket. I may pay for one yet, I don’t know. I’m hoping Pat will do the read through for me as she often does before I contact those subscribers of mine who read HUNTED for me earlier this year. Ironically, I was watching Mark Dawson and James Blatch chatting on their weekly SPF podcast yesterday, when Mark said he was planning to begin a novel once he’d finished his current WIP; it was about the drug business and the County Lines. No doubt he will excel at this, but I need to beat him to it because my current WIP is exactly that: a thriller about the County Lines gangs.

I have also been watching the Mark Dawson videos on FB ads again. They were updated when Mark’s SPF group launched the latest Ads for Authors course. I will dip a toe in the water this week and advertise The Boy from Berlin on FB, and will be using the blurb and ad lines provided by Bryan Cohen. FB has a reputation of sucking your wallet dry, but if I could see some positive results, I might clap my hands. Who knows?

Yesterday I took five copies of my pulp fiction thriller, HUNTED round to Dan Jones. Dan is the Chindi author who has opened a Pop-up shop in Chichester. It’s primarily to promote his own books and his wife’s creative work, but he has shown willing to add the Chindi authors’ books to a carousel. We all wish him and Abbie good luck of course, all the while hoping Dan can sell our books.

You know, when you’re struggling to sell books, you cling joyfully at the sale of one book and hope it’s the beginning of a trend. I haven’t advertised for some time and have seen my sales virtually flat-line, both on Amazon and D2D. But I was miffed when I saw D2D take one of my sales for May and add it to June. There was me thinking I’d sold ten books last month when it was suddenly reduced to nine. And it doesn’t help when I see authors complaining on FB groups about their lack of sales. One lady writer was moaning because her sales of 50 eBooks a day, no ads, first book, had suddenly crashed. She wanted to know why this was happening to her. I don’t have to say what went through my mind. I did smile though.

So, on to next week and, hopefully, some major progress with my current book, my ads campaign, the gardening, the washing, the ironing, walking the dog. Oh yes! Tuppence comes home on Monday. That will cheer Pat up enormously. What a lovely thought. Bugger the book sales. Wish me luck!