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My Secret Chaperone….meet Cherry

Posted on June 16, 2016 | 2 comments

cherry

Anyone who’s followed my blog musings here or on my music blog, The525To Glasgow ( https://the525toglasgow.wordpress.com/ ), knows I’m prone to escaping “out to play” on occasion.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve been chaperoned by a variety of close friends, Facebook son, Boy Child’s friends, Boy Child, Girl Child and, on one memorable occasion, The Big Green Gummi bear even came out to play.

There’s been many an incredible night and countless precious memories created!

Throughout it all there’s been “someone” who’s been by my side every time. Someone who until now has remained anonymous. Someone who will remain silent and never tell tales (what happens at a gig stays at a gig!) Not once have they complained that it’s too hot, too crowded, too loud or that we’ve been out too late.

So who is this mystery chaperone?

Her name is Cherry. (I’m sure she’s a Black Stone Cherry fan as she’s now seen them play live four times!)

Cherry is the Kipling monkey who hangs from my “gig bag”.

Yes, the same handbag comes to every show. It’s a veritable tardis! It’s small and compact and is my own version of a “Hermione bag”. The back pocket can hold up to three t-shirts from the merchandise stall. The main pocket safeguards my purse, keys, phone, contact lens case etc. The long narrow front pocket hides the Dextro tablets and,of course, the “rock’n’roll” polo mints! It is the perfect gig bag!

When I first decided to take this bag with me I was worried that Cherry might get pulled off in the crowd. I considered removing her from the ring on the side of the bag for safe keeping (She is quite cute and I’d hate to lose her) but something made me leave her where she was.

She’s a lucky monkey! She’s seen many a great band plus a few dodgy support acts. She’s been faithfully by my side as I’ve queued outside venues in the freezing cold or the pouring rain or both without a murmur of complaint. She’s been doused in water and beer in the crowd.

She’s been lucky enough to meet a few rock stars too! (there is a certain star struck look to her wee face)

But, for now, she’s hanging quietly in the wardrobe, patiently waiting for our next date.

My gig calendar is currently empty- a tragic state of affairs that I intend to rectify as soon as I can! Once the next show arrives then Cherry and I plus human chaperones will be off out to play once more!

Rock’n’roll polo mint anyone?

Cherry collage

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Sun Has Stopped Play….well writing

Posted on June 9, 2016 | 1 comment

IMAG4487_1

For the past few weeks the sun has shone down on the Clyde coast. The weather has been fabulous but it’s had a dreadful effect on my creative productivity.

I cannot resist the lure of the evening sun during the week or any sun at the weekends and have been regularly spotted sitting outdoors with my nose buried in my Kindle.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve spent hour after hour in the sun. It’s no secret that I adore warm sunny weather. Lunchtimes have been spent walking along the River Clyde near to the salt mine. Where possible, meetings for work have taken place outdoors. We’ve even had “weetings” – walking meetings! (Every step has been counting towards my team’s GCC target- 10000 steps each a day for a 100 days) Evenings have been spent sitting on the front doorstep until the sun sinks behind the roofs across the street.

 I have the suntan to prove it!                   

Book Baby 3 has suffered a little neglect ….I’m a bad book baby mummy. I have written some of it outdoors in recent days but the part that I’m working on doesn’t lend itself to outdoor creativity. (No- you’re not getting any storyline hints!)

What I have been doing is devouring books! My Kindle has definitely been well used of late.

So, what have I been reading?

It’s been an eclectic mix. Here’s some of the highlights of my summer booklist to date-

 

Rock My World by Julie Shackman – a paranormal rock star romance tale. 7/10

His Perfect Imperfection by Natasza Waters – a contemporary love story  7/10

Flight To Coorah Creek by Janet Glover – an outback/flying doctors contemporary romance  8/10

The Vampire’s Human Companion by Cecil Wilde – beyond description and blessedly short – 3/10

Perfect Daughter (No Greater Courage) by Amanda Prowse – a powerful and emotional family drama  8/10

Me Before You – Jojo Moyes – a powerful love story that is one of the few books to make me sob – loved it!  10/10

Behind Closed Doors – B A Paris-  a very gripping thriller. Absolutely loved the ending!  10/10

 

And now I’m currently reading The Physician by Noah Gordon and am totally immersed in 11th Century Persia! (Thanks, Iris!)

