"Revisited Sins" is a step closer...

I have just put the finishing touches to the manuscript before I send it off to an editor. So the sister-novel of Despite the Angels is a step closer. I'm calling it a sister because it is in the same genre, as yet un-named, but is not a sequel. Revisited Sins takes place over six weeks in Dublin, and starts with an appeal to you, the reader, to help the 'angels' to sort out the mess their human characters have got into...
Watch this space......

Am I in my novel?

No. I have heard that if you get famous enough to be interviewed in the media, you may be asked if any of your characters is yourself. My answer is a very clear 'no', that is, none of the protagonists or villains is me (or anyone else I know, I have a vivid imagination, which is the only reason to write a book!). But I do have a strong fellow-feeling for a very minor character who appears in the Cretan section: the short-sighted scribe. I have been appallingly myopic all my life, such that were there no corrective lenses available, I could be registered blind. So I wrote that scribe as a flight of fancy, wondering how someone like me might have survived in the pre-spectacles world. I actually wrote more about her than I could let into the novel, or it would have been far too long. But if I ever hear that readers would like to read the fuller piece, (and find out her name, which had to be taken from her in the book), I will post it here. So, let me know!

I'm not as short-sighted now, having grown 'very early' cataracts, had them removed a year or two ago, and replaced with correcting lenses. So now I wear my glasses on the inside! I was left just a little myopic, so I can read 'bare-eyed', or at least will be able to once a cloudy capsule is removed. I can't wait, it will be great to read again without cloudy blurs floating across the print.

sorry, the sale is over!

Despite the Angels is now $2.99, which is cheaper than its original price, so it's still good value. I am having very good reaction from people who have bought the book from me -in other words, my personal contacts.... Well, you could say 'but they would, wouldn't they?', but that's not entirely true, I have long experience in amateur drama and all the ways of saying "I didn't like it much" without actually saying it. So I am taking it as encouraging when people who didn't have to say anything, said a lot. Thank you all!!  This year I will publish its sister book, not a sequel but in the same genre.So it would be really great if all my blog followers would tell me what the best genre for Despite the Angels is. Thanks.
And a HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!

99 cents for two more days!

I am participating in a $0.99 sale for kindle, so "Despite the Angels" and other books written by some of my 'indie' colleagues will be on offer till the 30th. Check us out NOW because the prices will go back up.....99kindle.blogspot.com

Art, Craft, and Graft

Whew! The book is launched and I am wrecked.... Partly from standing all evening in much higher heels than I'm used to, in the effort to look nice, and partly through major cooking and preparation for the event. I overestimated the numbers, so I've lots of crisps over(not a problem, I've a birthday coming up) and a good deal of the wine. Most of the other food, some brought by my daughter Rachel and my friend Jane, was gobbled up by a wonderful crowd of friends and acquaintances.
The book was launched by Victoria Mary Clarke and John Joyce, both introduced by my husband (no problem to him, a life in amateur drama and toastmasters helped out!) The talks were about as different as two talks could be - Victoria, who has written about contacting her own angels, 'channelled' them for us and we were given warm messages of encouragement; then John gave a very clear run-down of what is required to get a book out there - art,craft and graft. Goodness, is he right!
Then I gave a short speech of thanks to everyone who ever helped, read a piece from my book and then a description of the meaning of the plaster angels in the Unitarian Church, and then we played the 'book trailer' video. That was when the roving microphone's batteries died, so as I hadn't thought to bring speakers, we were holding the laptop as near to the fixed mic as we could! There were a few laughs, so someone must have been able to hear!
Sales were brisk, my great son Andrew (watch this space for his forthcoming zombie novel...) was salesman, and each book was given to its new owner in a bag printed "authl.it/h8", so friends can easily find it online; and most exciting, one guest works in Sweny's Chemist, of James Joyce fame, and he will be stocking the book. So Dubliners: hurry down to Lincoln Place to secure your signed copy!
Pictures were taken by my 'official photographer' best friend Jane.

