The observant among you will have noticed that I missed out a blog post in February. This was deliberate because I was having the kind of moments that often make me ask myself if it’s all worth it. So nothing has changed really since I lost my lovely Pat. However, things are looking up, and the big moment for me in February was the birth of my fourth great grandson, Liri, to my Granddaughter, Gemma and her partner Max — and a little brother for Orin! Liri was born on March 11th and is absolutely gorgeous. I was able to see him just a couple of weeks later when the family celebrated with a lunch date in Horsham on Orin’s birthday. I claimed the right, as Patriarch of the family, to sit next to Gemma, which meant I would be close to the baby most of the time. So the family tree grows, but we haven’t finished yet: my Grandson Sam’s wife, Taryn, is expecting and is due in July. They live in America, so it’s unlikely that I’ll be able to see the new addition, but there’s always video links. On the book front, my situation has changed for the better. I submitted my thriller, Roselli’s Gold, (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00S9SPMXA) to BookBub for a featured deal. They agreed to advertise it but to UK, Canada and Australia, not the USA. The price was about £150 for a single, one day shot at £0.99. I accepted that and paid the money. The ad started on March 1st. On that day I sold 145 eBooks, the following day, 76 books. The tail followed and I have sold every single day since then, reaching 386 sales so far (March 26th). Although I haven’t recovered the cost of the ad (I would need to sell 600), I am well pleased with the fact that I am selling, something that was pretty alien to me some months ago. On top of the Roselli’s Gold results, I also started an ad running on Amazon for The Girl With no Name (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BXJR7P6R), (my Romance under the pen name of Emma Carney). I am selling one or two copies a day now, which is really good. But on top of all this I am picking up sales on some of my other books. I think this must be where readers like my style and are happy to spend money. And there’s more; on Draft2Digital, I have sold about forty books in the last four or five weeks; virtually all my titles. Now, when it comes to comparison with many other authors who write in my genres, I’m not even at the races, but what I have achieved thus far has put a big smile on my face. I’m not making any money, but at least I hope I am making people happy, and long may it continue. I’m also pushing the boat put a little bit on TikTok; the only downside to that are the number of “attractive young ladies” who ‘like’ me. Hmm! I’m also working on my next book, Shadow Over Paris, which is set in Occupied Paris in 1940/41. I have to admit it’s a struggle, and probably too big a challenge for me to take on, but that is very much what being an author is about: struggle, doubt, impostor syndrome and procrastination. Oh, and making excuses to avoid putting pen to paper. I am told by those in the know, hurriedly pushing their secret on Facebook et al  that I could knock out a full length novel in twenty minutes using AI. That to me is not even writing. There is no creativity in it, no emotion, no sudden change of direction because of a character who forces that change. I hope I never meet anyone who has ‘written’ a book using AI; I wouldn’t be able to get the words “Well done” out of my mouth. On the domestic front, it’s all about getting into the garden between rain showers, keeping body and soul together and looking forward to seeing the sunshine again. I’m off to see my Great Grandson, Liri, this week, so that’s something I’m really looking forward to. Well, that’s it for now. I hope you enjoyed reading this catch-up. If you’ve read any of my books and like them, please tell people; word of mouth is a like planting a seed. And you know what they say — Big Oak trees from little acorns grow. Wish me luck!

Well, the first thing I want to announce is that my fourth great-grandson, Liri, was born on the 12th February to my grand-daughter, Gemma, and her partner, Max. Liri’s name is an ancient Hebrew name meaning ‘Lyrical’. I will be going up to Horsham next week to introduce myself to him and see if he approves of me. I’m sure he will. Looking back over the last six weeks, I seem to have a lot to write about, but not all with tales of sparkling success in the world of Michael Parker Books. But my life isn’t about books; there are other highs and lows to talk about. I picked up again on my latest book project (Occupied Paris in 1940/41), which I started in October but set aside during November. I have now written close to 24000 words, and it’s an unbelievable hardship for me. I have five books that I bought to help my research, but as much as I can see where I’m going with this, I’m not so sure where or how I’ll finish. I expect it will take several months before I complete the first draft. I’ve booked a five day break in June at a writers retreat in Beal, Yorkshire. I’d been trying to figure out what I could do for a holiday this year and, having written off coach tours and cruising, this particular break seems to tick all the boxes for me. I’m actually looking forward to it, despite the long drive. My grandson, Adam, came to see me with his fiancée, Agata. She’s a lovely girl and is Polish. We got talking about the Polish heroines of the war against Hitler in France, and she has agreed to let me use her name in my book as one of the Polish secret agents in Occupied Paris. I do hope I can do her justice (and the Polish people!) I bought flowers for our church on January 14th, which was my lovely Pat’s birthday, and I took my neighbours, Rick and Ann, out for lunch on the 19th to celebrate our 64th wedding anniversary. I came home from church a few Sundays ago to find my dog, Tuppence, had nicked three apples from the fruit bowl. It’s the first time she’s done that. Now the fruit bowl is in the kitchen where she can’t get to it. I had a dash cam fitted to my car. I do think more about my age and driving on our increasingly poor and busy roads. I had three near misses last year, none of which were my fault, which was why I decided to have the dash cam fitted. But back to my book world. I began a very expensive campaign with a marketing company last October, featuring my nuclear thriller, The Devil’s Trinity. I can’t explain what they did; it would take too long, but I can say that, despite the cost, I was really pleased how they managed to elevate my book to higher places than I could ever have achieved myself. I lost financially but gained in many other ways. The campaign finished at the end of January, and now my book sales have tapered away to zero. I also ran a campaign featuring A Covert War at a reduced price. Together the result meant I sold about 315 books in ten weeks. That for me is a magnificent result because my annual sales are usually around 150 books. And to give you some idea of how I manage on my own, I have sold one book in the last four days! I have more or less reached a decision to pull back from campaigning and simply rely on organic growth now. I think the hassle of trying to make it in the world of books is proving too much for me. Since losing my lovely Pat, I have no real drive left anymore. I did see a quote that more or less sums it up: “Putting books up on Amazon is like taking sand to the beach”.  I might pop an add in somewhere along the way. Having said that, I have a one day featured campaign with BookBub in Canada, Australia and the UK on March 1st. After that? We’ll see. So, looking ahead I can see my routines will be the dominant feature of my day. I will continue writing my book about Occupied Paris, play my Clavinova (badly) and fall asleep in the armchair when I should be writing. Oh, on the subject of playing my Clavinova, I put a video up on Tik Tok of me playing a series of Seventh chords in the key of C and talking as I played. There was no song; just me running my fingers up and down the white notes. I did manage to sound like I knew what I was doing, and I have to say it sounded good to me. Anyway, I picked up over 700 views and likes for that. Didn’t sell any books though. But what the hell, summer’s coming and I have a brand new baby boy to see next week. Wish me luck!