 

Fans of the Silver Lake series will be pleased to hear that this spell of glorious weather is due to break any day so normal creative productivity will resume with the rain!

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Let Your Eyes Wander…..

Posted on May 30, 2016 | Leave a comment

To quote Chris Cornell’s lyrics “Let your eyes wander wild and free”.

How often do you really look around you? How often do you pause for a second in your hectic day to appreciate your surroundings?  When did you last stop to listen to the birds sing?

As Spring moves seamlessly into Summer, the world around us has become a riot of colours. This was something that I only noticed  the full extent of the other day.

We all lead busy lives and are always dashing from here to there. It’s so easy to jump in the car rather than walking to your destination.  If you’re cocooned in the car, you miss so much of the beauty of the world about you.

What struck me when I was out early one morning last week was just how many different wild flowers were growing along the edge of the road. No, I’m not talking about flowers and shrubs in people’s gardens but plants that are growing wild and free.

Yesterday I retraced my steps, camera in hand, to capture some of these. Yes, I got some odd looks from passers-by as I was sat on the pavement photographing what to a lot of people are considered weeds. When I got home and downloaded the images onto my laptop, I was amazed by how many I’d taken. (Don’t panic they’re not all coming up !)

There’s a whole beautiful world out there if we only slow down long enough to look. So “Let your eyes wander wild and free” as Mr Cornell suggests and have a look at your world. You might be surprised by what you see!

collage 1collage 2collage 3collage 4collage 5collage 6collage 7collage 8

 

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A little tale from a “special guest”

Posted on May 26, 2016 | 2 comments

guest blogger

I  thought I’d share something a little different with you this week.

I have a “special guest” contributor.

For the past few years this young lady has had a love/hate relationship with English in school. Last year, however, she found herself in a different class with a different teacher and, after a shaky start, he’s managed to “flick the switch  to On” and now she “gets it”.

The transformation of this young lady has been a joy to watch.

For years it has broken my heart that she was so dis-interested in reading. How could my own daughter not love books? The house is full of them! Now, she’s steadily devouring them…well my Harry Potter ones at least but it’s a start and a huge leap forward!

Recently, she had to submit an essay for her  English exam portfolio. We chatted a little about possible topics but I never really gave her any ideas or storylines. I never gave her any help worth mentioning. She’s always had a leaning towards darker characters so her final choice of topic didn’t surprise me. (Now that he’s got to know her, I don’t think it overly shocked her teacher either and I’m relieved to say that social services haven’t arrived at my door!)

I was given the chance to read the final draft of her essay  before she submitted it.  I was blown away by it! Now I admit, I am a little biased here but I’m her mother so I’ll beg your forgiveness.

With Girl Child’s permission,  I’m proud to introduce her as the first guest writer on my blog page. I hope you enjoy her short story.

Temptress

People deal with pain and loss in different ways. Some people go to therapy, some go to self-help groups filled with people dealing with the same issues, others bottle everything up inside until they can’t take it anymore and eventually blow their brains out with a double barrel shot gun between their teeth. However, I turn to my one true love. Heroin. Oh my sweet mistress dressed in brown. She takes all the pain away and holds you tight showing you only the good in the world.

It starts with a tatty old belt round the arm to make a beautiful blue target full of blood. When the needle goes in and the plunger goes down, your soul leaves your body. The mistress’ work has begun.

