Lily Graham's Blog, page 5

Moving to Suffolk and other adventures

It’s been three weeks since we’ve moved to Suffolk into our first home since leaving South Africa three and a bit months ago, having stayed with our dear friends who kindly put up with us until we got ourselves set up.

No one was more surprised than us that the husband got a job in Suffolk, especially as historically my great grandfather hails from there – perhaps he had a hand in it? I’d like to think so.

There was a mad scramble to find a place within two weeks and somehow we pulled it off – though we got a few grey hairs in the process. Rental agents and landlords really don’t smile on people with pets sadly. But luckily we came right and found a little place and moved in during the first week of September. The move was exciting – with one thing and another it involved me driving the dog across country – the longest driving trip I’ve had by myself since landing in the UK – I’m happy to report that it went well, even if my nerves were a little shot! Fudge slept through most of it but perked up just as we were around the corner from the house. She does look a bit like she’s saying ‘Are we there yet?’ lol.

Our house is alongside a national park and about fifteen minutes away from the sea – the first day I heard seagulls from my window I turned about five with the excitement. Living near the sea has been a long held dream – and I’m happy to report that I’ve tried to make the most of it so far with ice-cream cones and the obligatory fish and chips on the beach! We’re a few minutes away from Felixstowe, and half an hour from Aldeburgh, the latter is my fast becoming my favourite little seaside town.

With autumn on its way though – it’s gotten pretty chilly in Suffolk, so we’re looking forward to many nature walks in the nearby national park – I need it to work off all the cream teas I’ve sampled since I landed in the UK!

Novel wise I’m hard at work on book three, which is firmly in the first draft stage at present. It’s wonderful to have my own space to write again, though most of our furniture is still due to arrive in a container at the end of October – sigh! I’ve made do with a desk I borrowed from my parents – they also supplied an air mattress for our first few nights. Thank goodness for them. Luckily we bought a new bed which arrived a few days later.We’re using a bistro set in place of a couch, and the only room that really looks like something apart from our bedroom is my study – shows where my priorities are right?

In other news, A Cornish Christmas is out on 30 September – just nine days away, eep. Thank you to everyone who has grabbed a copy and for the bloggers who left early reviews via Netgalley I’m so thrilled you’re enjoying it!

 

 

 

 

Hope you’ve all had a lovely Summer!

xx

 

A Cornish Christmas cover reveal and pre-order release!

Hello my lovelies,

Some super exciting news, which some of you may have heard about on the Twitters – thanks so much to all of you rock stars for sharing and tweeting me!!

For those of you who haven’t heard, I am delighted to let you know that my previously published novella The Postcard has been extended into a full length novel with lots of new exciting twists and turns and is now being rebranded by my lovely publishers Bookouture as A Cornish Christmas and is available for pre-order on Amazon now, out on 30 September, and for those registered registered with NetGalley it’s available now from here.

As any long time readers of this blog will know, this story about a mother’s love and the magic of Christmas time has always held a special place in my heart. It was the first book that I self-published and it was inspired by my own lovely mother. I hope any old readers will enjoy this new extended version – there’s so much more to the story now as it’s literally double in size. New readers, of course, will get to experience this sort of ‘director’s cut’ version for themselves.

Here is the new cover, super cute and christmassy[image error]

Nestled in the Cornish village of Cloudsea, sits Sea Cottage – the perfect place for some Christmas magic … 

At last Ivy is looking forward to Christmas. She and her husband Stuart have moved to their perfect little cottage by the sea – a haven alongside the rugged cliffs that look out to the Atlantic Ocean. She’s pregnant with their much-longed for first baby and for the first time, since the death of her beloved mother, Ivy feels like things are going to be alright.

But there is trouble ahead. It soon emerges that Stuart has been keeping secrets from Ivy, and suddenly she misses her mum more than ever.

When Ivy stumbles across a letter from her mother hidden in an old writing desk, secrets from the past come hurtling into the present. But could her mother’s words help Ivy in her time of need? Ivy is about to discover that the future is full of unexpected surprises and Christmas at Sea Cottage promises to be one to remember.