December 2023 Blog post. December for me was always going to be about Christmas, getting ready, hanging up the decorations, parties, Carol Services and the Nativity, meeting up with family and knowing there will always be an empty chair at my table. But that’s life, so instead of recalling what my last four weeks have been like, I thought it only right to look back at 2023 and what it meant for me. I won’t talk about domesticity: the cooking, cleaning, washing, ironing, dog walking, gardening — makes me tired just thinking about it, so let’s have a look at my world of books and how I have improved my lot. In January I made a decision to write Romance using the pen name: Emma Carney. I thought it would be fun to write some pornographic stuff and sell thousands of books. It didn’t take me long to realise I couldn’t do it. After about five pages of writing sexy stuff, I binned it. I’ve always believed in the mantra: Write as you can, not as you can’t, which meant porn was off the table for me. But the crazy thing was I managed to write three cozy Romance novels in five months. It usually takes me about a year to write a book, so three in five months was really pulling out all the stops. If you like heart-warming stories, you won’t be disappointed in the three titles: Happy Lies The Heart; The Girl With No Name and Chapel Acre. I thought at this point that I would write No.4, but for some inexplicable reason, I lost the momentum. It kind of saddened me in a way because I thought I was on a roll, but I hadn’t lost the desire to write; it was just a case of waiting for something to turn up. Shortly after finishing the third book, I went up to London for the Self-Publishing Live Show at the South Bank. It’s a two day event with a party on the first evening at the Mad Hatter Pub. Naturally the pub was packed. I bumped into a young writer who I’d met the year before. Her name was Kay, ex-Army, and she had to use a crutch to get round. Bit difficult when your trying to mingle in a crowd and hold on to your beer at the same time. There were about 800 authors at the show from all over the world. I was even recognised by one of the show’s organisers when I walked through the doors. That put a smile on my face. Although inspiration can come from listening to how some of the presenters at the show obtained the success they were enjoying, it’s like trying to catch lightning in a bottle if you think you can emulate them. But you can pick up some useful ideas and attempt to follow them through. I came back from London with Covid, so no inspiration for me! The middle part of 2023 was flat for me with regard to my book world, but there were other small avenues to explore; not least the ‘Fun Day’ on the green here at Mill Farm. I had a table with my books, met a lot of lovely people and managed to sell about twenty five books; most of which were my Emma Carney Romances. I’ve done several book events before, most of them before I lost my lovely Pat, and it was nice to be back out there again. I’ve signed up for next year’s Fun Day as well. As summer came in with all that heat, I took myself off to Lincolnshire to spend a couple of days with one of our friends from Spain: Pauline. Pat and I first met Pauline and her husband, Brian, about twenty five years ago. Brian died shortly after Pat. I brought Pauline and her little Chihuahua, Daisy, down here for a week or so, and then took her home. On the way back I got caught speeding in some little village and ended up having to attend a Speed Awareness Course here in Bognor Regis. That was fun. Oh, 34 mph in a 30 mph zone by the way. And then I got inspired and began thinking about writing a book set in Occupied Paris in 1940. I started researching and bought a couple of second hand books, and I also renewed my library ticket for another book. I found the whole thing fascinating, particularly a book about the SOE heroines, many of whom gave their lives for us, murdered by the Nazis in the most horrific way. In fact, I’m going to the Minerva Theatre in Chichester next month to watch a talk on these women. It will be given by the local, well-known author, Kate Mosse. I got on reasonably well with the book and completed about 17000 words before having to set it aside as other events began encroaching upon my free time. One of which was the Turkey and Tinsel holiday in Weymouth at the end of November. It was organised by one of our residents, Graham, and was for five days. I think I was the only single man on the bus. I know there were fourteen single rooms booked, so I presume all the others were ladies. I think I must have met all of them during the week. It was nice to get to know new people, see new faces and learn other people’s names, which makes you feel you are a little bit closer to being part of the community. Back to my world of books and the hard part of promotion and marketing. I made the decision to put more effort into this; something I’ve always been rubbish at. My book sales on Amazon have virtually flat-lined for most of the year, meaning I really had to try harder. To that end, I started two campaigns: one under the guidance of Mark Dawson (SPF Live Show gaffer) through his excellent ‘Launchpad’ course. I didn’t have to pay for it because I’ve been with Mark for about six years now — a fully paid up member. The other campaign came about in a completely unexpected way: something I’ve always studiously avoided because of the cost. It is run by a small team of professionals and is expensive. However, both campaigns were started about the middle of November. Since then I have sold about 150 books in six weeks. Considering I’d done nothing for so long, this is a real uptick for me and gives me hope for 2024. All I have to do is keep the balls in the air and not let them drop. So as I look ahead to next year, I hope to finish my next book, which will be called Shadow Over Paris, and also see myself make real, positive inroads into the world of books. Wish me luck! Happy New Year! xx