 With fellow authors Grace Wynne-Jones and John Joyce

 My son Andrew Gordon acting as book salesman

 John Joyce and Victoria Mary Clarke, who both spoke to launch the book

 Me, reading from Despite the Angels, and below, with fellow members of the Dalkey Writers' Workshop

Change of Date!!!

Sorry, I was told a few days ago that Saturday is double-booked in the Unitarian Church, so I have had to re-arrange my book launch party to FRIDAY 27th SEPTEMBER.
It will start from 7pm, in the Unitarian Church, 112 St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2, and will go on till all the wine is drunk and the finger foods are eaten....

Nothing is easy about self-publishing, as about life itself. Fate seems to walk backwards in front of me, scattering drawing-pins on the path. But here I am, with sprained ankles from trying to avoid them, and soles with more metal in them than a football boot....
Grilling sausages and pouring wine will be easy in comparison!! (shhh....the Fates are still listening...)
See you there?

The Book Launch Party

The date is fixed, we all get together to celebrate the launch of "Despite the Angels" on Saturday 28th September in the Unitarian Church, St.Stephen's Green, Dublin, at 7pm. Lots of drinks and nibbles, some short speeches, I hope a showing of "A Frustrated Angel", lots of chat and fun, maybe even some music. And of course, paperbacks on sale for €10, with some discounts for bulk purchases. If you are in Dublin, come along and introduce yourself!
I know there are loads of people out there who would love to read this book, and I am doing all I can to let them hear of it. If you know of anyone who would like to be 'in the loop', please spread the word!!

Back from Holidays and Am A Bookshop!!

I haven't managed to post anything for a month as I was on holiday, and first it was too cold so we went camping further south, then it was too hot...
I had planned to finish the first draft of my third book during my 4 weeks off, but I only managed a few chapters. Turns out I'm not one of those compulsive writers who has to be dragged from their keyboard kicking and screaming...
And I so want to be able to write in my bio "she divides her time between Dublin and the Dordogne" but that only fair if she actually writes in the Dordogne - do you think?
Of course another reason my third book is slow is that I am still dealing with selling the first one. 300 printed copies arrived at my house today, with a book launch planned for sometime in September. They are taking up a lot of my living room!

My Mum, who has just finished reading a proof copy, could find nothing in Despite the Angels to criticise except the things that I had already fixed - which is some sort of record, as she has a fault seeking missile installed in her brain- so I am feeling encouraged!  It is almost equivalent to a five-star review!

Hollywood Here I Come!!!!

My 'book trailer' is finished! My huge thanks go to Derek and Maire for acting, to Fergal for filming, and to Nigel for editing. (I just wrote it...) I think it's great: have a look, and pass the word to others who might find it entertaining!  "A Frustrated Angel"

Life's rich tapestry...

I have sometimes confused people by saying "Life is not just too short, it is too narrow as well" -meaning I want to do lots of things Now, not simply live a long time. But I never knew how many of life's experiences would come my way as result of self-publishing.
Publishing your own book, though fraught with difficulties and puzzles, is actually the easy part. (Well actually writing it is the easy part, but that's another story!) Getting the book out there to people who would enjoy it seems to me to be like the torment of Sisyphus!!
I did a course on epublishing a while ago with Catherine Ryan Howard, who suggested making a book trailer. She showed some examples that she felt would work, and they were all little stories in their own right, not descriptions of the book. So I wrote a script. It is about a man who can't find a cheque, and his guardian angel's attempts to help him. I'm lucky to be in two drama groups, and from one I assembled a team - two actors, a great cameraman, and a film editor. We had two rehearsals, then last Sunday was filming day. I watched with huge pleasure as two friends acted their hearts out (and missed a lot of sunshine, it was the best day of the year, maybe the decade!) and the others wielded camera and clipboard with great skill. We had 74 separate takes by 4pm, when we all went home to enjoy the sun and cool and calming drinks!!
It will be a week or more before this is all cut together to make a less than 5 minute 'play' which I hope will entertain people enough that they will share it with their friends.
It felt a huge honour to have these four great friends (five actually, as the editor's wife came along to take notes; not to mention another partner who provided great sandwiches!) spend this time on my work. When else, in the normal world, would I get the chance to be a film author or film director? And set-designer to boot! It is great to be able to have such experiences.

