Wednesday 30 July 2014

Juggling...


I’ve decided that I should add a new title to my list of jobs.
Juggler.
It seems that no matter how many balls I have in the air, I always want to add a few more. And once they’re up in the air it’s almost impossible to set them down again.
The reason this has become an issue? Because I realised this morning that I currently have about 7 balls in the air.
Five of them are novels. One is the day job, and the other is my online presence/blogs etc. And none of them can afford to be dropped.
Oh I know what you’re probably thinking. I don’t need to work on five projects at the same time. The problem is that once I start it’s hard to stop – and I almost never have any control over when and how ideas come to me.
Let me give you a run down:
The Forever Queen – The sequel to The Last Knight that I feel like I’ve been working on forever that just seems to be taking longer than I’d like to get done. Clearly cannot drop this one as it’s the next book I really MUST get out.
Being Alpha – Book two of the West Haven series. Again, sequels are killer because (hopefully) you’ve got people waiting for them, and you don’t want to disappoint.
Blood Calling – West Haven Novella. This one is one of my guilty pleasures. It’s not essential that I write this book – it won’t change the rest of the series, but I love writing Maladict’s POV, and I love losing myself in 1800’s London where most of the book is set. I can’t put it down because it’s too much fun!
Untitled – Sci-fi, post-apocalyptic stand-alone novel. An idea that jumped into my head and wouldn’t let go. I’m not working on this full time – but I keep getting little ideas for it that I have to get down before I lose them.
The Perfect Knight – Pendragon series novella – Lance’s POV – basically, like Maladict’s book, this is one that is a guilty pleasure. I’m loving writing Lance’s back story and his first months in modern day before he meets Cara. It’s fun. And…it’s Lance…
So those are the books I’m working on – but add to that the day job (not too many hours, but still) and my online promotion and marketing and you’ve got a lot of balls and not enough hands or eyes to keep track of them all!
I am starting to understand why a lot of writers have Assistants. So if anyone out there fancies being a writer’s PA let me know. I can’t pay you – except perhaps in virtual cookies and early drafts of my books…
But for now I best get back to juggling.

Friday 18 July 2014

Busy, Busy, Busy


This poor blog has been a little neglected recently I’m afraid. Just one of those things where life gets in the way. But I figure I can probably kill two birds with one stone – I can get a new post up on this blog, and fill you all in on the desperately exciting drama that is my life…or not!

The first, and probably foremost reason for the neglect of this blog is Rock the Book. What is Rock the Book? I hear you ask.

You see not too long ago I started chatting with these two lovely, delightful Indie authors online. They were much like me. Working hard to make themselves known in the Indie world. Struggling to balance writing with promotion and all that goes with it. We began to conceive of ways to spread the word more about Indie authors like ourselves. To show the world that there are great and brilliant Indie books out there. Rock the Book was born! Rock the Book is a blog dedicated to helping out other indie authors and spreading the word about great books we find (and our own of course! We’re not completely altruistic!).

It’s a brilliant blog that we are all really proud of, and we’re pleased that other people have started to join the team.

On the downside, it takes up a lot of time.

The second reason for the neglect of the blog is that last week myself and my other half moved house. We had a lovely little cottage on the tiny island we call home, but if I’m honest it was getting a little old and tired. It needed a lot of work doing to it, and as tenants we weren’t really going to put the time in. Plus on the downside despite being on a little Caribbean island it had no outside space. No porch or deck. We heard on the grapevine about a property that might be up for rent and went to take a look. And fell in love. This picture might help explain why…
My new 'office'!
 

It’s lovely inside too – but the porch is what makes it. Unfortunately moving always takes more time than you expect (though I think we are down to the last box to unpack now) and we encountered a few problems like no internet or phone line (no facebook for a week??? What??!!). Again, small island living meant it took a little while to get that sorted, but we’re now just about there!

All of that did mean however that I had almost no spare time for my blog, the few snatches of internet time I got were used up checking emails…and Facebook I’ll admit. I also had no time to write. I was too busy and surrounded by boxes – not exactly conducive to creativity.

But we’re all settled in now – so life can begin to get back to normal.

Having had a ‘week off’ I am now plunging back into the writing at full tilt, and have now added a fourth book to the list of projects I’m currently working on. But I am now just a few thousand words away from finishing my West Haven Series novella, a few thousand words away from finishing the Pendragon Series Book 2, and well started on Being Alpha the next book in the series after Chasing Freedom.  The fourth book I’m playing with is a sci-fi, post-apocalyptic end of the world type of thing. Fun!

So there is an update on my life. Less excitement and more work than I’d like, but life is good.

Don’t forget to check out Rock the Book – we feature some great books on there and you might find something new to read!  

Wednesday 2 July 2014

50% discount for visitors to the blog!



For no particular reason - just because I've just had my birthday and I'm in a good mood - I am offering a discount for Chasing Freedom on Smashwords for visitors to my blog!
 
To get your copy with the 50% discount all you need to do is use the following coupon code when you purchase the book.
 
DZ82J


Smashwords allows you to download in lots of different formats - so go grab your discounted copy today!