Sam Russell's Blog, page 14

Spring romance is in the air…

Spring is the time for romance, and I should be #amwriting. But the sun is shining and it’s April! The month when dreams, hope and resolution flourish anew. My optimistic imagination tells me that this month I am going to…

eat healthily
walk, run, ride, swim or cycle every day
write a book
buy a horse
spring clean the house
scrub the garden furniture
tidy up the garden
clip our geriatric dogs
buy new sandals

Amazing isn’t it, what a little bit of sun can do. Regrettably the sunshine creates the thoughts but rarely follows through. I haven’t eaten healthily, yet, because chaotic multi-tasking is not conducive to well-planned meals. The cupboards are empty save for crackers, a few forlorn vegetables and a bag of jelly babies (the latter has been my staple diet today). The car is in the garage, until we pick it up there will be no grocery shop and the farmer is too busy spring farming to run me to the garage.

Yes, I know I should walk, run, ride, swim or cycle to the garage…but hello?

My imagination would be better engaged inventing an edible meal from the strange oddment of delicacies which remain in the freezer. Pheasant? Mince? Cheese sauce? Not with crackers and jelly babies, no. That really will not do.

My study has been spring cleaned. Hurrah! Life de-cluttered. The cupboards from the utility room and farm office have been emptied and entirely fill the dining room and porch. Further spring cleaning is futile and I have lost motivation. I was going to scrub the patio table and chairs (which have grown a sinister green patina over winter) but we have the plumbers in re-modelling our downstairs loo. Between their activities and the farmer filling his spray tank there is insufficient water in the house to fill a glass, let alone several buckets.

The excavated loo bowl and basin sit prettily on the bench at the front of our house. Garden tidy on hold pending a trip to the dump. Trip to the dump impossible due to lack of vehicle.

April is also the end of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs tax year. Book keeping has replaced book writing. The accountant is coming tomorrow (hence the spring clean of the study getting bumped up the list). My first negative comment about “A Bed of Barley Straw” has dented my creative juices: The Gallivanting Granny, returned from Australia and flourishing anew, tells me “there are too many people in the kitchen scene! I couldn’t remember their names.” As GG often fails to recall my name, or those of my siblings, I am trying not to let this offhand comment affect me too much.

Engage the right hand side of your brain: A horse is not just for spring. As you very well know a horse takes time, commitment and energy come rain, shine, or tempest. They also use up lots and lots of money. Clip the animals who already need your attention (a thankless, tiresome job not relished by me or the dogs and best done outside on a very calm day).

Buy some sandals! Now, this one I can do. Whilst sitting at my computer so it almost counts as working. Sandal requirements; cute, trendy, gorgeous. Practical and comfortable. Suitable for dog walks over farmland and for wearing to all the summer parties I am bound to be attending this year. Deliciously irresistible but kind and gentle to feet and joints that have been abused for years. Damn.

My heroine found “a gorgeous pair of rose-gold stilettos, with a thin strap that buckled around the ankle.” The sandals cost more than the rest of her outfit put together, and she has a horse. Don’t you just love fiction.

A Bed of Barley Straw

My free Kindle give away has sadly ended now. I hope you downloaded and enjoyed my book, but if you missed out this time follow me here, on twitter @SamRussellBooks or like my page on Facebook to make sure you get first-hand news about any future competitions or offers.

Below is a taste of some of the reviews “A Bed of Barley Straw” has received so far.

A Bed of Barley Straw is free on Kindle this Friday and Saturday

If you want to indulge in an Easter Romance, my ebook will be free to download for two days only – Friday 3rd  and Saturday 4th April. Happy reading! Here’s a glimspe of what readers have been saying about the book.

Internet downtime and getting in touch with spring

There is a reason the British spend so much time obsessing about the weather. We have so much of it, after all, in rapid cycles. It rarely appears in the anticipated order.

The clocks changed on Sunday, to British Summer Time. April is around the corner. But the farm remains doggedly cloaked in winter shades of brown and fawn and dull grey-green. These islands and their inhabitants are growing impatient. We are holding our breath in nervous conviction that we will get a spring, and that it will be followed by a heady summer. Neither is guaranteed in the fickle British Isles, but our bodies yearn for warm and our eyes crave the dazzle of sunlit colours.