Top photo: Cameraman and editor/director. Middle photo: an angel trying to move a table mat. Bottom photo: Human and angel waiting for cameraman to say 'rolling', and director to say 'and Action'!
You will be the first to know when "Listen to your Angel" goes live!

So what effect does a free promotion have?

Over my three-day promotion, which ended at midnight California time, a total of 1248 books were downloaded. All but 13 from amazon.com, .co.uk, and .de . During the promo, Despite the Angels rose and fell, its highest ranking of free books was #455, which was at 2.15pm Irish time on Sunday. It hit a high point of first place in 'Romance-paranormal-ghosts' for a few hours, and then settled to #3. This was a little mystifying, as there are no ghosts at all in the book!
I decided eventually that someone in Amazon must have seen the phrase 'spirit guides' and latched on to 'spirit'. But of course spirit guides are definitely not ghosts!
The book also got up to 8th position in 'romance-paranormal-angels'.
All that is of no importance really, it is what happens now that is of significance. And sadly, that is not likely to amount to much. The book is at 315,003rd overall in amazon. This is probably about half way up, but it is still totally invisible. It would be similar to your book being stocked by a big bookshop, but left in the storeroom!
People who specifically look for either ghost or angel books may stumble across it, at #204 out of 1399 for ghost, and #128 out of 633 for angels; but looking at the others in those lists (only the covers, admittedly) made me feel they were not attracting the readers who would want and enjoy my kind of angels!
So I have more research to do, to work out where to market it next. if any of you have read "Despite the Angels" and are familiar with Amazon's genre selections, maybe you would be kind and give me your opinion?

It is FREE now !!

The big push is on, and nearly 10 hours into the free offer, "Despite the Angels" is ranking 2,890th in the free list, but #10 in 'paranormal-ghosts' which is mystifying as there are no ghosts in the book!!
Please both download the book and pass the word around. This is my book's chance to become 'heard of', and visible to the casual browser.
And it's a cheerful read, anyway, so it's one of those rare win-win situations.
Thanks
www.amazon.com/dp/B00C438T0E      and www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00C438T0E
if you don't have a Kindle you can download a free 'kindle app' onto your pc/ ipad etc, and then download the book

And by the way - those who prefer paperbacks can now get one from www.createspace.com/4232303

'Despite the Angels' FREE this weekend!

This weekend, 25th -27th May inclusive, the exact starting time to be chosen by Amazon in USA, my book "Despite the Angels" is free to download to Kindle. If you don't have a Kindle, download the free 'Kindle App' from Amazon onto your pc/ipad etc, and then you can download the book.
If you like the book, please go onto amazon.com and amazon.co.uk and leave a glowing review!! Ebooks depend on good reviews to become visible to the casual browser, and strangely, Amazon only consider 4 or 5 stars out of 5 to be good. A three-star review can help a book to sink further into obscurity, even if the accompanying words are fulsome in their praise! Weird, but that's how it is, so please give 4 or 5 stars unless you think it deserves a bad mark.
For those of who who prefer to read off paper, a little more patience only, it is nearly available in print!

I'm really looking forward to hearing what everyone thinks of my story....

Back from a holiday

So I survived the A to Z challenge - congratulations to all who did! It was a hectic month, as I also published "Despite the Angels", and formatted it for a paperback version. My first proof copy arrived, and I found I had the 'gutters' too wide, numbers on the blank and 'front matter' pages, and had forgotten to right-justify! So back to the drawing board, and as I write this I am expecting the new proof to arrive. The photo is of me ordering it from Createspace. We have no Wifi where we stay in France, so I 'have to' go either to a friend's, or as here, to the local bar/restaurant. They do a very good rosé wine which pays for my use of their facilities without causing me any distress at all! (They also do very good food, and best of all, they know us and greet us with kisses.) The weather was cold, I think all of Europe is having an extra autumn this year.
I'm back now, and getting back to my third book, as yet un-named.

Z is for...