It is hard to describe what it’s like taking heroin. Normally, for me, it is like enlightenment. It feels like there is gold rushing through your veins, making you pure and at peace. The warm seas of gold fill you up and drown all the evil inside. It is the closest that a drug addict will ever get to heaven. After a few hours in heaven the mistress brings you back down to your pit of despair called reality.

However, with this hit there was no gold and no heaven. The gold seas were replaced with pools of tar. The evil was multiplying and pouring out of my eyes in the form of hallucinations. Heaven was replaced with judgement day.

The first hallucinations my mistress brought to me were of the past. My ex girlfriend, mother, father, younger brother and grandmother were having a family meal in my parent’s house. All around there were smiles and laughter. My family loved my girlfriend just as much as I did.

Soon the family meal melted into the floor and was replaced with a bath. The bath filled with water and so did my eyes. I knew exactly what was coming. The body of my ex-girlfriend appeared in the bath. Her body was as cold as ice and her skin was the colour of snow. She held a razor in one hand while her other wrist poured seas of rubies. Lying on the floor was a note. Her pretty curly handwriting wrote that she couldn’t cope anymore, that I was abusive, that she was scared of me and what I would do. She wrote that this was her only way out. It was after her funeral that my mistress found me.

My mistress then brought hallucinations of the present. The first to appear was my mother. She looked much older than I remember her being, she was breaking her heart crying. I could see she was holding a picture of me as a baby, tears fell like rain drops onto my smiling chubby face. She kept asking herself “where did I go wrong?”, as more tears came pouring out. I wanted to reach out and hold her, tell her I’m sorry and cry with her.

Like the others, my mother melted into the floor and was replaced by a man. My father. He was far from tears – he was stomping around my old bedroom tearing posters off the walls and breaking everything in sight. “I ONLY HAVE ONE SON!” My father always favoured me as I was the oldest. He always had such high expectations of me, and now I was dead to him. I wanted to help him tear everything down and erase every memory of me.

My mistress ignored my pleas for the hallucinations to stop and once again my father melted into the floor and was replaced by a 15 year old boy. This was my younger brother, James, he was sitting at a lunch table in school with his friends. They looked to be laughing and joking about one of his friends getting shouted at in English because his work isn’t as good as his brothers was when he was in school. James said, ” I’m so glad I’m an only child, no teachers have anyone to compare me to”. His friend turned quietly and asked, “James, don’t you have an older brother? Fred or something like that?”. My brother turned and said, “he died years ago”.

My own little brother was denying my existence. He told people I was dead. How could he be so cold and emotionless. I fought the bullies at school so they would leave him alone. I helped with his homework. I taught him how to ride a bike. Did I really mean so little to him?

My cruel mistress then brought hallucinations of the future. It looked to be a crematorium that appeared. There was a coffin, a minister and two figures sitting in the back. As the figures became clearer I could see they were older versions of my parents. This was my funeral. My mother was still crying her heart out. My father was so still and shed a single tear. “I’m so sorry for your loss”, said the minister. “Thank you, we only wish we had helped him sooner. He had so much potential, accepted into Oxford University to do a masters in theoretical physics. He could have done amazing things with that brain of his.”

I had never thought about it before. I was smart, extremely smart. I could have made them proud, but all I’ve done is disappoint them. I broke their hearts. I drove my girlfriend to suicide. I had killed the person I used to be.

My mistress finally released me and I was left lying in a puddle of my own self pity. I couldn’t live my life like this anymore. I had to get rid of my mistress for good. She made me a shell of who I used to be. This wicked temptress had worked her way into my life making me feel special just to turn and judge me for who she made me.

 

 

 

 

 

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To Be Read To Or Not To Be Read To…..

Posted on May 19, 2016 | Leave a comment

 horror-audiobooks

 

Audiobooks? Thoughts?

Personally, I’m not a fan, however I can see the benefits for people who, for a wide variety of reasons are unable to read a paperback, a hardback edition or a Kindle e-book.