The Farmer and I took a trip to the Norfolk Coast this weekend past. Despite the threat of cold, high wind and rain. All was serene when we arrived at dusk, in time to catch a glimpse of the grey North Sea in tranquil mood, softly slapping the sand with that beautiful whooshing sound that I for one could listen to forever. The waves played their music as our view slowly faded. On Sunday morning we strode out and eagerly watched some crab boats being hauled on to land. The first drops of splintery rain caught us returning from our walk. From the windows of our cosy cottage we saw the spit become a soft downpour. The Church bells jangled joyously. The brave and the hardy passed our window with hoods knotted around their heads and bright umbrellas held aloft. The young and the old alike were noisily invigorated by the adventure of forging on through our changeable March weather. We watched a sturdy toddler in a pink anorak pause in fascination to observe the crystal water gushing from a cast iron drain pipe. She was right to pause. The spouting rainwater chortled out and splattered onto the kerb before streaming to join the small river on the road and rushing downhill to the land drains which pour back to the sea.

On our journey home, we ploughed through endless torrential rain that the windscreen wipers could not cope with. The wind slammed the sides of the car ferociously. We eyed high sided vehicles nervously. March is said to “come in like a lion and go out like a lamb” but it seems the reverse is true this year. A fallen tree blocked the opposite carriageway, and a couple of miles from home we passed a ‘For Sale’ sign at the exact moment when the wind lifted it out of the ground and sent it spiralling into a field.

Power was off at the farm, not an infrequent occurrence when the wind gets up. Our dustbins had gone to visit the neighbours (this is quite a lengthy journey where we live). But roughly an hour later I was out walking the dogs in weak but welcome sunshine.

I am reading “The Summer Book” by Tove Jansson at the moment. A beautiful, simple, evocative tale which is reminding me to notice the details. Just like that sturdy toddler in her pink anorak. We had no internet connection in Norfolk, and limited mobile signal. I lost track of what my book was doing. I didn’t tweet I couldn’t check in with Facebook. I failed to post my weekly blog. I have to admit I could get used to being out of touch. I can see the small, tightly clenched buds on the trees from my window.  I heard the strident bark of a restless dog fox last night. I could smell that dog fox this morning. As I type rain is cracking on the corrugated roof of the lean-to, but I can feel the promise of spring in my bones. My waters tell me it is going to be an absolute beauty.

Running at the wall. Early marketing efforts

Firstly an apology for my hastily posted previous blog, which was nothing more than a shameless ad for my Goodreads Giveaway. My intention that day was actually to link the ‘Goodreads Giveaway’ widget to the book page on my website. Three hours later (dehydrated, in need of sustenance and losing the will to live) I worked out that I can’t do that on my freely hosted site. On the plus side I did learn something about Java script, HTML and plug-ins (there must be a rap there somewhere). On the minus, all you lot got was an alert that RussellRomance had posted a blog, only to view a hurriedly pasted clip of the view of my Giveaway which you would have got, if I could have linked you to it. Technical frustration dogs every stage of this process.

Anyway I digress. My marketing efforts so far (all work-in-progress):