This Christmas warm your heart and escape to the Cornish coast for an uplifting story of love, secrets and new beginnings that you will remember for many Christmases to come.

Out 30 September 2016

***** Note previously published as The Postcard this is a new and highly extended version *****

Get it from all Amazon stores here 

Let me know what you think of the new cover? I LOVED my old one too, but this does feel very Christmassy and sweet and I’m so excited for it’s release.

xxxx

Letter from A Bulldog: The Fudge Files, # 1

Greetingssth,

I rethently discovered that the human – The One Who Feedthss – has vacated the premisess tempthorarily and left her Shiny Thing with The Halfth Eaten Fruit picture on itth behind.

Thissss is not hardddth to use as I jussst speakth to the person insiddeth the Siny Thing and it putss out the words. I’m not sure why The One Who Feedthsss moans about it beingth hard, honesttlyths.

Excuse my lissssp, but I have a well defined bulldogths jaw, which makes speakingth diffiscult. This I assures you is common in dogsss of my kind. The One Who Feeds says that the smell ith too, but reallyss she has all the sophisthitcassion of a turnip, sometimesss.

The humans, The One Who Clears Away My Poo For No Good Reason, and The One Who Feedthss, have been having a hard time finding a plaacethhh to stay because other humans are not always happy with dogssss. We hadthhh a nice place to stay when we lived in The Hot Place though that was too hot, I was havingth to swim all the time and I don’t like to swim. I misssth the pigeons though. They werez tasty.

Anywayths, now we lives in The Wet Place, which is mucchh better for me, and I heardth them sayingth that they were sad about the humans not taking dogssss, they said this while they were standing next to The Foodsth Portal, the one with the holy light that opens to reveal such mithraculous foodsth things… I liveth to stands there, sometimessss The One Who Feeds gives me things from there that she tellsth me not to tell The One Who Clears Away My Poo For No Good Reason about …. but anywayth, thats what they were sayingth when I lookedth up from the sausage that the One Who Feedthss fed me in secretssss. This makesss them sad. Not the sausages. But that the other humans are stupidthhhh  about dogthsss. Then … oh then….. then they saidth something very excitingth. They said that I’m not really a dog anywaysss. They said somethingth about sleepingth for eighhtheeen hours a day… but I suspectth that really what they meant was that I’m actually a human myself!!!!!!

This makesth a lot of sensthes.

Reallyss. It does. I thinks this means that my foodths will change, and be on a shiny thing too like theirsssss! Oh the joy! Also then I can have the things that come in the crinkly thing that smellsssth like heavens…. chocolate! They alwayssss telling me its bad for dogggssssss. But now!?! Now I am human!

But they are slow to act on my human statussth. They are humanssth after all, not quick like dogsthhh, I can saythsss this honestly as up until recently I was a doggsss myself, so I am an authority on the subject. Which means that I will have to show them how very human I am.

It’sth why I’ve decidedddd that I will now launchethh my plansss to take over the couch, and share my newsthhh in training the humans with you.

This is couch.

It’s not The One Who Feedthsss or The One Who Clears Away my Poo’s couch, it belongth to the parents of The One Who Makes Me Run. I likethh her. She dropths food on the floor all the timeths right where I am standing. Or she puts foodths in her pawssss just so that I can get to it very fast as she is not much bigger than me. I knows she likes this game as she laughs whenever I take the foodth. I like this game too as I always gets the foodths. Such fun we have! Though sometimessss when I am tiredddth, I hides away when she gets homes from being away, so that I can sleep some more and stay close to couch and plan taking it over. First I needsth a ladder though.

I will lets you know know howsth it go. Also if any other silly humans will says yesss to doggsss, even though I am not a dogssss, as you know.

Fudge

P.Ssssssssth now that I am a human, I would also like my own housethhh. What do you thinks of this one? I like it except that it needs couch. Then it is perfect.