We’ve Thomas Edison to thank for inventing the phonograph in 1877 and making recording the spoken word possible. His vision was for this to be an invention that would “speak to blind people without effort on their part.” The first recorded instance of the spoken word is Edison’s own recital of Mary Had A Little Lamb. I’m glad to report that things have matured somewhat since then!

There have been many formats of audiobooks over time. Having initially been sold in cylinders in the early 1900’s (each cylinder only held 4 minutes of spoken words so books were an impossibility), audiobooks moved onto vinyl where the listening time was increased to around 20 minutes per side. By 1970’s cassette tapes became the format of choice and due to the significant increase in capacity, talking books were now feasible. The commercial audiobook market was born!

The audiobook industry grew rapidly through the 1980’s and 1990’s. Advances in technology and in compressed audio formatting in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s  saw further growth in the industry as audiobooks moved into digital format.

Audiobooks have come a long way since Edison’s first recording!

Audiobooks are primarily aimed at the vision impaired but are also popular with many other “readers”. They  play an important part in education, particularly with dyslexic students and those with other learning difficulties.

The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), a UK charity, offers a Talking Books library service and currently has over 18000 titles available.

So how does an author get their book into audiobook format?

That’s been a question that I’ve been pondering for a while after receiving a few enquiries about releasing my book babies in this format.

As those of you who follow my ramblings will know, I have self-published both my “babies” through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing and Create Space options.

Did Amazon offer an audiobook service? Yes, they do! ACX.com

So I registered my book babies as available projects and started the search for a narrator who is prepared to work with me on a Royalty Share basis.

I selected sections from each book to be used for audition purposes. (Not as easy a task as it sounds, trust me!)

This is feeling more like a theatrical production than a book!

There are over 40 000 audiobook samples from potential narrators available on ACX to listen to. Fortunately it is possible to narrow down your search based on genre, gender of narrator, accent, vocal style etc.

I narrowed the search down to about 250 samples and began to trawl through them. This is where I hit stumbling block number one.

I hate being read to! I’m really struggling to select potential narrators to contact to invite them to audition. I’m sure they are fantastic narrators but most of them so far are making me cringe.

Stumbling block number two is cost. There are very few narrators that I’ve identified who are prepared to work on such lengthy tales on a Royalty Share basis. Most are seeking a fee of a minimum of $100 per finished hour. For both books that would amount to roughly $3000. WAY beyond my purse!

So, here’s my plea –  are you or do any of you know any fledgling narrators trying to establish a portfolio presence who would be prepared to invest the time on a Royalty Share basis? Do any of you know of other avenues to convert my book babies into audiobooks with minimal financial outlay?

There’s a whole new group of readers ..ok, listeners… out there and I’d love to introduce them to Jake and Lori and all things Silver Lake.

 audiobook

(images sourced via Google – credits to the owners)

 

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People Watching

Posted on May 12, 2016 | Leave a comment

On my fourth train of the day- at last! This one is taking me home after a long day.

Each of the four trains and four stations that I’ve travelled through today have been busy- yes, even at 6.25 this morning when the journey started.

Where do all these people come from and go to?

On the two trains this morning, I guess the majority were going to work, like I was, but where do they all work? What do they do for a living? Do they enjoy their jobs?

There was a wider variety of passenger on the two trains and in the three stations on the return leg of the journey.

I’ve been in Edinburgh (well, just outside of the city centre to be more precise) so the majority of folk who were crowded onto the first train of the evening were heading home from work. It was a packed rush hour train but I was lucky – I got a seat!

Glancing round, over the top of my kindle, I pondered what kind of day they’d all had? Were they as knackered as I was feeling at that point?

There were several people listening to their iPods. What were they listening to? Did any of them share the same taste in music as me? Were they in fact listening to an audiobook and not music?

Others, like me, were reading their kindles. What plot twist were they caught up in?