The month of November has been a fairly positive month for me, both domestically and in the book world. At the start of the month, I was able to look forward to a coach trip to Weymouth with a group from the small estate where I live. I also made inroads into my novel to be set in Paris in 1940, and I embarked on a course to get me back into the world of books as an established writer. The holiday over five days meant I would be with a lot of people I knew by sight, one or two who I knew, and several who eventually became friends of mine. At least; I would like to think so. I was a little ambivalent about the holiday at first, and it was difficult not having my lovely Pat with me, but I realised that this was probably the right kind of holiday for me given my circumstances. So much so that I tried to book up for next year’s summer holiday, but unfortunately all the single rooms have gone, which means I’ll have to go on the waiting list. I managed a trip to Brighton to see my Granddaughter, Gemma, who is heavily pregnant, and her little boy, Orin, who is six and wears his mother out. I enjoyed my time with them and even managed to get a ‘Full English’ breakfast at a dog-friendly café, while Gemma was able to have her choice of Vegan food. I had a major problem with the Landline emergency call button that I wear on my wrist. The alarm went off early morning meaning my neighbour, who was in Brighton, got a phone call from the Lifeline people asking if I was alright. I happened to be fast asleep in bed at the time. Then the alarm went off again while I was having my breakfast. The upshot of this was that my ‘Bat button’ was faulty. A lady from Lifeline turned up and gave me a new button. Peace reigns! And now to the book world. I said I was making inroads into my book about Paris in 1940, which is true, but I have since put it on hold because of a project I started with Mark Dawson’s SPF Launchpad. I’ve been a paid-up member of Mark’s group for about five years, and have completed a few of the courses, although never successfully. And that is simply down to me, not the quality of the courses. However, when Mark relaunched his 101 course as the new, revamped Launchpad, I decided to knuckle down and put the effort in, because I wasn’t selling any books; I was going nowhere fast. As a result of ‘knuckling down’, I have enjoyed some progress. One of the suggested ways to go was what Mark calls his 365-day plan. That’s right: 365 days to work on getting you where you want to be in the book market. I had to begin by dropping one of my books to 0.99 cents and advertising it for at least one month before moving on to Step 2. I started on November 16th and have since shifted 50 books. Considering I hadn’t sold anything on Amazon for several months, apart from the odd book, that is a significant achievement. Mark says we have to be patient and not expect to catch lightning in a bottle, however much we are tempted. So, I’ll stick with the promotion until the New Year, and then look at Step 2. It may not be lightning in a bottle, but hey; it’s a significant spark. Because my promotion and marketing skill sucks, I have also started Mark’s Amazon Ads course. I did this course a few years ago too, and failed miserably, but now I’m back on board with Janet Margo who worked in Amazon’s advertising department and now runs Marks Amazon Ads course. Once again I’ll need to be dedicated and ignore the fact that I can’t expect to hit the big numbers straight away. But if I get it right, and am prepared to spend some money, it shouldn’t be too long before my spark becomes a significant light in the darkness. I’m reluctant to figure out how much money I’ve spent or am likely to spend, but it could be a hefty chunk. If it pays off, I won’t regret it. I’ve told my boy, John, who sells T-shirts online, that if I make a million sales, I’ll buy one thousand of his T-shirts. I think he’s sold about five in the last twelve months — a bit like me with my book sales before this month. And as I push on with my learning curve and go to bed with a smile on my face, I know there will be bumps in the road and I must not let them get me down. Christmas is coming and I know there will be a lot of diversions down which I’ll be sidetracked, but you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs, which means I have to accept the normal, Christmassy side of things, and find some time into that learning curve when I can. And if any of you see my promotion for A Covert War (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00V73HFO8) on Facebook or elsewhere, please share it (or buy it!); that would be a big help. See you next month. Wish me luck!