 

 

 

The Summer Escape enters the top 100, we move to England, and other stuff…

Hello my lovelies,

So many amazing things have happened in such a short amount of time, sorry for keeping so quiet around here, but it’s been a whole lot of madness.

Firstly, we moved countries – whole continents – from South Africa to England, dog included. Yes! I have never been so exhausted in all my life as there was so much to do to get here, like pack in the day job, ship our stuff, sell our home, go on a last family holiday with my husband’s family and finish up book two – all at the same time. Yes. Murphy, is not kind.

But now, we are here. Staying in the meantime with friends in their lovely Victorian home in Olney, Buckinghamshire – oh the pretty – till we find our own place…

This was from a sunset walk I had with my BFF and my godchild the other day…

At around the same time – seriously, the same week The Summer Escape came out. It was so hectic with one thing and another I didn’t even get to blog that my book was out – but you would have seen on social media from all the kind souls etc who tweeted and shared and the general all round loveliness of others in support of this book – can’t even tell you how grateful I feel.

The Summer Escape came out on 26 May, and in the last few days it entered the top 100! It’s currently at around 73… which is pretty surreal, I can tell you! The first day it entered the top 100 it was sitting next to Harry Potter. I had a real moment when I was like … this isn’t me, is it?

But it is and somehow, miraculously, it’s still in the top 100. This is all because of the incredibly kind and supportive people who have taken the time to buy, read, review and recommend it – so thank you so much. It’s also because of my incredible publishers Bookouture – who really go that extra mile for their authors, I couldn’t be happier with them. While I enjoyed being an indie author I must admit that having a team like this is so much better for me.

Here’s the book … in the top 100, right now (3.18 pm, 1 June 2016)

 

Pretty spectacular – rather a fabulous welcome to England present!

In other news, I am currently busy on the structural edits of book 2 – yes they work fast at my publishing company! So no rest for the wicked! I’m quite excited for this book as it went from a novella as the self-published The Postcard and will now be a fuller, novel length book out later this year. It’s been quite challenging to add to the story without detracting from the original but I think I’ve reached a sweet spot – or at least I hope I have.  There will be several more rounds of editing and then it should be out for preorder sometime later this year with an end of year release.

It’s wonderful to be in the same place as my parents and best-friends – it’s been far too long since we saw them all, and we are loving spending time with them while enjoying the countryside and village life – such great fodder for the writing.

There are things here in England that just seem magical. Like lemon drizzle and Jaffa cakes and of course the sun being out till 9.p.m… when there is sun, wink. But then again, there’s a bit of magic in socks and hot chocolate too.

xxxx

Help me name my Cornish village!

Hello my lovelies!

I am deep in the writing cave. The rooibos (that is superb, South African tea that tastes like heaven, for those who haven’t tried it) has been flowing, I have discovered Scrivener (OMG where have I been?? It’s a writerly program that lets you do all sorts of cool things like outline, write in scenes, make corkboards, insert pictures for inspiration, and generally procrastinate the hell out of a project, so of course, it’s bliss) despite that, I’ve been plugging away at turning my novella The Postcard into a full-length novel, all while packing up the home to set sail for England (even though it’s our things sailing not us).

Now, firstly someone should have warned me that actually it’s bloody hard to do such a thing, like turn a completed, shorter story into a much longer one, and if I had a Delorean (that’s a time travel mobile, okay it’s just a car, but it was converted into a time machine in my favourite film Back to The Future, I, II, and III … I digress) there’s a chance I may have said, “Er no, actually, let me rather just write a completely new book …far more sensible, yes.”