The gentleman opposite me was doing neither. He was wearing mirrored aviator sunglasses and sat watching me the whole way to Glasgow. It felt a little creepy and I was relieved when he didn’t get off at the same stop as me. Whew!

When the train stopped at Glasgow’s Queen St station it was easy work out where a large proportion of the passengers were going to. There was a sea of black on the platform heading for the exit – black leather, black denim, black eye make-up, black hair and Black Veil Brides t-shirts. Andy Black, aka Andy Biersack front man with BVB is playing a solo show at the O2 Academy in Glasgow as I type. (For my rock chick friends who are there – hope it’s a great gig!)

It’s been a glorious spring day today so the city streets were filled with late night shoppers and folk enjoying an al fresco meal or just a few drinks with friends in the early evening sun.

Jealousy was kicking in around about this point as I was both hungry and thirsty but I had a final train to catch.

The strains of an expertly picked tenor banjo echoed along Gordon St as I hurried towards the Central Station. I had expected the street entertainer to be older, greyer and more wizened (ok, I was stereotyping!) but instead discovered it was a young boy. I now regret not fishing out some change to drop into his velvet lined banjo case. The boy was great but I had a train to catch!

Glasgow Central too was busy. True to form, I just missed a train by two minutes. Bugger!

As I waited by the board for the platform number to be revealed, I watched all the people rushing through.

Where was the guy in tuxedo off to? And the guy with the bike laden down by a huge rucksack? What was his story?

The guy with the black dreads – how long had he been growing those?

People all around me were focussed on their phones. Were they texting a loved one? Instant messaging a friend? Playing a game? Checking Facebook or Twitter?

Even now that I’m on the train home (Hallelujah!) the couple opposite me aren’t talking or interacting with each other. She’s got huge bright pink headphones on and is reading a pamphlet. He’s playing on his phone. What happened to conversation?

As for me, I’m sitting here listening to my iPod (Alter Bridge’s Fortress album for those who may be interested), writing this blog entry, checking my phone for the occasional message and dreaming of the bacon sandwich and glass of wine waiting for me when I finally get home. Five stops to go!

In the meantime, there’s more people to watch and who knows, some of them may be the inspiration for characters in a future book baby!

train 3train 4train1train2

 

 

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A Few Manners Go A Long Way…

Posted on May 2, 2016 | 1 comment

Alvarado-Theater-Etiquette-

Call me old fashioned but manners cost nothing.

A few days ago a friend and I went to an all-seated show in Glasgow. Yes, it was a music event, an acoustic show, but the setting was most definitely more akin to a theatre setting than your standard rock venue.

Now let’s make something quite clear from the start here. I am not against folk against folk having a few drinks and a good time at a show. OK?

It was the lack of manners on several levels that quickly got under my relatively thick skin.

I have been in the habit of visiting theatres and concert halls and attending rock shows for over thirty years. (EEK!) I’ve always been taught that if a show is all-seated then there are some basic rules of etiquette to be followed. They’re not difficult!

The first is common courtesy – arrive on time!  (yes, I know folk get stuck in traffic etc. etc.) Please don’t arrive half an hour or, as was the case with several folk, an hour and a half late and expect to be shown straight to your seat, especially if said seat is in the middle of a row of folk who actually arrived on time and are enjoying the show. I’ve also a word of caution for the theatre staff here. Please be careful where you are pointing your torches as you escort latecomers to their seats. Repeatedly we were blinded by a member of staff pointing his Maglite torch in our faces as he walked to the front section of the stalls. Point the damn thing at the floor not the audience!

The second rule, especially when there’s clear signage on display, turn off your phone and don’t attempt to take photographs or record parts of the performance. If it’s the theatre’s policy, then please comply. There’s no one who enjoys capturing a few photographic or video memories than me but, if the venue says “No” then I’m happy to comply. The man with the torch was policing this by shining his torch directly on the offenders but yet again was blinding those in his path to the offending fan.