As readers of my monthly blog will know, I started writing and researching a book about Occupied Paris in 1940. I am currently 15000 words into the story and still not sure about where I am going with it. I thought it might be a good idea, seeing as I have shelved my Emma Carney pen name for now, to consider an editor to make sure I produce a finely tuned novel. For that reason, I consulted with Reedsy.com: a well-known and respected professional organisation in the self-publishing world. They gave me a huge list of editor options, which I was able to narrow down to those most relevant to my book. As a result, I nominated five editors, supplied them with the first chapter (2500 words), and waited for the quotes to roll in. But I had to ask myself: what was I really expecting? That’s when reality bites. I received quotes ranging from 2000 – 9000 Euros. That knocked me back, I can tell you. I felt as though I’d wandered close to a group of hungry lions. Wow! It just shows how much, or how little I know about the real world of self-publishing. There are a lot of people out there (good luck to them) making a lot of money helping wannabes like me onto the first rung of the ladder. No, I know I’m not a wanna-be, but after reading one editor’s description of my sample chapter, I felt violated. I know I am not a bad writer, but I must be on a different planet. Let me put that in perspective for you. I had a chap working on my house, a guy I know and have socialised with. I went out front to do some work in the garden and my friend stopped me and told me he was reading my book The Boy From Berlin. He said even though he knew I was a writer; he didn’t realise what kind of writer I was but he couldn’t put my book down. He said it was brilliant and thoroughly enjoyed it. Now, this is a working-class bloke who hasn’t been to university except living in the university of life, but he enjoyed my book. He probably didn’t know (or care) that I might have put a comma in where it should have been a semi-colon. He wouldn’t have been aware of the finer details that editors expose. No, he was a reader who simply enjoyed reading my book. And this is why I get the feeling that editors will never see your book as a means of entertainment for Joe Public, but an exercise in spelling, grammar, punctuation, and phrasing and probably have difficulty in not adding the dreaded “see me” in red ink at the end of the session. My daughter-in-law, Jackie, gave me the latest Robert Galbraith book (J.K. Rowling), The Running Grave. It’s about 800 pages long. Jackie said it was brilliant. I started reading it and really struggled. In the end, I had to give up. I probably got through seven chapters. I thought it was tedious, stuffed with all kinds of unnecessary detail and descriptions, and too many names to remember as well — most of which I’ve always been advised to moderate and/or avoid. So there you go, two different opinions. How the editors coped with the editing process I’ve no idea. However, I do accept that J.K. Rowling is an extremely talented and gifted writer and probably has a brain she should donate to science when her days are over. One thing I’ve learned this year, and something I’ve known forever, it seems, is that I lose a lot of money on my books for one reason or another. I make more money per annum from my Premium Bonds than I do from writing. But when I sell a book, my smile gets wider each time. One of my thrillers, The Devil’s Trinity (which I have mentioned before in my blog) is still selling on Kobo through Draft2Digital. This month I have sold five, which is about par for the course and has been for well over a year now, but it always puts a smile on my face. So where do I go from here? I’ve opened a free account with Mailerlite to see if I can rebuild a subscriber list. I used to have 1500, but they all disappeared when I picked up my digital pen three years after I lost my lovely Pat. I actually cancelled my account with Mailchimp because I couldn’t see the point in paying for something that wasn’t working. I will have to offer a book in exchange for someone to subscribe, but I expect that anyway. On the domestic front, like most of us, my work in the garden has been seriously reduced because of the weather. I travelled up to Norfolk to see my elder brother, Jim. Had my eyes examined (should have been my head!) and my eye drops changed. Now my nose runs all the time, my eyes keep watering and I have to stay with these drops until I see the specialist in December. I have put a blue screen filter on my laptop now, which actually helps. And another string to my bow? I had to attend a Speed Awareness Course this month. I’d been caught doing 35 mph in a 30 mph limit up in Lincolnshire. So now I am known to the Lincolnshire Constabulary. The course was good, very informative, and, in a sense, successful because I will always have it in the back of my mind whenever I’m driving through a country village after using a high-speed, empty country road. I’ve just looked out of the window and it’s raining again. Reminds me of the song by Super Tramp. I bought a couple of their albums in the Seventies. Loved them: terrific group. Now it’s time for church and then back to the slower pace of writing. But before I go, I need to mention my other project, which is to start collecting email addresses to add to my brand-new subscribers list. To attract them I will be giving away a copy of my Marcus Blake thriller, Where the Wicked Dwell in exchange for their email addresses. So if you want to add your name, let me know at info@michaelparkerbooks.com. Let’s see how many I can collect before Christmas. Wish me luck!

Blog post for September 2023 Once again I look back through my diary entries for September and see my daily entries are all very similar. The main difference is the amount of research I’m doing for a planned novel (maybe a series) about Occupied Paris in 1940. The books I’ve bought for my research cover the years 1940-1944, so the early stages of my research means I will only use about a third of the material, maybe less, for now. But before I talk about that, a little about what I did during September. I took Tuppence to the vet to have her teeth cleaned. I’ve been advised on how I should clean her teeth. Trouble is — Tuppence won’t let me, simple as that. I give her a carrot or a small chew to help with the process anyway. I took my sister-in-law, Sandy, out to lunch. Sandy was married to my younger brother, Arthur, who died shortly before my lovely Pat. Most times we talk about what we’ve been up to but invariably end up talking about our loss. We went to a dog friendly pub, which meant I could take Tuppence. I also took Tuppence with me when I visited my granddaughter, Gemma and her family in Brighton. I took them (Great grandson, Orin, and Gemma’s partner, Max) out to lunch at the Laughing Dog Café in the marina. Lovely afternoon with them. I decided to grow tomatoes this year. I ended up with that many I had to make soup. Not a good idea. The only thing it taught me, besides proving that I’m a lousy cook, is not to grow tomatoes again. Another pleasing event was lunch with our No. 2 son, Terry, at Goodwood Aerodrome. We sat in the sunshine at the café beside the airfield watching the flying, eating chips and just having a thoroughly nice time. Tuppence was with us as well (natch). But back to my world of books. I was working on a fourth Emma Carney Romance and had reached about 12000 words when I knew I was going nowhere with it; all I was doing was adding a series of events that were taking me down rabbit holes; certainly not a fitting way to find a reasonable end to a plausible story. I soldiered on for a while until I had my thoughts triggered by a film that had nothing to do with the war but referenced a fictional series about the war in Paris. This set me on the kind of research I used to do years ago before Social Media was invented. I went to the local library and ordered a book about Occupied Paris. I also searched online for more material and ended up buying four books: SOE ‘F’ Section heroines, (written by Sqdn. Leader Beryl E. Escott); When Paris Went Dark (Ronald Rosbottom); Paris in the Third Reich (David Pryce-Jones) and Americans in Paris 1940-1944 (Charles Glass). Three of the books were used, but I bought the paperback of the Library book because I knew I might have to make notations in it. Looking through all that material might seem daunting, but much of it is repeated in all the books, and for my story, I only want to write about the early period leading up to June 1940 when German troops marched into the open, undefended city of Paris. I expect to spend a lot of time researching before I can put together a plan of how and where I want to start, and where I’ll finish. If I think I have made a success of this, I would be prepared to write a series (if I live long enough!). But the material is there along with fascinating characters and dramatic events. I have already written the opening chapter (twice), but even now I’m wondering if I should wait until I have everything written down that I need before plotting a story. So looking ahead, my weeks will be filled with domestic chores, walking Tuppence, going to church, falling asleep in the chair, watching TV, playing my piano and missing my lovely Pat. Between all this, I hope to be writing my next full length novel. Wish me luck!

