An Amazing Week!!!

This week has been quite amazing really. Labyrinthine came out on audio, numerous reviewers took on both Money Farm and Labyrithine to review. At the same time sales increased and word of mouth began. I have had some wonderful emails asking how I came up with the ideas in the books. That would be telling!!!

LABYRINTHINE AUDIO LINK: Link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B011LX0WUW

The Office Zoo and a Short Course in Creative Writing made it through the quality control processes and will reach audio in the next couple of weeks. Love Hunt has been recorded now and being audio edited in France. So the writing is progressing!!! Yipee. Yes it is time for a little dance.

On Monday I went back to work after my 3 week holiday and stimulated the corporate blog with my bizarre humour. I was not allowed to post a film of goats riding horses. It was not corporate enough. When I suggested we put the goats in suits I received 'one of those looks'. I was also invited into a creative project which is creative and innovative. Hopefully I will be able to get sign off on space ship drones and specially designed balloons to replicate planets so that I can build a helium solar system in our corporate atrium. I will be honest I was happy to go back to work routine, although I started reading the book the 4 hour week. It has made me re-evaluate how I approach work and why do we all accept 9-5 as the 'norm'? In addition I intend to be more efficient so that I can have more 'fun' time.

Oh and I was asked the question this week: why don't I just work as an author?
Answer: Where do you get your material if you don't interact? The work place has an abundance of characters, mad incidents and fun stories. How else do you think I could have compiled all the characters in The Office Zoo? Reality is often far better as reference than reality.  What's more, twelve years ago, when I worked in a bookshop, I was given some excellent advice by an author: don't give up your day job unless you have paid off your mortgage and have the earning capacity of 5K a month and 100K in the bank. This came from an author who had received a huge advance, had her work hyped and was labelled the next J.K. Rowling. She sold around 40,000 books in total and her second book did not make sales and she was dropped. If she had given up her job then where would she be?

An update on an Indie book world

Fifteen years of writing consistently has finally started to pay off. In my previous blog, I talked about the WHY in why people write. There are times when you are writing and writing and nothing is happening. That is just how it is. Then one day it is as if everything starts to come together. It is as if the universe smiles on you and says let's give this person who is not going to give up a bit of a chance.

This only really started in the last two years. I was the proverbial blue bottle that kept flying into the window and banging its head. I would fall onto the proverbial window-sill, lay slightly stunned for a while and then get up and do it again.

During that time I taught creative writing, worked full time as a business analyst, competed at rowing and wrote in between. You might notice I like being busy and managed all that by creating structures that enabled me to be consistent. What makes it easier for me is I like the feeling of progress. Even if I write for ten minutes then I am progressing. The point was - nothing was happening. So one day I had to re-evaluate my WHY. My great dream of international fame, fortune and flying  helicopters probably was not going to manifest in reality. Instead I realised I had been chasing illusions and actually the reason why I wrote was down to the fact I loved writing. I simply loved creating stories and it did not matter whether other people liked them or whether people bought them. Instead it was spending time in creative inner landscapes imagining. As soon as I realised that it was not about how much money I made and whether there was any interest.  I was going to write anyway because it was my passion and my hobby- that is when something shifted. The struggle stopped and I had more energy to write what I wanted, how I wanted. My books went on promotion and the sales started. I know it is sad but when you have twenty downloads in a week you feel as though you have been 'found'. That sense of liberation seemed to send a signal up to the universe and people arrived in my life who desired to make my books into audible books. That is where I am now. I am working with a fantastic producer who is turning Labyrinthine into and audible book. It seems to take it to the next level and I am loving it. After that, who knows, I am completing a couple of film scripts of The Ocean Callings and Labyrinthine because the producer I should have those ready 'just in case'. So let's see what the next step is... All I can say to all you Indie authors is persevere and find ways for you to make things happen. All the while, love what you write and enjoy it. That is the greatest reward you can have - enjoy every moment of your creation. The way I see it is if I can do it then so can other people. I can have a break through then surely sharing it with others will help them to keep going against all the odds. There will always be doubters and people who tell you why you won't succeed. It is your choice to listen to them. My advice is keep going, enjoy what you create and put the work out there because there is more than enough audience for all of us.

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