Beg mates to buy the book. Positives: Hugely successful – 99% hit rate. Generous, gushing reviews resulting in warm glowy feeling. Negatives: Something of a short term policy. Few mates left (less than I started with?)
Social media pedalling. Positives: Make new mates (to replace the ones you lost banging on and on about your book). Success rate – not a clue but hopefully aids awareness that your book exists. Additional warm glow (so many nice people out there who are happy to help you along). Negatives: Time and life consuming. Distraction levels at an all-time high. Original thought used up trying to invent interesting posts/tweets.
Feature in a magazine. Positives: Great day out! Whole new experience to bang on to the friends about. Book brought to the attention of thousands of potential readers. Negatives: I haven’t seen the photograph that will feature. (Oh, weak vanity). There may be others…I will let you know.
Plead for reviews from strangers and book review bloggers. Positives: I don’t know yet, my pleas have not been answered. One potential blogger lined up – I have all my fingers crossed. The reviews will be honest (this could be listed under negatives too, but I’m quietly optimistic). Negatives: See previous sentence (safest to hedge your bets).
Run a Goodreads Giveaway of your book. Positives: Raises awareness of book among confirmed bibliophiles. Potential for reviews on respected site. Negatives: Yet another statistic to obsess over – ‘number of people requested’ (I bounce between Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, CreateSpace, Facebook, Twitter and WordPress in a never-ending quest for approval. Sad, but strangely addictive.)
KDP (Kindle) Select. I’m still considering this option, but haven’t signed up yet. Positives: Book has potential to reach thousands of readers for free. Negatives: Royalties per read considerably reduced (not such a problem if your readers quadruple in number). Your ebook becomes exclusive to the Kindle store (I currently publish on Smashwords too). I would be really interested to hear your comments and views if you are either an author signed up to KDP Select or a reader who subscribes to Kindle Unlimited (you may be both of course!)

Other ideas still bubbling in the pipeline: Local press, bookish coffee mornings, appearance on Richard and Judy (yes, I jest. But I have been asked why I can’t just go on there. What a wonderful world to live in.)

Wishing you all a happy, fruitful week. You’ll find me running at that wall, lobbing copies of my book over the top.

GOODREADS GIVEAWAY

Two free copies of my book to give away at Goodreads – Enter  here to to win. Closing date 28th March.

Your book is on Amazon! – Woolly launches and real book sales

Another strange but wonderful week on my learning curve. In fact, the word curve doesn’t fit at all, it implies a gradual arc. An elevator, moving in the opposite direction to the one I am trying to reach, would be more descriptive of my learning efforts this last few weeks.

The ‘launch’ of “A Bed of Barley Straw” was a damp squid of an affair. It isn’t really possible to have a launch date when the best information you have is that your paperback will be available on Amazon within 5-8 days, and your Kindle is “in review”. Feeling game, I had a bash anyway. Platforms were ready and waiting. Twitter, Facebook and Goodreads duly set up, with author pages and bio pics, anticipating the arrival of the book. Friends connected, pages liked. Everything in place…except a launch date.

I tried to pitch a date a week later than the book should actually be ready. To allow myself time to build follower enthusiasm to fever pitch (please remember this blog is tongue in cheek) and to remedy inevitable mistakes I had made in the publish process. I also hoped my wonderful friends and family would all purchase the book on the same day, notching me momentarily up the seller charts (although I haven’t actually worked out what benefit there is in that yet. Everyone else seems to do it, so I guess there must be one.) Alas, I had underestimated the existing fever pitch of said friends and family. They were already there, on Amazon, checking every day. The texts and messages began flying in five days ahead of launch – “Your book is on Amazon!” And then one of them clicked ‘Add to Basket’.

Oh – the thrill! Oh – the fear!

My ‘March Royalty Balance’ on CreateSpace has a number beside it! (‘Print screen’, save in pictures). My mates are patiently awaiting launch, but someone has got there first. Ashamed of my devious shenanigans, I hit the phone and Facebook to let people know that the book was available NOW. Kindle version to follow, I would really like to be able to tell you when.

How strange it is when friends and acquaintances buy your book. They may love it or they may hate it. They might give up reading two chapters in because it isn’t their sort of book. The passionate scenes or the swearing might offend. Horror of horrors, they might believe I wrote from first-hand experience, and view me in an altogether different way from now on.

Pointless to worry of course, nothing to be done. And what actually happened was amazing and humbling. I have been tweeted, texted and Facebooked with excited images of Amazon deliveries and photographs of my book in other people’s hands. Congratulations cards and handwritten notes have been sent. Endless wonderful comments and enthusiastic reviews (which I now need to persuade people to post on Amazon or Goodreads, without being a nag). Several impromptu book signings featuring self-concious giggles. I have even had requests for the next book, and demands that I type fast! Time to re-visit my schedule; re-jig the hours devoted to marketing versus hours devoted to writing.

Second book, here I come.