Looking back at the month of August and using my diary for pointers, I can see how busy I actually was, when I usually feel I sometimes just dribble my daily life away. Not so; I jotted down a list of pointers before starting this and ended up with sixteen bullet points without including my routine life of domesticity. One of the major occurrences was a week with my friend, Pauline, and a visit from my grandson from the USA with his wife, but more about that later. One decision I made was to shelve the current Emma Carney Romance I’ve been writing. It was to be the fourth Romance of five I promised myself I would do this year using the Emma Carney pen name. But I soon came to the conclusion that I was simply writing a series of disconnected scenes that were supposed to lead to a well written and thoughtful Romance; not so, and as a consequence I came to the inevitable decision to shelve it despite being twelve thousand words into the story. Was I being brave or what? But there’s a twist: I started another. Brave or stupid? For some reason, mainly due to outside influences, I decided to write a Romance set in Occupied France. In Paris actually. My heroine is a young French woman, Charlotte de la Cour. I decided to use some old fashioned research and have ordered a couple of books about the women who worked undercover with the French Resistance. One of the books arrived a couple of days ago. The other is due today. I have also registered with the British Newspaper Archives in the hope that I can add to my research. All this took my mind back to the days when my research consisted mainly of the local library and contacting other people and places for information. And although it’s of no consequence now, I met a distant family relative in 1961 who had been awarded a medal by the French for her work with the Resistance. If only I could time travel back to that meeting and get some first-hand information. But, leaving my writing aside, let me tell you about other highlights of my month. I travelled up to Lincolnshire and brought our friend, Pauline, down here for a week. Pat and I first met Pauline and her husband, Brian, after we moved to Spain in 1997. Brian passed away shortly after my lovely Pat. While Pauline was here, my grandson, Sam, came over for a visit with his wife, Taryn. They stayed for a night and we enjoyed a meal and a pint of Guiness at our local watering hole. During that week, we went over to visit our son, John and his wife, Bryony, for a BBQ. It happened to be the third anniversary of Pat’s passing, so we raised a glass of English sparkling Nyetimber wine in her honour. Another highlight was going to Chichester with our boy, Terry, to meet a Harrier jump jet enthusiast, Chris, who was collecting the signatures of as many Harrier pilots as he could for his collection of paintings and text books. As Terry had been a Harrier pilot, it made for a very interesting couple of hours talking about his career, the highs and the lows etc. And it was interesting to see some of the signatures that Chris had collected, even down to the late John Farley who was the Hawker Sidley test pilot who became known as Mister Harrier. Want another highlight? Pauline showed me how to make batter. We bought some white fish and I cooked it (under supervision of course) for a fish and chip lunch. Another? I almost got caught in a WhatsApp scam for £4000. Fortunately it all fell apart before I parted with the money. But it left me feeling basically naked to realise that I could fall for a trick like that. I thanked God for looking out for me. And there’s more: I actually flew an A380 Airbus simulator, courtesy of EasyJet and my son, Terry, who is a training captain there. EasyJet had a family day at their facility near Gatwick. Terry was given two, one hour slots, which meant one hour for his youngest boy, Freddie, and the other hour for me. Freddie flew it almost perfectly, but we won’t say too much about yours truly. And I can’t leave my highlights there without mentioning the Lionesses World Cup performance. I watched and enjoyed them all. It was a pity we lost to Spain in the final, but as we all know; there can only be one winner. But the Girls won the love and respect of most football (and non-football) fans. Me certainly. I’m growing tomatoes. Well, trying. Another of my brilliant ideas that will probably wither on the vine (if you’ll pardon the pun!). They might be ripe by Christmas if they haven’t rotted by then. But back to my books. My best selling book, The Devil’s Trinity, is still selling, but the numbers are going down. Nothing else of mine is selling, but that’s because I’ve stopped advertising (wasting my money) and have no email subscribers anymore. I have to admit I’ve come to the end of trying to achieve a productive output of books and pile into promoting them; I never seem to make any headway anyway, although I have coughed up a substantial amount with another promoter to promote the book. Going back to my change of direction with the Emma Carney Romances, I got quite excited and keen to start writing about Occupied Paris. So much so that I wrote the first 1500 words in one sitting without even having started my research. Needless to say I rewrote the sequence once I had some proper facts on which to relate. So far I’m about 3500 words in and seeing so many different ways this story can go. But unlike the real heroines who worked with the SOE and the OSS, my girl Charlotte is a figment of my imagination, and I have to be careful that I don’t wander into too many tales of derring-do, which could be something of a drag. And no, she won’t be able to save France; I can’t cram four years of German occupation into 80,000 words, but we’ll give them a good run for their money and rustle up a romance in the meantime. Wish me luck!