The third rule is around food and drink in the auditorium. I appreciate that this is a sensitive area and that I am in the minority as, in general, I don’t drink alcohol at a gig. Never have, never will. (Makes you need to pee and also leads to fuzzy photos!) If, however, you feel the need to bring drinks into the theatre then please do so at the start and during breaks in the show and not in the middle of the set. The traffic to and from the bar throughout the entire show was ridiculous and unnecessary! This behaviour also leads to two other issues. The first of these is spillage. From our elevated seats, I watched numerous music fans who were happily enjoying the show have to stand up to allow folk to return to their seats and who got slopped with beer for their courtesy. It kind of goes without saying, if you drink too much liquid then you need to pee so by the latter half of the show there was a constant stream of folk heading out of the auditorium towards the toilets, again disrupting the show for those around them. Now, if you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go (as an IBS sufferer I totally get that) but in these surroundings be considerate to all concerned, including the performers on stage.

The fourth rule in my book is no talking during the performance. Now this one can be relaxed a little as singing along was most definitely called for throughout the night. However, among the worst offenders for talking loudly throughout the entire show were the two “mature” members of the theatre staff, who were manning the doors to our left. The music may not have been to their personal tastes but they of all people should know that you don’t carry on a full conversation at normal conversational levels during a performance. There were many,many other offenders throughout the evening. At one point, someone on their way back to their seat explained in no very direct terms that he hadn’t come there to listen to a particularly noisy group of music fans but had paid money to listen to the guy on the stage. The piece de resistance though was the guy seated diagonally behind me who either made a call or answered a call on his phone and sat having an entire lengthy conversation in the middle of the set.

The fifth rule links back to rule three. If you’ve got an allocated seat, sit in it! Again, it’s different if the show allows for the audience to be on their feet or if the performance has earned a standing ovation which this one did. Rule six links in here too. Keep your feet off the seats but also don’t interfere with someone else’s seat by leaning on it or kicking the back of it, even if you are kicking in time to the music!

I’d love to know what the performers on stage thought of this behaviour. These guys had travelled thousands of miles to bring this show to the stage and a large number of the audience didn’t even pay them the common courtesy of arriving on time and paying attention to the magic being spun on the stage.

It’s sad…..tragic almost.

One music fan caught my eye late on in the evening. He was seated in the stalls near the front and several seats in from the aisle. He waited for a lull between songs before leaving his seat, quietly slipping from the auditorium. Upon his return, he stayed at the back until the song in progress on the stage was over then walked back down the aisle towards his seat. The star on stage launched straight into the next song. Did this music fan barge his way back into his seat? No, he stood in the passageway until the song was over then re-took his seat. It was nice to see that not all manners had been lost.

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Edit Without Mercy……

Posted on April 28, 2016 | 3 comments

without-mercy

Edit without mercy……that phrase sends chills rattling up and down my spine!

“What? You mean you want me to cut out chunks of the wording I’ve laboured over for weeks and months? You want me to bin them?”

I struggle with the whole editing process. I’ve never had much success at culling scenes from my book babies. It’s just too painful.

This was true until two days ago!

After agonising for days over it, Book Baby 3 underwent a massive cull by anyone’s standards. Without spoiling the storyline, I had a scene in mind to slot into the partially completed manuscript. I’ve spent the past month working on this pivotal point in the story and, in true Book Baby fashion, it evolved and grew, ending up far longer than originally planned. (My central characters have been leading me astray!)

When I slotted it into its rightful place, it just sat there, sticking out all over the place.

It fits perfectly with the first section of the tale but, like a cuckoo in the nest, it was pushing the subsequent parts out of the way.

I read it all over from start to finish. I read it again and a third time.

I spent several hours trying to “tweak” the following passages so that the flow of story continued uninterrupted. I failed miserably!

My A4 notebooks had paperclips and post its and coloured marks dotted all over them. There were squiggles by the dozen in the margins.

It was time for drastic action!

