A Romance!

My editor tells me I have written a romance! And there I was thinking it would have to go into one of the 'paranormal' genres, and maybe never be seen again. But she says that as the 'spirit guides' (the Angels of the title) don't actually appear to the humans in the story, only to the reader, it isn't paranormal at all, just a romance with an interesting twist.
So a bit of re-writing is needed now, to tune it up, and maybe make it even more romantic...
Will I get "Despite the Angels" out by Christmas?
Trying my best....

My New Title

I was looking at my title 'digital publishing and me', and thought it sounded a bit drab. So I was pondering a change, and suddenly as I was driving somewhere, the new title just fell into my head. As two of my books feature reincarnation and I am spending more and more of my time on my writing, it just seems to sum it up.
I read that you are a writer if you write. So, here I am. Thank you for being there reading this; and do let me know if you like the change.

My photo at last!

As I said, I am only learning all this digital stuff, and am climbing a vertical learning curve with my (rather good) fingernails... But at last I have worked out a)how to scan in this nice photo, and b) how to get it onto here/twitter/facebook. So I am feeling that little bit more confident in my eventual ability to get my books up there too!  As well as having bronchitis this week, and making a 'Phrygian cap' for my part in 'Idols', I have been re-writing the prologue for 'Despite the Angels'. It is now much clearer for those readers who will not have prior understanding of the concepts of re-incarnation. Next I must work my way through the whole book and do the same. There are sections about Lucy and David's past lives in Crete, the Médoc, and Dundee, all of which I visited to get it as realistic as I can. A great excuse for travel - now, where will I set my next one......

Coming of Digital Age

As part of the whole publishing exercise our course recommends not only this blog, but to be on Twitter. So last night I had twitter 101 from my wonderful daughter, and am trying my hand at it, so far so good. I am amazed at the information out there. Dasida, my Ancient Cretan scribe in "Despite the Angels", would be utterly astonished.  Alessia, a past life version of my heroine Lucy, tells Dasida her spirit must be trapped in the clay when she makes her marks in it. I wonder are our spirits anywhere on The Web? !!
I am writing a new prologue for 'Angels', to help readers who are not 'into' reincarnation get a foothold in the story. I am so used to the whole concept, I tend to forget that for some people it is just fantastic rubbish. It is quite a 'melange de genres', publishing a book about such an esoteric subject in such a high tech (esoteric?) medium.
As well as writing, I am keeping my other hobbies alive. I go to a rehearsal this evening, for my little part in 'Idols', a one-act play set in the French Revolution. I am the nasty revolutionary, and get to wear a red hat. The play is with Taney Drama Society, and will be on at the end of May.

The first class of my 12 week course was on Monday, and it was just as inspiring as Saturday's. This course is obviously taking things a bit slower so I am not so rushed to get stuff up here.But watch this space- it will get more interesting! Particularly after the creativity brainstorm we had on Monday...

Tomorrow starts the process. I am signed up for a one day course with Catherine Ryan Howard, via "Inkwell". She has published herself digitally, and is now sharing her knowledge. I had booked for this long before I decided to do the Independent College course, but I hope I will be able to use the information from both courses together to get my book out there online and in hard copy. So off I go at an ungodly hour of a Saturday morning, to the St George yacht club in Dunlaoghaire, to absorb all the info.

Thursday 23rd February 2012. Lift off !!

Hi, I'm Madeline, with two novels written and tired of listening to my friends saying 'but JK Rowling got loads of refusals before she was published'. So did thousands of others who never got the break. And JKR was a lot younger than me when she started....
So I'm joining the ranks of 'indie authors' and going to publish one myself. Online, to start with.
I have signed up for a course in how to do this, and one thing they said at the introductory talk is that a blog would be a good idea, to get the news out there, so here I am.
What I thought would be a vertical learning curve (setting up a blog) turned out to be a doddle, and here I am in the 21st century....
I won't have much to say until the course starts on 5th March, but I think I'll be quite busy then.

The novel is called "Despite the Angels", and follows Lucy and David, and their guardian angels through four incarnations, as they try to get things right. It's a fun read with thoughtful moments.