Jennifer Jeffries's Blog, page 4

Summer almost here

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I finally got out this morning early and went for my walk along the inner harbour here at Te Atatu, Auckland. It feels a long time since I did one, and I am looking forward to starting this pattern of exercise again. It’s just so easy to slip in front of my computer and start typing and suddenly look up to find it is already lunchtime.

I handed another completed story in to my publishers last week, and eagerly waiting – make that nervously waiting – to hear back. Meanwhile I am editing and expanding on my younger teen’s story of a young boy who discovers a magical pearl that allows him to swim underwater. Nice to keep a variety in writing styles.

I’ll get back to it then.

An Unexpected Highlander now a print book from Amazon Australia

Today the paperback copy of my book became available on the Australian Amazon site here. 

I have been waiting to buy it from there myself, but they don’t sell to New Zealand. I presume I need to go back and purchase it from Amazon.com now. If you are a kiwi, I suggest you do the same – by the time you pay for the shipping it brings it up to the cost of the book in Aussie dollars anyway.

 

Thanks for the reviews!

Just a word of thanks to everyone who have been kind enough to let me know what they think of the story. Many have done that by a comment or post on FB or TW and it has made my day. Special thanks to those brave few who have put their review on Amazon or Goodreads! It really makes a difference to book sales and means a great deal to me. I don’t write many reviews myself – and reserve 5 star ratings only for exceptional books – so if you are thinking of writing one for my book, don’t think I’m hoping/expecting that kind of response. Honest.

Anyway – I’ve been so encouraged by the feedback that I’m working through the edits of my second book right now.

An Unexpected Highlander

Saturday 27 October 2018

I just checked with amazon.com.au and they are looking in to getting the paperback up in the next day or so. I cannot buy it in bulk myself except from the Australian site, so I am waiting eagerly for them to put it up. Patience patience. . .

The paperback is now available on Amazon.com!

Check out this link.

Goodreads

I’m on Goodreads as an author — never dreamed this day would come. Would love you to follow me on there. Thanks.

An Unexpected Highlander is out now!

Available in any ebook format from two sites. Boroughs Publishing here, or Smashwords here. Hopefully Amazon will soon have the book available there in both paperback and ebook.

Enjoy! AND PLEASE review it. I don’t expect 5 stars, honest, would be thrilled with 4 stars, hope for 3 stars – you get my drift.

How did ‘An Unexpected Highlander’ come about?

My first book comes out TOMORROW – yee ha! And yes, it is available in paperback and as an ebook. This story started back about five years ago when a small group of keen writers got together with a published author, Anne Ashby, and spent a weekend at the stunning location of Piha beach in Auckland to learn a bit more. One of the tasks we set ourselves was to dress in character with someone from the story we each were writing. I chose to dress as my main character’s mother: Constance Attwater. Here I am dressed in costume as the poor woman who just lost her husband.

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We had a great time – and let’s face it, it was a wonderfully inspiring location.

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When we returned I set aside the story and only picked it up again last year (2017). In the meantime I had done a reconnaissance trip to Thames and Grahamstown where the story is set, and found a wonderful museum of gold mining artefacts and lots of history to discover.

The setting was now clear in my mind, the characters had made their introductions, it was left to me to see if I could make their story continue for about 80k words. Actually, once I got started and made myself sit there typing, the story flowed out with twists and turns and I found myself enjoying it immensely. I was truly surprised when it resolved and was finished.

Being a visual kind of girl, I did various covers of my own, and chose pictures of people who resembled my characters, and I offer a couple of them here, for you to enjoy.

I cannot describe the joy I felt – the day before I left for an overseas holiday – when an email confirming that the publishers wanted my story arrived. Since then it has been an undercurrent of excitement building up until I will see that book completed and ready to read. And that happens TOMORROW.

I would be very grateful if you have ordered a copy, if you would please write even a brief review of it. It makes a big difference to the sales, as well as informing me of how I might improve my writing. Thank you for your interest! (Reviews can be written on Amazon as soon as the book shows there.)

 

Fàilte

Hi, I am Jennifer Jeffries, and I am delighted you have reached my writing website. Although I have many blogs and pages devoted to my other loves: graphics, memes, cartoons and the like, I wanted to have a place that was solely about what I have written. Welcome!

My first fiction novel, a romance set in the gold rush in New Zealand, comes out in October. It is called ‘An Unexpected Highlander’ and you will be able to read about it here on the Romantic Fiction page.

I already have two published travel narratives, both around Scotland with a glimpse of England and Wales, and they can be found on the Travel Narratives page.

Please have a wander around this site, and hopefully, read my books. I would love to hear from you if you do, and encourage you to write a review. I am well into the second romance novel, set in the late 1600s in England, and hope to have ‘The Tinker’s Boy’ out early next year.

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken. — Oscar Wilde

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