One Born Every Minute

writersamrussell:

A charming post for Mother’s Day

Originally posted on Girl in Wellies:

Or so it seems. The cows are calving very regularly now and it’s hard not to wince at the bellow of a cow in calf as the sound carries across the yard to the house. I’m only nine months after having a baby myself so I can empathize somewhat. The husky bellow, the discomfort, the fidgeting, trying to find a comfortable position. I stand back at a distance to watch her as she finds her own pace. A blister appears that will burst and eventually you see a pair of crubbeens appearing.

You hear her breathe heavily and shift again knowing that she has to deliver this one safely and that she has been put here to do so. She might stand and then lie down again until eventually, fulfilling her purpose, pushes everything she has into her abdomen to deliver that calf. From the shadows, I will her on…

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Can I write a book?

writersamrussell:

Where it all started, on my brand new blog page which has taken me hours to complete!

Originally posted on russellromance:

This is how my journey began. Having recently given up my part time job (due to parents illness) and seen the youngest of my three children off to University, I ‘accidentally’ watched a programme about Amazon. The programme included a section on independent publishing. They interviewed a writer who had achieved a reasonable level of income from writing and self-publishing his work. My interest was piqued! I have always thought (who hasn’t?!) that I had a book in me. Some research into indie publishing followed. A fair amount of ‘Googling'; a look at what other self-publishers had to say. When I went to bed that night my romantic novel began to invent itself. The following morning I started typing.

I was amazed at the speed with which the words fell on to the page. I didn’t make a plan, I didn’t organise my thoughts. For three solid weeks I just typed. But despite…

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Dear Beta readers, Photography, Marketing and PR

(Yes apparently, that’s what you are. You can rely on the Americans to come up with an important title for ‘mate-who-read-your-book-before-publishing’). You can put it on your CVs now. You’re welcome.

It has been nagging at me that whilst I sit daily at this computer, tweeting furiously at people I have never met, welcoming new friends on Facebook and Goodreads, heaping humble gratitude on followers of my blog…that I have been thoroughly neglecting my actual friends. All of you who helped to make me what I am today: An unknown author, with a self-published book which is currently gushing my money into CreateSpace’s coffers, and has yet to retail a single copy! A soon to be featured, slightly frumpy, middle-aged, glossy-magazine star! My, my, my, how far I have come.

So here are my thanks to you, the people who created this monstrous nonentity. My words are genuine even though my celebrity isn’t. To each of you who searched out the typos and dodgy grammar. Or highlighted characters who had mysteriously changed their name half way through the book…I thank you and remind you that when a copy of the book finds its way into your hands, it will be your fault as much as mine if there are any errors.

To my book cover design team; I apologise heartily for bombarding you with a thousand images I couldn’t then use. And for making you show them to all your friends at every social event before arguing with your feedback. And Committee ‘Name That Book’. Well! We talked ourselves around in circles, didn’t we? Until I went off-piste (pun intended) and thought up something random…which none of you like very much.

Photography – you restored my belief in my youth!  I didn’t know I still had it in me to mount the front of a tractor, and Photoshop is so much easier than plastic surgery! That particular pose may have appeared rather rigid and fearful, but it did at least mean that the 6” heels on the magazine shoot were a stroll in the park.

Marketing and PR…what can I say? I’ve been to a studio in Shoreditch (so I’m now uber-cool). I have a faithful marketing team who recycle my every tweet and post. If you share a friend group with both of us, I apologise again. You must be sick of the sight of me. I tweet “boo” and my team will have it re-tweeted in seconds. The blog is going ballistic, because you lot keep throwing it at people (248 views last week!) Ballistic in my world, that is. I suspect there are many bloggers out there who would chuckle at my meagre numbers.

You all know me very well, and therefore you also know that this tongue-in-cheek, ironic, almost thank-you is about the best you can expect to get from me. But I do mean it really. For listening to me drone on endlessly. For providing limitless enthusiasm.  For being there, and being my mates. From the heart of my bottom…I thank you.

With love

Sam Russell (Author)

p.s. In the interests of multi-tasking, the bulk of this email to you, my friends, may very well appear on my next blog post. Hard hearted and callous yes. But I did want to say thanks.

p.p.s Free, signed copy for each of you. Winging their way to me now. Aren’t you the lucky ones