I’ve started this a little late; it’s a week into August already, but why worry? Fortunately for me, deadlines don’t matter because I’m not one of those writers who are plagued by having to finish a manuscript by a certain date. This year I promised to write five Emma Carney Romance novels, and have completed three, but boy, am I struggling with number 4. I have started the book and am about 15000 words in, but it’s pulling me into a different direction. So far I have only just hinted at a romance between two of the characters, one of whom has barely featured in the book. I’ve no doubt I will complete the book, but will it have any merit? We’ll see. Looking back over the last month, I’ve done a lot in the garden, what with turning it into a low maintenance garden. I’ve managed to get through, probably, 70% of the project. I expect to have it finished by the end of the year, but for now it’s on hold because of my August plans. Another project, for want of a better word, was an advertising campaign on Amazon. Now I’ve admitted many times that I’m absolutely useless when it comes to promotion and marketing, and once again I have proved myself to be right. I launched six campaigns on Amazon for the whole of July for my three Emily Carney Romances. My daily budget for each campaign was $10 (no, there’s no way I could afford that, but I know Amazon). Having sold no books, I received my final invoice from them for just over $6.00. Makes you weep, eh? If I’d done that on Facebook, I have sold maybe one or two but would have been wiped out budget-wise to the tune of about $150. And the campaign would never have lasted the month. It's obvious that I need a professional to do the job for me, but that needs careful thought. I often get emails for marketeers telling me they have a plan on which they can put my book in front of umpteen thousand readers on different social media platforms etc., etc. The wording of these emails is usually identical, which suggests they have all studied at the same on-line marketing school. I’ve tried them before and have even tried Fiverr.com. (‘Nuff said!’). But I received an email which was completely different in it’s approach and even invited questions by return to the author of the email. The Company is BeBookSharp. They explained their plans, how much and exactly what they do. I wrote back and asked several questions, all of which were answered within a couple of days. Now, I have a thriller, The Devil’s Trinity, which has been selling every month on Kobo through the aggregator, D2D. This book has averaged about six or seven every month. Not many you might say, but this had been going on for almost twelve months. I don’t advertise it at all. So I thought, why not? I then decided to go with BBS and opted for their middle plan (price around $525) to promote the book. The plan has started rolling but nothing is likely to happen for a few weeks now. I know that if this doesn’t come off, I’ll give up altogether. I had a lady come round to my house to talk about writing a book a few weeks ago. She’d bought three of my books at our local ‘Fun Day’ here on the Estate. I had a table (sold 24 books). She asked about tuition. I told her I don’t teach writing but I would advise on how to turn a Word doc into a paperback and an eBook. It was interesting couple of hours listening to how she wanted to write a novel, probably a romance, and thought she might be able to use her own life story. She said she was reluctant to write an autobiography, so I suggested she hid herself in a fictional character as well as all the other protagonists in her life. Whether she’ll do it or not, only time will tell. I hope so. The rest of my daily routines have been about domesticity and hobbies plus missing my lovely Pat every day. I’m slowly improving my piano playing skills. I will never achieve the competence I would like, but at least I can knock out a tune. That’s it then. I have a busy August coming up, which I hope to tell you about next month. As for my book, The Devil’s Trinity, all I can say is: wish me luck!

July 1st. 2023 June was quite an eventful month for me one way or another. I published my third Emma Carney Romance, Chapel Acre. I asked my usual jacket designer for a cover, but he couldn’t commit before August 1st., which meant at least a ten weeks wait before he could complete, so I went with my own, simple design. The reason for that was because of the promise I’d made to myself to complete five Emma Carney Romances by the end of the year. By publishing Chapel Acre (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C6FKVJBM), it meant I was well ahead with my plan. Unfortunately, I have now hit a brick wall and can’t come up with a story for No.4. I think I’ve used up all my ideas, but I have six months to go yet, so we’ll see. Having said all that about finding a decent idea for EC4, I have jotted down a few ideas and written about fifteen hundred words as a starter. I have to accept that I am a “Pantser”. I can’t plot for toffees; it just doesn’t work for me. I wish it did, but that isn’t how I write. But there’s something else that I have done that may affect any chance I have of making a name for myself (I mean, Emma Carney) in the book world: I cancelled my Mail Chimp account. The reason for that was because I’d virtually lost all my subscribers, and trying to resurrect their interest, particularly as they had originally signed up for A&A and Thrillers etc, I don’t think they would have been that interested. To give you an idea, I’d gone from 1500 subs down to an open rate of about 0.1%, and each newsletter resulted in more unsubs than opens. On June 19th. I travelled up to London for the Self-Publishing Live Show at the QE Hall on the South Bank. There was an informal meet up at the Mad Hatter pub that night. I went along and bumped into a young woman I’d met last year at the conference. We spent an hour chatting about our books, our lives and our plans. She told me I had enough lifetime experience to write advice and self-help books, or to put out monthly newsletters talking about the events in my life that might be of some help to anyone who was struggling with the kind of things I’d dealt with and managed to live through. I thought it would make me sound rather pompous if I considered myself some kind of life guru who could help people. I told her this, but she wouldn’t have it. I’ve given this some thought, although I don’t expect it to happen, but I have republished a small booklet titled What Happened After (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C951NN89) and will put that up on Social Media feeds (hopefully). It’s a 17000 word narrative on the two years following the death of my lovely Pat and covers my mental state, my ups, my downs, and eventually finding hope again in my writing. The book conference was an eye-opener (as always). One presenter was Bella Andre, often referred to as the ‘Queen of Romance’. She has sold 10,000,000 books and hit the New York Times best seller list. Another intriguing presenter was Britt Andrews; another incredibly successful writer. Racheal Maclean was another. Three years ago she was at the book conference as an unknown writer. Last year she was a presenter having sold one million books in two years. She was a guest interviewee this year. One thing about these three women is the incredibly hard work they’ve all put into their craft, which has to be the secret behind their success. I applaud them all. So, from the ‘Gor blimey to the ridiculous’. I followed up my presence at the book conference with a book stall of my own at the local ‘Fun Day’ on the green here on our Park Home Residential Estate. I sold twenty four books. Makes you smile, eh? I considered that a good day. I got to chat with people I didn’t know, some I recognised because they are Residents here. One chap came up to my book stall and tapped several of my books saying: “Got that, got that, got that…” He tapped about five books. He told me he’d bought on KDP and thought I was an excellent writer. Makes you think, eh? On the domestic front, I’ve had my Park Home clad with insulation. It’s a government scheme for people on low incomes who live in Park Homes to help reduce their energy costs and reduce the carbon footprint. It cost me nothing, so I will say thank you to the British taxpayer; such a generous bunch. I’ve continued my project of turning my garden into a low maintenance garden. I’m slowly clearing my borders and putting weed mats and tree bark down. The idea is to rely on pots of flowers and reduce the amount of time I spend weeding (and breaking my back!) For the coming month, July, it should be situation normal: housework, gardening, writing, playing the piano badly and walking the dog. Oh, and some promotional work. Wish me luck!