I finally overcame my fear of being ruthless and scrapped what I had written beyond the new pivotal scenes.

I scrapped approximately 250 handwritten pages.

I sacrificed between 45000-50000 words that had been lovingly written. GULP!

I waited on the ensuing panic to hit me. The anticipated mental cries of “What have you done!”

They never materialised.

It was liberating. It’s set the storyline free again and the pivotal scene is now nestling comfortably in its rightful position.

(Author breathes a sigh of relief!)

So what did I do with all those beautiful words that I’d spent months writing?

Did I shred them?

Did I bin them?

No. I closed the book over, put a post it on the front saying “Shelved” and stashed it in my “desk drawer” aka the red plastic crate that lurks under the kitchen table.

I just couldn’t bring myself to totally destroy all my hard work. After all, there’s actually nothing wrong with them. They just don’t “fit” anymore.

I’ve hoarded them away.

A further thought struck me like a bolt of lightning. I’m a word hoarder!

I probably have every creatively written word that I’ve produced over the past 30 some years stashed away in the house somewhere.

I may have finally been able to edit without mercy but I can’t destroy the evidence…yet!

 

 

(image shared via Google Images)

 

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A Little Dose Of Much Needed Vitamin D

Posted on April 20, 2016 | Leave a comment

sun effects

 

Today has reminded me that you can’t under estimate the therapeutic effects of an hour spent in the sun.

Normal blog service will resume next week….depending on the weather 😉

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Happy First Birthday, Book Baby

Posted on April 13, 2016 | 1 comment

“Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday dear Book Baby

Happy Birthday to you!”

 Trendy girl first birthday cake with first birthday cupcakes pictures

Scary to believe but my Book Baby aka Stronger Within celebrates its first birthday this Friday, 15th April. Can it really be a whole year since I unleashed it on an unsuspecting world?

Apparently it is and what a year it’s been!

As I realised that this anniversary was approaching, I began to reflect on the last twelve months. It’s been a creative roller coaster ride!

If I’m being totally honest, it still all feels surreal and I don’t know if it will ever really sink in that I’ve actually made one of my lifelong dreams come true not once but twice in twelve short months.

As a little girl, I was always writing stories and plays and dreaming of growing up to be a writer. I’d use my pocket money to buy a new notebook and pen then come home and curl up in corner to write. (not much has changed there- I’m still usually in a corner of the house!) Some of these stories were written. Others were barely started.

An English teacher at school almost put me off writing forever but, after reassurance from another teacher, I picked up my notebook and pen again. For several years, as a teenager, I wrote furiously, filling notebook after notebook with a family saga that spanned three generations of strong female role models. Looking back, the first incarnation of Jake Power is probably lurking among those pages. (I still have all of those reporter notebooks in the wardrobe. Who knows, maybe someday in the future I may re-visit that first “book”)

In some ways not a lot has changed over the years in my approach to writing. My handwriting has got a hell of a lot worse, I’ll say that much! As I’ve said before, I can write faster than I can type so all first drafts, blogs, music reviews included are handwritten.

I remember deciding to start Book Baby partly on a whim but the time felt right to bring the characters that had been living in my imagination to life. In true Coral fashion, I bought a couple of new A4 notebooks and some colourful pens. Those first few words were penned sitting on my front doorstep in the early evening sun on 8 May 2013. And, as time went by over the weeks and months, the words continued to flow.

By the time Book Baby aka Stronger Within was published last April, Book Baby 2  aka Impossible Depths had also been written in its first raw, naked state. (Yes, that required more new notebooks and pens. If I’m honest, one is written in pink notebooks, the other in blue so I guess you could say one’s a boy and the other’s a girl!)

Something I’ve not revealed before is that Book Baby 3 was already a work in progress this time last year. One pivotal scene from it was actually written in Dec 2013 but I began the main body of the tale in June 2014. All hasn’t run smoothly with this third book baby. It’s been a stop-start/love-hate affair ever since…until recently.

