Highs and lows, ups and downs

Once again I failed to produce a monthly blog post in July, but there were reasons for that; much to do with my state of mind and my state of health. My trip to Atlanta was an absolute joy, apart from the outward journey. Despite being in Virgin Upper Class, I found it boring, particularly as I was on my own. The return flight was an improvement because I was able to sleep full length, thanks to a lovely stewardess who made up my bed for me. But it wasn’t the flight that was the problem; it was the interminable delays which added hours to the trip.

My family met me at Atlanta airport of course, and from there it was a whirlwind period of activity and surprises, one of which was totally unexpected — the baby (the reason for the trip), ended up in ICU on his first birthday. Thankfully, the problem was dealt with, and baby was fine — he still is!). We’d celebrated Elliot’s first birthday three days before on the Saturday. It was held on that day, so friends and relatives did not have to take a day off work for the party.

During my stay, I was taken all over the place, including a Baseball game at the Atlanta Braves stadium. I enjoyed that. Then a trip round Atlanta, food halls, Coke World (Coca Cola), trip out to a country lake, rooftop BBQ, and experienced some delightful stuff and met new people.

Once I was back home, I had to prepare for my next big date, and that was travelling up to Lincolnshire to pick up my friend, Pauline, and bring her down here for a ten day stay. We managed to get around of course, but with a dog each it did rather limit us to what we could do and where we could go. Pauline enjoyed it though, which was the main reason for the trip.

After I’d taken Pauline home, my health started to deteriorate, affecting my legs and my general wellbeing. It had actually started before, but I hadn’t noticed. I took myself off to A&E because my hip was giving me jip. I was also suffering from leg problems, which affected my walking, and not just because of the hip. But as time went by and, following the advice of the A&E doctor, I gradually improved. But what all this revealed to me was that I’d overestimated what I could do at my age. And once I’d started going downhill, the recovery process was so much more difficult.

As far as my world of books is concerned, things are looking up. I began a Facebook campaign for my WW2 novel Shadow Over Paris in March, six months ago, and finished the campaign last week because it was falling away. But in that period, my sales and page reads climbed enormously. I sold over 600 eBooks and paperbacks, and my page reads went over 600,000. Even now, with no advertising, I’m selling about 50 books a week and continue to attract page reads. Another bonus is that some of my other books are being bought or read, The Devil’s Trinity probably more than most. All this puts a smile on my face, but I need to keep the balls in the air. Another FB campaign would probably not work for a while, perhaps closer to Christmas though.

Moving on from keeping those balls in the air, I’ve always known I needed professional help with my promotion and marketing, at which I suck. So, I have entered into a project with a professional book publicist who contacted me in the usual way, and one I completely ignored. It was a case of ‘thanks, but no thanks’. However, this lady didn’t give up, she contacted me again and eventually we began a discussion that resulted in an exchange of over 60 emails before I finally agreed to go along with her. I’m not going to say it’s been fun, in fact, I exchanged some fairly probing and pointed questions with her, but we managed to get through that, and now I’m committed. She did pass on the email addresses of three, NY Times bestselling authors with whom she has worked. I contacted them and all agreed that the woman was bone fide and a pleasure to work with. As it turned out, I had actually had an on line conversation with one of them a few weeks earlier on another subject, which for me was kind of like a ‘sign’, so I was happy.

So, where am I now? Well, I’ve finished the sequel to my WW2 story. It’s title is Shadow Over Paris — Beyond Midnight. After a discussion with my four boys, it was agreed that the Shadow Over Paris had to be kept as part of the title, so that readers would recognise it and, because of the subtitle, would know it was the sequel. I have sent the manuscript to my boy, John, who will read and edit it for me. The next step is to contact the jacket designer and ask him to come up with another fabulous jacket for me. I’m trying not to hurry this but would hope to have it finished and proofed before I launch it in time for Christmas (maybe earlier).

This now leaves me with a big hole in my daily routine: what do I do with the time I now have on my hands? Housework is about the only answer I can come up with, but that doesn’t exactly inspire me. Gardening? I have a gardener comes once a week for an hour, which gives me a reason/excuse not to do any gardening. Decisions, decisions, you see, and no inclination to do anything. But I must and I will. So, wish me luck. See you next month?