C.L. Sayers's Blog

Alzheimer’s Fundraiser-Win one of 22 signed books!!

January is a very difficult month for a lot of people. This year in particular, was difficult for me. January, ten years ago, I lost my grandmother to Alzheimer’s. She spent years unsure of where she was and who she was with. She was aware that she was losing parts of her memory, life and personality and this made the battle so much harder. We were all acutely aware that there was nothing we could do for her except love and help her as her life changed irrevocably. By the time my grandmother died she’d ‘forgotten’ who half her family were, how to talk, how to walk and she was beginning to forget how to swallow properly. Since then I’ve seen this cruel and crippling disease affect more and more people. This disease makes people lose themselves long before they lose their life. It’s estimated that 1 in 6 people will develop Alzheimer’s in later life.

So, I wanted to do something to honour the memory of my granny and all those people in all our lives who have had or are currently battling this illness. I am going to be running a Rafflecopter giveaway for the next two weeks to win one of these 21 amazing prizes! All you need to do to enter is donate $/£5 or more to Alzheimer’s Society (UK) or Alzheimer’s Foundation (US) via the links on Rafflecopter. You can enter as many times as you like over the next two weeks. Let’s raise money for these two awesome charities who’ve been behind the most recent breakthroughs in tackling this disease and supporting the victims and families of this cruel disease.

There are 21 prizes to be won! (Anyone who would like to donate a prize please give my PA Christina Santos clsayersauthorpa@gmail.com a shout as all donations are more than welcome)

They are all open internationally! Go to the Rafflecopter here and follow the links!: https://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/d729f8f21/

Or here to enter on my Facebook page: http://gvwy.io/6ikvqli

 

Signed copy of Captive in the Dark by CJ Roberts

2 people will win a Bookworm Box

Signed copy of winner’s choice of Helena Hunting book

Signed copy of Sweet Ache by K Bromberg

Signed copy of Some Sort of Happy by Melanie Harlow

Signed copy of winner’s choice of Penny Reid book

Signed copy of winner’s choice of Ruth Clampett book

Signed copy of Breaking Him by RK Lilley

Signed copy of Blackwood by Celia Aaron

Signed copy of Robbed by CL Sayers

Entire ebook back catalogue by Debra Anastasia

Signed copy of Completely Complicated by Julia Kent

Signed copy of Going Down by Katherine Stevens

Signed copy of The Watcher by Rhiannon Jean

Signed copy of The Matriarch by Sloane Howell

Signed copy of You Are Here by SM Lumetta

Signed copy of Hole Lotto Lovin by TL Wainwright

Signed copy of What Makes a Man by HQ Frost

Signed copy of For3ver by HQ Frost and M Dauphin

Signed copy of Crazy by M Dauphin

Robbed 99¢ Sale!

Robbed in on sale for one week only! If you haven’t read Robbed yet pick it up now for 99¢/p or FREE on Kindle Unlimited!

http://smarturl.it/clsayersrobbed

Robbed is Live Now!

Robbed by CL Sayers

Buy Links:

Amazon UK

Amazon US

Amazon CA

Amazon AU

Amazon FR

 

Blurb

Can two wrongs make a Mr. Right?

Olivia Murphy thought she’d managed to get a handle on her life.

Robbed of her strength and confidence at school by a group of bullies, she fought back. She made a new life for herself. A new name. After losing her soon-to-be fiancé in a car accident, she sought out the armour she developed in school and refused to have anything more in her stolen.

Until she comes face to face with one of her tormentors. The one she trusted most of all. Who not only broke her psyche, but her heart too. Fintan Kelly.

Olivia decides that for once she’s going to steal something back, revenge. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and his heart for her heart.

Will her quest to avenge the wrongs from her past give her the closure she hopes? Or will she find that no matter how much of yourself, or your past, you try to change some wounds are so deep you don’t even realise you’re keeping them open?

Lies and misunderstandings from a mutually troubled past will either bring this couple together or rob them both of everything important.

