Amanda Fleet's Blog, page 31

Still editing!

All printed out and ready for editing!I haven't got all that much to do and I'm sure that once I actually get stuck into it, it'll be fine, but to be honest, I'm not feeling the love.

Part of that is because I'm not always getting a run at it. I need to balance editing with all the other calls on my time. Sometimes I can manage my diary so that external demands are consolidated into as few days as possible. Other times I seem to have someone or another demanding my attention every day of the week, leaving me with small parcels of time that never quite seem enough to get stuck into the work I need to do.

However, I can't just blame external demands. There's a huge amount of fear and procrastination in there too. Once it's 'finished' I have to do something with it - send it to agents, send it to publishers, let other people (beyond my beta readers) look at it. And maybe they'll love it...

But maybe they'll hate it.

So maybe I'll just not finish it and then no-one can hate it...

My writing buddy (the excellent Stuart Lennon - check out his website here) says it's the equivalent of the 'difficult second album' and he may be on to something. Publishing "The Wrong Kind of Clouds" was in some ways me testing the waters. Could I get it out there? Would anyone buy it? Would anyone read it? Would anyone like it?? In many ways it's done better than I expected (though I accept that my expectations were zero) and if nothing else, I've proved I can do it and I met a whole bunch of fabulous people at "Bloody Scotland" and the Crime Writers Association.

With this book, there are expectations on me that weren't there before. I want this one to be better than "The Wrong Kind of Clouds", but how does anyone decide that? More sales? Better reviews? There are many books out there with low sales that are fantastic books, and some bestsellers that suck more than a Hoover. Likewise, there are books with both great reviews and awful reviews.

The scientist in me can barely cope with this. I can't measure anything to tell me empirically whether this book is as good as "The Wrong Kind of Clouds" or if it's better ... or (heaven forfend!) worse. It's all subjective opinion. People who loved "The Wrong Kind of Clouds" might hate this one. Okay, people who loved "The Wrong Kind of Clouds" might also love this one, but I don't feel self-confident enough to believe it all the time.

I know... I just need to bite the bullet and do the edits and get it out there. And hope that people like it.

Wish me luck!

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Sale!!

The e-book version of "Wrong Kind of Clouds" is on sale, this week only!

99p if you're in the UK99c if you're in the US
That's less than a cup of coffee (and the book lasts longer too!). Go grab a bargain. I won't be doing another price drop of the e-book for a while.

Amazon links below; all e-book links in the sidebar too (if you're looking for Kobo or Nook etc).



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Amazon.com is ridiculous

I was intending to be flagging up a new give away in this email, but, due to the vagaries (bizarreness) of Amazon.com, I'm not.

A while back, I saw the following on my Amazon.com Author Central News page (click to enlarge):

Excellent! I could do a give away of The Wrong Kind of Clouds on Amazon.com for my US followers. Or so I thought.

I logged in, found my book, clicked on Set Up a Give Away and started to fill in the different sections on the online form. All looked great. I clicked on Proceed to Checkout.

And this is where it all started to become ridiculous.
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Meet the Author: Frank Muir

Frank MuirAnd there's a give away too!

This month's author under the spotlight is Frank Muir (who is also published as T.F. Muir). I first met Frank when he was signing his new book, "Blood Torment" in Waterstones in St Andrews. From that meeting, we've kept in touch and met up a couple of times at Crime Writers Association (CWA) lunches. Frank is a fantastic, kind, funny man and I'm delighted he agreed to be grilled by me! He's also very kindly agreed to give away a signed copy of Blood Torment to one lucky reader - see the end of the blog post for details.

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Book Finds: October 2016

I have a veritable smorgasbord of books for you this month! It cannot possibly have escaped your attention, but at the start of September, I was at Bloody Scotland as one of twelve new writers that were featured. I thought that this month, I would showcase all of the other Spotlighters' books for you. I'll give you their blurb and then there will be links to as many of them as I can at the end.