I’ve made some major changes to it, re-written some parts and I’m now feeling the love for it again. Perhaps It’s suffered a little from “third child syndrome” but I’ve collected my thoughts, given it some much needed TLC and am now working hard to nurture it to its final chapter. (Don’t get too excited! It won’t be ready for publication until 2017 at some point.)

I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself at this point in time. (I still work full time, write two blogs, admin two rock star fan pages and run a family.) I want to enjoy writing Book Baby 3 as, at this point in time, it is the last planned book in the Silver Lake series. But, hey, never say never, so who knows where my characters may lead me by the end of it.

A few days after the launch of Stronger Within, I posted a blog on here about the first few days of Book Baby Motherhood (https://coralmccallum.wordpress.com/2015/04/20/the-first-few-days-of-book-baby-motherhood) I drew up a short list of things to try to overcome about becoming a published author (eek! – I’ve finally said it out loud!)

First on the list was to stop feeling so self- conscious and allow myself to feel proud of my achievement. I’ve partly succeeded. I still feel very self-conscious and awkward when people ask me about the books. Inwardly though, I am proud of the achievement. I honestly don’t know how many copies have been sold  in either format or downloaded via Kindle giveaways or read via Kindle Unlimited. I did a rough count a while ago and it was into four figures. What makes me feel proud is the lovely feedback and reviews that the books are earning. Seeing other people love my characters as much as I do makes me feel proud. And each twinkly star makes all the long hours of typing, editing, proofreading and panic worthwhile.

Second on the list was to relax and let things take their course. Confession – I’ve failed miserably here. I can’t do relax. Fact!

Third was to re-connect with my characters and storylines. I’ve definitely re-connected with my main characters, I’ve created a few new ones and the storyline is evolving. I’m very much a “go with the flow” writer and don’t meticulously plan. I do plan the salient points of the outline but occasionally my characters detour on their journey between these. There is no paragraph or chapter plan for any of the books in the series. It’s all in my head or the odd bit is on a post it stuck in the notebook. (I suspect several writer friends have just thrown their hands up and shrieked in horror at this revelation.)

And the final challenge was to learn how to stop blushing when anyone speaks to me about the books. A physical impossibility! I am now an expert at turning 50 Shades of Red in the blink of an eye!

So all that’s left to say is a HUGE thank you to each and every one of you who have shown me your love and support of the past year. There’s a few of you that I couldn’t do this without (you all know who you are) and I’d like to add an extra thank you to these people for putting up with me. I know I must be a royal pain in the ass at times. (I hope you’re all ready for round three when the time comes though.)

So, how do I plan to celebrate Book Baby’s first birthday?

A few months after it was published someone said to me that they’d read it, quite enjoyed it but it wasn’t their kind of book. I admired their honesty. They then went on to say that by reading it, I had encouraged them to read other books. That statement alone struck a chord with me and made all the hard work worthwhile.

To celebrate Stronger Within’s first year, I’ve set up a FREE download day on 15 April on Amazon’s kindle store worldwide. Yes, the best way to celebrate it is to share it with as many people as possible. If it encourages just one person to discover the pleasure to be found in a book then it will be a very happy birthday indeed.

SW page1

( The first page of the first draft of Stronger Within)

 On Friday 15th April , Stronger Within can be downloaded for FREE via this link –

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stronger-Within-Silver-Lake-Series-ebook/dp/B00VXDSC1M?ie=UTF8&keywords=stronger%20within&qid=1460582354&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

 

Book 2 in the series, Impossible Depths, can be found here –

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ebooks-Impossible-Depths-Silver-Lake-Book-ebook/dp/B01C0GS30K/ref=pd_sim_351_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=51WJPFtx6TL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_UX300_PJku-sticker-v3%2CTopRight%2C0%2C-44_OU02_AC_UL160_SR107%2C160_&refRID=09P4V527TV80BES9NRE9

SW & ID

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