But as I don’t have a Delorean, and despite all my dramatic moanings (the poor husband) it has actually been quite fun, especially when I chucked the rooibos, and brought in wine to truly contemplate the problem at hand, it turns out that thankfully enough there are some things to add. Some not so bad things. Like The Thursday Club. I’ll tell you about them soon[image error]

One of those ‘adding in’ things has set me up quite nicely for book three, oddly enough, which has made it rather necessary to have an actual name for my village. I’d gotten away with it just being sort of vaguely set somewhere in Cornwall before, but now it needs a bit more focus. Also, look, I love maps and illustrations and I’m hoping that my publishers will do a sort of map thing in the front so I can geek out … but we can keep that to ourselves. If it doesn’t work out I’ll do something on a napkin or something and share it here. Oh the excitement …

So, to have a little fun with it, I thought I’d ask for your help. I need a pretty name for my fictional, coastal village in Cornwall. Any suggestions? Preferably Cornish with some meaning behind it. Though if it’s English and meaningful or atmospheric … I’d be happy too.

If I love it, I’ll pop you in the acknowledgements and maybe name a character after you … well, unless, your name is Osbertitrude or something. Then you are welcome to be the village cat.

Hopefully these images will inspire you … I look forward to hearing your suggestions! Don’t be shy. Any and all are welcome.

It always seems impossible till it’s done

Like many, I have a quote that always pops into my head whenever I’m going through a  particularly stressful period. Or am chipping away at a veritable iceberg sized goal. It always makes me take a step back and try to put things in perspective. The quote is : “It always seems impossible until it’s done.”

These wise words come from Nelson Mandela, who faced unimaginable cruelty and injustice, yet taught a nation the value of love and compassion. I could fill a whole post about Mandela. I WAS born in South Africa, so you can just imagine … but this is a post about getting through stressful periods – big or small. The same premise holds.

When I wrote my first book it felt like an insurmountable task. I’d been trying to finish a book for eight years. I had all these half complete manuscripts languishing on a hard drive, and I’d never managed to get to the end of one. This was mostly (absolutely, actually)  because I kept getting caught up with the idea of perfection. I’d be happy with what I had so far, but then get stuck thinking that anything else I added would ruin the story. If I left it … it was possible that it could still be perfect. Someday.

So I’d start another, get to the same point with the next book where I’d get stuck and think , “If I come back to this later, I’ll know what to do then. The magic will appear and it will be better for the wait.” Rinse, repeat. Add eight years. Six or seven books.

Then my BFF met a woman who self-published her books on Amazon, and lived in a remote town and was able to support herself and her growing cat sanctuary. Basically our kind of quirky lady. The BFF phoned me, breathless, and told me that I HAD to do this TOO. I had to pick up one of my half complete books and finish one and just bloody well see what happens. Also it would be good to finally have a complete one for her to read.

See, she’d been reading the half-finished manuscripts and putting up with the ‘Cath! I have a new idea for a book. Yes, yes, I know you’re still reading the last one, forget about that one just for now… it’s this one that I want to tell you/send to you/ get your opinion  about …” conversation for those self-same eight years.

I don’t why she put up with it for so long. But the foot came down. It’s a very gentle foot, is the BFF’s foot, but it came down and it was firm: “Write a complete book by the end of the year. C’mon. Let’s try this thing and see if we can put it on Amazon.” She was going to do the hard work of editing the thing and fixing all my grammatical errors. I knew I had the easy part. I am a terrible grammarian. Commas are my Achilles heel.

Anyway, I digress.  So I did it. Wrote, the book that is.  I chose one of the older ones. It turned out to be the worst one, but there was something there, some kernel that I could use which was the premise of a girl running away from her life. I REALLY loved that idea.

So I started the whole thing over, keeping about 200 words from the original. Then I set it aside for a bit, convinced it was dreadful. I was a hack etc. The BFF, thankfully, disagreed.

To distract myself. I wrote a novella during NANOWRIMO which with the BFF’s help (she has a linguistics degree and is a brilliant editor) I released it and this became my first book for sale on Amazon. Words can never describe the feeling when you’ve realised you’ve gotten a sale and it’s not from anyone you know. You know the people who buy it out of pity. Like the sweet cat lady I mentioned. Or you get a review from a book reviewer who has taken the time to read your book instead of the gazillion other books available and takes the time to leave you a review. That day was pretty damn spectacular. My first reviewer was the gorgeous blogger Isabell Homfeld who is just a wonderful person generally. Book bloggers are a special kind of people. They’re the ones that if an alien race was thinking of destroying earth, because we are mostly an awful bunch of polluters and marauders, I’d want to present to provide proof in the existence of good in this world. But I digress again.