June 1st, 2023. Those of you who followed my blog posts will know that I stopped a couple of months ago. The reason for stopping was genuine and felt right at the time, but now I think it’s time to open up again and give you some insight into my current writing project and my raison d’etre. Emma Carney. Why Emma Carney? Well, I’d reached a point with my author name that was simply dying on the vine. I had no traction, any momentum I gained before my lovely Pat fell ill was now lost: I was back down amongst the bottom feeders. To try and resurrect myself was no longer something I wanted to do, and I had come to terms with that and was prepared to let it all go. After I’d published A Song in the Night, I could see, judging by the response to my promotion and marketing efforts that it wasn’t going to happen; my sales were practically zero and putting the book in Kindle Select didn’t help either. So I began to think of a change, a new direction, and came up with the idea of writing under the pen name of Emma Carney, but only contemporary romance. I made a deal with myself that I would write five Emma Carney Romances this year, and at the end I would take stock and see where I was and where I wanted to be. I finished Chapel Acre — my third Emma Carney Romance — and published it May 28th, so I was on course to completing the project. Today is June 1st, which means I have six months to write two more. At the moment, I don’t have a clue about a story for my fourth book in the series (no, it’s not a series), but I’m sure something will come to me. But now that I have three to promote, I will start that within the next couple of days and see if I can build some momentum. This month I’ll be going to the SPF book conference in London, so maybe I’ll be able to draw some inspiration from that. There will be about seven hundred writers there; maybe one of them will give me the push I need for my fourth book. Or maybe someone reading this will give me something I can work on. So why not have a look at the three Emma Carney titles and see what you think? They are all on the home page of my website. Just click on the book to get to the Amazon product page for the book. I will try to maintain the monthly blog because while I’m twiddling my thumbs trying to come up with a story idea, I feel lost; I need to write, to be active with a pen, albeit a digital one. So let’s see where this leads and, as always, wish me luck!

Living on your own with just a dog for company does kind of limit what you can do and where you can go because of your moral obligation and desire to care for the dog. There are times when I could murder Tuppence, but I would never neglect her even though she always reminds me when it’s time for our apple (I’m usually asleep in the chair,) or our bag of crisps in the evening; but my faithful mutt has a built-in body clock that never lets her down. So when I look back in my diary through February, the pages often look like they’ve been put together by an AI (Artificial Intelligence) robot, they are so repetitive. Such is the life of a retired pensioner with a dog. At least, that’s what it could look like if it wasn’t for my two hobbies — writing and playing the piano. Oh, and watching football on TV of course. Those of you who follow my monthly blog will know that I bailed out of writing as Michael Parker and turned into Emma Carney, a Romance author. My plan was to complete five novels this year, provided I live that long (I’m 82 this month!). Well, yesterday, I uploaded my second, Emma Carney Romance to KDP. The title is The Girl With No Name. I’ve ordered a proof copy having edited it twice already. Yes, I’m a DIY writer and edit all my own stuff. (I can hear a lot of tutting going on in the background). For my first Emma Carney book, I used Thebooktypesetters.com for the jacket (I used them for my book A Song in The Night as well). The story is about a homeless girl who has no memory of her earlier life and a wealthy high flyer in the City of London. Two people from different worlds, two extremes at opposite ends of the spectrum. Their worlds collide with life-changing consequences. As I did with my first Romance, I designed the jacket myself so I can get the book online but plan to get Nat at the Typesetters to design something to replace it. I’ve added a view of the jacket for you. My plan now is to run an AMS campaign for my first EC novel, I’ll be using a method that came via FB. Quite an eye-opener really. The guy who wrote the article usually has well over one hundred campaigns running for himself and even more for his clients. And yes, he’s a successful writer. However, he has distilled the nitty-gritty into less frightening proportions (for free), which means I’ll be running no more than six campaigns with about fifteen keywords, provided I can find the most appropriate. It means I’ll get a better view of what is working and what is not, rather than staring blindly at a dashboard with hundreds of keywords and hoping to find which ones have the most clicks. Still in the world of books, Smashwords are running a promotion next week through the aggregator, Draft 2 Digital (D2D). I’ve included all of my books that are with D2D. The books are being sold at half price, but the royalties stay at the full price. The promotion is free. I think Smashwords is trying to get back in the game because it has lost its way a bit. And here’s another surprise: For some reason, the Canadian group, Rakuten Kobo, is managing to sell my thriller The Devil’s Trinity (https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/the-devil-s-trinity-1) without any promotion or marketing from me. Each month I sell about six through this company. I don’t know why, but if I did, I would bottle it and sell it. Because I have finished my second EC Romance, my mind is buzzing around a third novel. I have to say though that I need to step back for a few days, and work on my promotion and marketing, and also my piano playing skills. I’m off to Norfolk this month to celebrate my 82nd birthday with my eldest son and daughter-in-law, Vincent, and Jackie, at their home, together with my No.3 son, John who will be driving us up there in his F-type Jaguar. I did offer to drive us in my Kia Venga, but for some strange reason, he refused and insisted on taking the Jag. Hmmm! On the way back, we are planning to drop in on an ex-RAF mate of mine and his wife. The last time I saw them was around 1975 — something like that. So, no writing, no planning, and no doggie duties. Should be good. Wish me luck!