 

About the Author

 

CL Sayers is a debut novelist from the UK. She writes under a pen name for professional reasons. She lives at home with her husband, 2 kids, an asshole cat, an easily confused turtle and an ever-changing rotation of fish.

She is a proud coffee addict, Whovain, Xphile and all round nerd.

You can stalk her and keep up with her shenanigans and new releases here:

Website

Newsletter

Facebook

Twitter

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Pinterest

Blog Tour Sign Up

With Robbed being sent to the editor this week my sign up form is now open for bloggers to sign up for the upcoming cover and excerpt reveal and the release blog tour. Thank you in advance for everything.

https://goo.gl/forms/FvQTZaFwVq5ECWU43

Make it count…

One of the most important things about writing a novel is, funnily enough, actually writing. We can get so caught up in the planning, researching, networking and even designing the aesthetics that we forget the reason behind it all.

Everything else is a vessel to share your words. If you don’t put the effort into your manuscript then there’s little point in putting the effort in your cover and interior format.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a plotter or a panster, you need to set yourself reasonable, achievable goals with your word count and do your utmost to meet them.

If you’re like me and you work full time and have other responsibilities, like having two young kids, then aiming for 8k words a day is unrealistic. There are full time authors out there who can make that.

Be flexible in the beginning. If you have a blessed, responsibility free afternoon, sit down and write. See how much you get written and in what timeframe. Use that as a starting point. If you plan to write 5k words a week, then aim for 1k a night. It gives you the wiggle room of having two free evenings during the week in case something comes up or you know there’s a family event planned.

NaNoWriMo usually runs in November but there are a number of resources on maximising your writing time and planning your word count that are free and useful outside of the NaNoWriMo event.

Be your own master. This is a double edged sword. You must try and crack the whip on yourself, make sure you work hard to reach your word count. But no one understands your unique pressures other than you. So if you get food poisoning, the flu, whatever set-back; go easy on yourself. It’s easier to catch up on the missing word count a few days than to make yourself so ill you cannot write for over a week. You can try to enlist your significant other, or trusted friends to keep you on track, but choose wisely because if they’re constantly at you about writing, you can lose your joy in both your writing and your friends.

This is definitely not a “must-do” list. This is what I have found works well for me but it may not suit everyone.

Enjoy and keep on writing.

 

C x

 

And here I am…

I originally started with the idea for new current book over 2 years ago. I did what I always do and got waaaay ahead of myself and starting downloading kindle books on how to publish etc. It wasn’t until I’d been sitting saying to myself I need to start writing, I need to start writing and stalking Facebook that I came across a whole world and community of people who love reading (and some who also love writing) as much as I do.

After ‘speaking’ with a few of my book friends online I started getting an idea of what the actual process involves. I started outlining my book, planning bits and pieces but not too much, because I’m a bit of hybrid writer, I both plot and pants my writing (I’ll get into that in a different post lol).

But outlining your book isn’t the same as writing it and I had 3 chapters written exactly 1 year ago this month, but because of kids, worth, ill health and many other generally shitty things life threw at me I didn’t put pen to paper (yes pen to paper) until a month ago.

Of course I’d had thoughts and ideas and plot twists swimming through my head in that year and I noted them down anywhere and everywhere I could. But after I went to my first ever two book signings, I didn’t even know these things existed I was so into my own little reading bubble, I got chatting to some lovely authors and other readers who gave me the confidence to get back to it.

So now I’ve got my outline all finished, all my little notes are together and I’m 12 thousand words into my first ever work in progress. I honestly have written this much since I completed my university dissertation,  but what I will say is that this is a hell of a lot more fun to write.

I’m going to try and post every week, people may read it, they may not, but it’s going to be for me to chart my progress and maybe give other people an insight into what it’s like trying to write a book, work full time, try to be a decent wife and look after two young kids.

I hope some of you will join me on this crazy, fucked up journey and you can steal my tips, learn from my mistakes (of which there will be many no doubt) and just have a little fun along the way.

Laters xxx