A few months later after the release of my novella The Postcard, we edited the first book, which was called, An Invincible Summer – and that went live as well. The funny thing is, if my BFF hadn’t (once again) been the voice of reason I might never have published it. I was nervous about it, maybe because there was this little piece of my soul in it, I’m not sure. But luckily I listened to the BFF and it was released. Somehow in the space of a year I’d done the impossible: I had two complete works out in the world. An Invincible Summer,  outsold my novella at around twenty to one, and stayed in the top 100 of holiday fiction on Amazon UK for over three months – I couldn’t believe it.

Then almost a year after I started my self-publishing journey, An Invincible Summer caught the eye of Bookouture (after I sent them a copy, of course, lol) and I was offered a three book deal. Two of which included my self-published books. That day was a pretty darn great day.

Invincible Summer is now The Summer Escape. It’s grown from the attention of the incredible team at Bookouture and is a much more polished version, but it’s essentially the same book that had the BFF not convinced me to release into the world, may still be languishing on my hard drive. The book that led to a three-book deal with pretty much the most exciting publishing team to be with right now. I don’t say that lightly, I’m in company with people like Mel Sherratt, Robert Bryndza of The Girl in the Ice, Caroline Mitchell, Christie Barlow, and Holly Martin … to name a few. Yup, it’s insanely cool, and I do sometimes feel like I snuck in through the back door, but oh well.

Now as I turn my 35,000 word novella The Postcard, into a full-length novel which has to be handed over in May, while dreaming up book three which I have to get done by November, while I pack up my home and life in Joburg, South Africa for England, and work out the notice for the day job, I know how important it is to have support – I couldn’t have got here without the BFF, my family, and friends, and am reminded once again of those words: It always seems impossible until it’s done. Because, it’s so true. And what no one tells you, is what dreams may come when it is done.

The Summer Escape now on NetGalley

Hello everyone!

Great news! The Summer Escape – previously published as An Invincible Summer about love, loss, a burnt down vineyard and following your heart in beautiful Crete, is available now for free from NetGalley for book bloggers, vloggers, and book lovers, grin!

Get it here – note you have to be signed in to see it. Otherwise just browse the titles – you’ll find it under Women’s Fiction.

 

 

My February Love List

Unlike one of the characters in my novels, who despises lists of all kinds: to-do lists, bucket lists, top travel places to visit lists, books you should read before you die lists, I on the other hand am a big fan. Especially fun lists. Lists for the sake of having a list are a real source of happiness for me. My personal best is a list of things I love at the moment.

It is an excellent form of procrastination at work. While I’m driving or just generally breathing air in and out on a daily basis, I’m mentally awarding stars and putting things into a list of favourite things as I go. It’s wildly fun and as I mentioned a complete waste of time, which is fun in and of itself. You’ve got to have a hobby right? There is a wellbeing component to it, which I suppose is gratitude related but honestly I just do it because the radio is on the fritz. I’m kidding. It’s my Ipod.

Anything can creep into my mental bag of fun. So I thought I might actually put all this brain cataloguing to good use and share it with you guys. I’ll be doing top favourites for the month by random number. It’s a no nonsense, no pretence list – just the things I’m currently loving and enjoying. It’s not in order of preference, or by type, however. I mean I’ve got to have some semblance of a life.

My Feb favourites

My Grandmother Sends her Regards and Apologises by Fredrik Backman. Laugh out loud, poignant, irreverent, and quirky – the best book I’ve read in years. “All seven year olds deserve a superhero,” is the first line where you meet Elsa a Swedish seven-year-old who is Harry Potter obsessed, part genius, possibly one of the best characters I’ve come across in a very long time. Love.