Going into a new year often brings optimism, hope and a determination to stick to our New Year resolutions. As I write this blog, it’s the end of January and, statistically (I think), 40% of us have ditched our resolutions and settled back into our usual routines, dull or otherwise, and got on with our lives. For some, it will be extremely difficult, but for a few, their hopes and ambitions will be no less important than they were last year and will try to rise above those difficulties and push on. Fortunately for me, I do not have the difficulty of making ends meet and keeping warm in my home, but I do still harbour the hope that I will make a success of my writing this year, and as Amazon increases the size of its electronic library, writers like me gradually disappear beneath the weight of about 37 million eBooks on KDP and vanish from sight, and my resolution to make a million dollars this year vanishes with it (same every year!). But there is hope! Those of you who follow my monthly blog posts will know that I ventured into the fictional world of Romance last October and published a warm-hearted Romance under the pen name of Emma Carney (Happy Lies the Heart. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BQH1F1LK). I haven’t advertised the book yet, apart from posting on Social Media, and have sold eight so far. Now, this may not sound like cause for ‘hallelujahs’, but the fact is, it has outsold my other books, two of which were the subject of one-day blitz advertising. I made the decision after publishing that book, to continue as Emma Carney, and to push myself to write a minimum of 1000 words a day. So far I am 33,000 words into my second Emma Carney romance, averaging 1250 words a day. Another decision I made was to have the book jacket redesigned by https://thebooktypesetters.com. I have paid an advance, and they are committed to beginning the jacket on February 7th. And continuing with the idea of keeping to our resolutions, I will have my Emma Carney jackets designed by Racheal and Nat at the book typesetters. To get an idea about the Romance genre on KDP, I did some brief research. I started reading Avery Maxwell after seeing her on a Mark Dawson podcast. Phenomenal, that’s all I can say. But after reading about thirty pages of one of her books, I had to give up: sexually explicit doesn’t even cover it. But good luck to Avery, although she doesn’t need it. It made me realise that writing that kind of pornography is simply not my bag; I have to stick with ‘wholesome’ romance. But! Yes, there’s always a ‘but’, it doesn’t have to be about a six-pack, stripped to the waist, love-island man and scantily clad, love-island woman; it can be reasonably clean. So I’m reading Barbara Freethy (not really enjoying it though). Never heard of her, you say? She has sold more books on Amazon than anyone and is a New York Times best seller. ‘Way to go’ as the Americans say. Another development in my world of books was an unexpected email from D2D (Draft2Digital) about a new direction for Apple books. Apple has been developing digital voice technology using AI (Artificial Intelligence) and is commissioning selected eBooks in the Romance genre and producing audiobooks. D2D sent me the email because of my Romance, which they have published as an aggregator on several online bookshops, including Apple. This is not a guarantee that Apple will take my book on, but if they do, it will cost nothing, and after six months I will be free to publish the audiobook through other outlets. On the subject of AI, there is a class one action being launched in America by some high-ranking litigators against a global company who have been creaming off millions of bytes of creative data from all over the world, infringing copyrights in the process, which is illegal of course. Some big Companies have joined the fight as well. AI looks like a force for good and a force for evil: rather like the Internet. On a more homely and domestic note, I have bought a new mobile phone, signed a new contract with BT for a digital voice landline phone (fibre optic) because of my poor hearing, and started popping 60-second videos on Tik Tok from time to time. I’ve been caught by the localised flooding and signed a petition to stop the idiotic councils from allowing developers to build houses on flood plains (not that they will listen). I also travelled up to Lincolnshire to celebrate my late wife’s birthday on January 14th. This was with our friend, Pauline, whose husband died shortly after Pat. Had a really nice Chinese meal, a bottle of Red, and a pint over at the local pub. The next day it was church. Then home to the localised flooding. A memorable weekend and a memorable month indeed. That’s it! Hopefully, there will be more next month. Wish me luck!