So, in alphabetic order, my fellow Spotlighters and their books:
Jackie Baldwin: Dead Man's PrayerShelley Day: The Confession of Stella MoonMichael Grothaus: Epiphany JonesEva Holland: The Daughter's SecretTom O. Keenan: The FatherLesley Kelly: A Fine House in TrinityLiz Mistry: The Unquiet SoulsDaniel Pembrey: The Harbour MasterStephen Watt: OptogramsLes Wood: Dark Side of the Moon
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Time to re-engage my brain

Time to start editing...Well, it's finally back! I sent the manuscript for "Poisonous Minds" to my editor, back at the end of July. Initial dates for it coming back were September, but, for one reason and another, it got delayed and finally came back last Monday.

This book is one I've really struggled with. I started writing it back in 2013. Over the years, in between other projects, I did several major edits before it went out to beta-readers at the start of this year. Feedback from the beta-readers was both helpful and contradictory! The female beta-readers loved the male character in the book and hated the main female character; the male beta-readers were a bit 'meh' about the male character and adored the female character. Everyone loved the older female character (phew - something they all agreed on!) and there was mixed feedback over some aspects of the plot.

So... taking their comments into consideration, along with my gut feelings about it, "Poisonous Minds" got another major edit, back in June. It's now October and my head is so far from that manuscript, it feels half like someone else wrote it. My editor has come back with some spot-on analysis and some very helpful suggestions about it all. Now I need to re-read it, get my brain engaged and sort it out! Here's hoping that this round of edits isn't too traumatic. Keep you posted.



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Meet the author: Mac Logan

Over the next few months, I'm going to do a series of interviews with authors that I know. I'm delighted that first up is Mac Logan. I met Mac at the first Crime Writers' Association lunch that I went to, earlier this year and he kindly agreed to be my first victim interview.
Mac Logan
When did you first start writing?
As far back as I can remember. There are poems, songs and snippets going back to the early 1970's. I still have hand-written originals.

What made you start?
It's as natural as breathing to me. I simply do it. Blogging, ekphrasis (collaboration with other art forms), poetry, prose, novels, business books, it's all the same to me … I love the work.

What was the first full-length novel you ever wrote?
The Angels’ Share which metamorphosed into Angels Cut.
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What a difference a year makes

Just over a year ago, I left my job. I worked in a university department, teaching physiology to medical students. The job was well paid, had a good pension... it was also killing me. No, seriously. I had a stress-aggravated arrhythmia that resulted in my heart pounding in an uncontrolled fashion that didn't effectively pump blood around my body. Episodes of it could be as short as a few seconds or as long as over an hour. On two occasions, my heart just stopped beating completely for several seconds. Believe me, that is a terrifying experience.

One day in late October 2014, during a lecture, my heart rate and rhythm decided to strut their own stuff and I collapsed.
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Book Finds - September 2016

We all love it when someone recommends a new author or a new book to us. Well, I've decided to try and do one post each month where I tell you about books I've found and loved. Some of them might be bestsellers, but I'm suspecting that many of them won't be. What would be brilliant, is if you all share your 'find of the month' in the comments. Deal??

Okay, well the books I'd like to recommend to you this month are:
The Gargoyle by Andrew DavidsonStuart - A Life Backwards by Alexander MastersBetrayal by Karin Alvtegen
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How was Bloody Scotland? (part 2)

Day 2: Saturday 10th September
This was going to be a busy day! Not only was I booked in to see three shows, I had my Spotlight slot too.

The preparation for my Spotlight slot was not helped by the fire alarm going off at 4.45am (false alarm) but nonetheless, I arrived as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as I could for the rehearsal, and met some of the other Spotlighters: Les Wood, Shelley Day and Michael Grothaus. Rehearsals went well and once we were finished, I had a quick tea with Les Wood (a fellow physiologist as well as a writer!) before heading off to see Alex Gray interviewing two forensic pathologists: Dr Marjorie Turner and Dr James Grieve. Another excellent session, mixing information, humour and some serious aspects too.

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