1)Zeitgeist: I looked this up as it is such a lovely word, and find it means ‘the cultural trends of a particular period’. I’m hoping that the present zeitgeist may expand to include writings about spirit guides and past lives, so my novel will be in fashion. But my son is writing his first novel, about Zombies, he really IS in the Zeitgeist! Watch this space....

2) This is the last day of the A to Z challenge and I am off on a short break with my Mum and my daughter. We aren’t going anywhere beginning with Z, (actually we will be visiting the Alhambra, so full circle round to A!) but I hope to fit in a few zzzzs. We all need them after this busy blogging month!

3) Zingiber is the botanical name for ginger, which makes a wonderfully relaxing bath. Fill your bath with hot water and add at least a cupful of powdered ginger. Soak as long as you want - you’ll find the ginger warms you even as the water cools. Afterwards, wrap up in a towelling dressing-gown, and feel the heat seep into your bones. (put your hair up or it will fill with gingery grit!)

Have a good night’s sleep!

Goodbye for now, and thank you for visiting. Please come back, I’m not going off-air , though there will be a short break!

Y is for....

1) You, the Reader. Thank you for coming by, I hope you have liked what you have found here. I also hope that you will try my novel “Despite the Angels”, and pass on the word about it to your friends! You, as the reader, are the most important person in this equation - would I write if I thought no-one would ever read it? Probably not....The novelist Joseph O’Connor, writing in the forward to “Circle Time”, the 2011 anthology of work by the Dalkey Writers’Workshop, put it eloquently: “A story, like a song, takes its chances alone. What the reader does is the truly creative part of the relationship, for in the unique and intimate courtship opened out by the book, the little black ink-stains called ‘words’ and ‘sentences’ are blazed into life by imagination.”

2) Yummy! All my life I have been interested in good food, a trait I have passed on to my daughter, who with her friend, has a lovely blog all about food. (check out Gastronomic Girls) A few foods start with Y - yoghurt, yam, yakitori, and this last one brings me to one of my favourite restaurants in Dublin, Yamamori. I’m particularly a fan of sashimi.

3) Yellow Dock is the common name for the remedy Rumex, which is good for those  coughs which are caused by a tickle at the base of the throat.

X is for...

1) X is a terrible letter when you’ve restricted yourself to writing on certain topics! I can’t just make up a character called Xenon, or go for an Xray.... And I do wonder if I have the Xfactor-for-writing....

X is a multiplication sign, so I am hoping that my sales of “Despite the Angels” will multiply, my good reviews will multiply, and my energy to get on with publishing “Revisited Sins” will multiply even more! And may the multiplication angels visit me with myriads of creative ideas, and the time to trap them on the page...

2) Here is another poem, about love -where we all use lots of xxx!

19 and 15

Nearly six foot of gangle

gets into bed beside me,

and a beautiful woman

brings her duvet and sits on my feet,

and once again a Christmas morning

resounds with laughter

and “look at this!” and “what is it?”

and I sink below another sea of tissue paper.

An unbroken line of chocolate coins

and a-mandarin-in-the-toe

seems to stretch back through the years

to when they were soft bundles

drowsing milkily against my neck.

But before the past can become more

than a prickle in my eyes,

comes “look at my bubbles!”

and “would you like a marshmallow?”

and the solid happy presence of them

breaks the spell,

and I think, -despite all troubles,

mistakes and failures,

to have raised such kids as these

I have done well.

3) XXX  No common homoeopathic remedy starts with X. Kiss it better!

W is for....

1) Writing and writer: I am running my first two sections together today, because it’s the same stuff! I have been writing all my life, and was greatly helped by the school I attended in getting my writing accurate - we had to write an essay every weekend. But this did not help creativity, so it was quite a while before I started to write fiction. I started my creative writing with poetry as that was encouraged in school, but we were never asked to write an actual story. However, I have overcome that and now have published my first novel, and have the second to work on for publishing. My third is half written, and is suffering from my distraction by the AtoZchallenge!

