"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!

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!

T is for...

1) Time fills itself up! I have many things I could do with every second, but writing is Top Dog at the moment! So all my other activities, except those that make money, are on a back burner, until ‘Despite the Angels’ and ‘Revisited Sins’ are up and running. ‘Angels’ is available for kindle download, but so far is not moving, please help change that! The paperback will be out soon, just as soon as I find that elusive Time to go on Createspace (Amazon) and click “go” !

2)Teacher. My mother was a secondary school teacher, so I decided that I certainly did not want to be a teacher ‘when I grew up’. Unfortunately this was probably a bad decision, as there is a lot of the teacher in me (I think you can probably see that by reading these posts, I have an instinct to inform!) and although I would have hated to be a class teacher, especially for small children, I think I could have been some type of teacher on a one-to-one basis. I enjoy medical consultations most if there is an education aspect to them, as my inner teacher gets some time in public.

3) Thuja This will help the body to clear itself of warts. It works for about 50% of people, and the other 50% need a different remedy, perhaps ‘Ant Crud’. To try Thuja, suck one tablet of either 30C or 6C potency 3 times a day for 3 consecutive days weekly, for 4 weeks. If the warts have not gone 3 weeks after you stop, repeat the process. If they still don’t clear, you are in the unlucky 50%!

R is for...

1) Reincarnation. This features in “Despite the Angels” and my next book “Revisited Sins”, but both are works of fiction and it is not necessary to believe that reincarnation happens to enjoy the story. All the same, it is a fun way to look at the world and for me at the moment, it explains some of the crazy things that happen. In the ancient world it was a much more accepted idea than it is now, and there are examples in the Bible, as well as in Jewish and Islamic writings that show that the writers thought that reincarnation was the case. In the early Christian church, it was accepted as fact until the Ecumenical Council meeting in 533AD. This meeting of the church was gerrymandered by the Roman Emperor Justinian of Constantinople who did not believe in reincarnation (or at least did not want Christians to, possibly because if your followers think they have more than one life in which to get it right, they are harder to control) and who packed the meeting with 159 of his followers from the Eastern Church, when only 6 of the Western branch of the church were in attendance. Pope Vigilius was so incensed by this that he refused to attend the meeting (and was subsequently persecuted by Justinian - imagine if this happened now..) so according to the Catholic Encyclopaedia this meeting was not genuine and its decisions are actually null and void - so it is only a fluke that all of us who were brought up Christian were not taught routinely that we would have future lives!!

2) Reader. I am an avid one, and used to be a very fast one. Going on a holiday was always a bit nerve-racking, would I bring enough books? I had to pick carefully, nice thick books, not too frothy, to slow myself down a bit, books I wouldn’t mind discarding when I had read them, which was very difficult, books in my family have almost household-god status! Then I got a Reader and life changed. My first one was a Sony EReader, which was okay, but I had constant problems getting books off the Waterstone’s site to actually go onto the device; I haunted the local Sony shop, and a lovely guy Greg there had almost as much difficulty as me. Then I got a Kindle, and its one-stop-you-don’t-need-your-pc function is a dream! But my eyes aren’t as good as they were, (since cataract ops they are full of huge floaters, so just making the print bigger doesn’t always work) and my reading speed has dropped, so my kindle is full of books I haven’t read yet. So is my house, of the paper variety!

3) Rhus Tox This is a good medicine for muscle or joint pain which is worst after being immobile, but which improves on being worked out.

P is for....

1) Paperback Proof copy. This came yesterday, and is SO exciting! It looks okay, except for having page numbers on the ‘front matter’. But I already worked my hardest to get rid of these, with no success. So the book will be up for purchase very soon.

2) Puffin Club. I was a founder-member of the Puffin Club which was set up in 1967 (at least the magazine started then, I could have sworn I was younger when the club began...!)by Kaye Webb who was the Editor of Puffin books(Penguin’s children’s label). I received the magazine, Puffin Post, I think it was quarterly, and a badge which I wore proudly -and so I should, I had read every Puffin book, my mother had a standing order with Hodges-Figgis (Dublin’s biggest and wonderful bookshop) to keep her the new releases. When they arrived she would bring them home, there were usually two at a time, and hand me one. Then we would sit at either end of the couch and read, swapping when we were finished, although I suspect she finished first and read something else until I was ready! Mum got her “M.Ed.” degree based on a thesis on children’s literature, and I am very grateful to her for exposing me to good writing. (When I first read an Enid Blyton, brought to me as a gift by a birthday party guest, I recognised it as inferior and never bothered with another!)

Back to the Puffin Club. My claim to fame was that I came second in one of the competitions. We had to finish a story, they had provided one page, and I think I wrote another one or two. I have no idea if I got a prize, but the warm feeling has stayed with me ever since.

3) Phytolacca. This is another sore throat remedy. When alternated with Hepar (see H) they will fix most sore-to-swallow throats.

N is for....

1) Dr Michael Newton is a hypnotherapist in California who accidentally discovered that he could bring people to the ‘life between lives’ or spirit world. He was doing a past life regression for a woman who spontaneously said that the reason she was unhappy was that her soul group had not come to earth with her this time, and that she was all alone. This is where taking a past-life experience as a metaphor, and actually thinking there might be some truth in all this ‘nonsense’ may have to part company. I’ll be talking more about reincarnation under ‘R’. Michael Newton regressed about 8,000 subjects into what seems to be the spirit world, and published his results in ‘Journey of Souls’ and ‘Destiny of Souls’. The amount that different peoples’ experiences in this hypnotic state produce the same information is quite compelling. I have found that my own clients also experience a range of things within Newton’s described range, even if they have not read his books. It is very intriguing. My own experience in the ‘life between lives explained to me something about why I am as I am.

2) I have No idea really why I wrote a Novel. It was just a Notion I got, and there it is! Number one in a set of Novels that are Not a series. I am Not Naive, or particularly Negative, but No-one much is buying it yet and that is Not Nice! Please take a little Notice of my literary (!) baby!! I would Not like it to be a Non-event....

3) Nux Vomica.  The hangover remedy.