2 The sea.

3. Carbs. I have recently reintroduced them and am now starting sensible diet #66567575675. Yay for bread.

4. English bulldogs. Like seas, all bulldogs are wonderful, but mine is the best – here is Fudge.

5. Avocados with lemon on toast.

6. My husband, no he didn’t ask me to say it ;)

7. My publishers Bookouture, and the cover for The Summer Escape

8. The kind, and welcoming Bookouture authors

9. Honey with peanut butter on toast

10. Berocca. Saving me from myself when no sleep is had

11. Reruns of River Cottage

12. Jamie’s Super Food

13. Hammocks

14. The idea of nap rooms

15. The Worried Writer Podcast

16. The Creative Penn Podcast

17. This Ted talk by Carrie Green

18. Ophelia, by The Lumineers

19. The colour duck egg blue

20. Pinterest – check out my board called ‘A Little Cottage by The Sea’ – Would be a great book title I think. It’s serving as inspiration for book 3.

21. Cooler weather. I’m in South Africa at the moment where there have been rolling heat waves since December

22.My Ipad mini – a daily source of kindle-related joy.

23. Dr Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory

24. Call the Midwife season 5

25. Robert Frost’s poem The Woods are lovely, dark and deep

26. Stone cottages with slate windows

27. Selling my house and planning our relocation to the English countryside

28. Cornwall. Always.

29.Bunting. Because really

30. Writing sheds

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let me know if you’re also a fan of fun lists, and what your favourite things are for the month!

The Summer Escape cover reveal, available for preorder now!

Ta-dah!! Here is the gorgeous cover for The Summer Escape –  previously published as An Invincible Summer but now a new and extended version. I really think my publishers Bookouture did an incredible job! It so perfectly captures the spirit of the story, as well as a glimpse of Summer yet to come …

It’s also available for preorder and will be out on 26 May, click here to preorder it now :)

Hope you like the cover as much as me! xxx

 

 

 

 

 

Big news and lots of hugs

Hello everyone!

I’ve been sitting on some really big news for a while, but I’m delighted to tell you my news – YAY ! Which is that I’ve signed a three book deal with the incredibly dynamic and lovely publishing team Bookouture.

What’s doubly exciting – and you are the first to know about it is that the deal includes my first two self-published books – An Invincible Summer and The Postcard, the first of which will be re-released this May as The Summer Escape.  The third book – an original- yay – will be releasing in April 2018.

For those who have already read my two self-published books, there will be a few new twists and turns, as well as the chance (yay finally) to get hold of a print copy! While I’ve loved the freedom and incredible support I’ve received via self-publishing, I’m excited for this new venture which will allow me to spend more time doing the thing I love which is writing more stories, grin!

I’m so thrilled that the team have offered to publish these titles as I truly believe that with their guidance and experience the books will reach more readers and have the chance to blossom from their years of expertise – already I can tell you that the initial edits of An Invincible Summer, now The Summer Escape show the benefit of having an experienced women’s fiction editor on board – editors are wonderful human beings people!

My other bit of news is that The Postcard will be re-released later this year with a brand new name and will become a full length novel! As many of you know, The Postcard holds a very special place in my heart – I wrote it in a fever, sometimes up to 15 hours a day in a few weeks and it was the first title that I released into the world. The response from book bloggers and readers was overwhelmingly kind and supportive and couldn’t have been a nicer introduction for a newbie author and for that I will always be so grateful!

Most of all though I just wanted to say thank you to all of you  because without your support from reading my books, the emails, tweets, and gorgeous reviews that I’ve received I’m not sure I would be embarking on part two of this amazing adventure. I so hope you’ll be coming along for the ride.

Update!! : Originally the plan was to de-list my self-published titles this week (3 Feb 2016) but as this would lead to a loss of the amazing reviews you guys have taken the time and effort to leave, which would be devastating, my publishers are in communication with Amazon to move them over. I’m really holding thumbs that we’ll be able to keep them!!

So if you’ve been meaning to read An Invincible Summer or The Postcard, you will still be able to get them for a little while longer from  Amazon . You can get them here or wait for their fresh new release later this year.

With much love,

Lily xxx