Here is a poem that has been published in ‘Circle Time’, the third anthology by the Dalkey Writers’ Workshop. A Marché Nocturne is like a food court in a village square. They are held during the summer in many towns and villages in the Périgord region, and we love attending them.

Marché Nocturne

Serried poplars, pinkening sky

garlic and mussel scented air

guitar and accordion set up their cry-

it is time to dance at the night fair.

Plump and bald answer the call,

wives in hand, remembering when

these were sylph-girls at a Hunters’ Ball:

thought they would always be young men.

Ancient lessons guide them round

on easy moving feet

that music such a familiar sound,

a happy lilting beat.

They look down with loving eyes,

smile through all the years

connectedness that never dies

enhanced by local wine, or beers

which ooze out of million pores

and stain two dozen shirts,

wives fatter now than years before

and wearing longer skirts

but in his eyes the very girl

he held so close back then,

this gentle move the self-same whirl:

Old bodies still contain young men.

3) Wyethia is a remedy which can be useful for the type of hayfever with an itching palate

1) Volunteering. Mostly this means to do a job without pay, usually for a charitable cause of some sort. But it can be seen from the work and discoveries of Michael Newton, that many people’s whole lives may have been a decision to volunteer for a tough job. I find this idea makes sense of some of the ‘tragedies’ of life. If you can see the little Down’s child as an old soul who volunteered to be here to help her parents learn about disappointment, patience, or simply love, you can see her life as truly meaningful. This may be the case for the souls in many difficult situations - they may have agreed to be there to help those around them in some way, and they are usually very experienced souls. This does not make it easier for them when they are here, nor should we forget to treat them with total compassion. For more about this, see ‘Journey of Souls’, ‘Destiny of Souls’, and ‘Memories of the Afterlife’. (I contributed a chapter to this last one.)

2) Very. I can’t think of anything that describes me that begins with V, so will have to put in my Very fine hair, and the fact that my boss once described me as Very deep! Very is probably a good word for me, as I don’t do things by halves!   Oh, and the heroine of my third, half-written, book is 'Violette' !

3) Very high dilution. Sceptics dismiss homoeopathy because of the high dilution of the remedies, but this is a misunderstanding of the principle of homoeopathy. Hahnemann, the founder of homoeopathy discovered almost by mistake  that diluting a remedy actually made it more effective, not less.( Isn’t it interesting how many wonderful discoveries have been accidents? Think of penicillin!) Sceptics also say ‘Oh well, there’s no molecule of the active ingredient in there, so it can’t possibly work,’ and stick with the assumption that it doesn’t work. A more scientific viewpoint would say ‘It is astonishing that these remedies work, I wonder how?’ As I said under Q, it is quantum physics that will eventually work out the answer to that question.

U is for....

1) Unconscious mind. This is also known as the sub-conscious, and is the part of the mind that is really in charge. Children of seven and under have only an ‘unconscious’ mind, which is why they will believe anything they are told - they have not developed the ‘conscious’ questioning part. As adults, we think we are running our lives with our conscious minds, and to a great extent we are - it is with this that you book tickets, or look left and right crossing the road. But it is your unconscious that is most deeply in control, it decides you are afraid of heights, or don’t like spinach, and it holds those beliefs really tightly. Until a hypnotherapist comes along, and helps you to access your unconscious, and tell it that spinach is delicious, that heights are not inherently dangerous, or more commonly, that cigarettes taste foul! It is also in your unconscious that all your memories are stored, and it is there that we go to pull out the deepest truths about you. It is there that your ‘past life’ memories are sitting, whether you believe these to be genuine memories, or only your mind or spirit’s way of making up a story to explain you to yourself.

2) Unitarian: I signed up to become a Unitarian about two and a half years ago, 18 months after I started attending the beautiful Unitarian church on Stephen’s Green in Dublin. I have found a lovely supportive community there, which as someone from a tiny family, I truly treasure. If you would like to learn more about this liberal non-creedal religion, look at “Are you a Unitarian and don’t know it?” which is where I did my initial research about four years ago.

3) Urtica. This remedy is made from the nettle, and is good for any skin conditions that resemble nettle-rash.