Paula R.C. Readman's Blog, page 78

The Book Launch of Stone Angels

Yesterday was a brilliant day. Thank you Darkstroke Laurence & Steph. I live in a village of just over four thousand people. Soon it will double in its size as more houses are built. My friend Ana and I post lots of landscape and wildlife photos on our village Facebook page taken while out walking the numerous public footpaths around the village. Over the years we’ve been posting our photos we have gained a following.

In February, I had a novella published in which I loosely based the main characters on my lovely neighbours and good friends, Joan & Dave. I posted about this book on the village site as Dave and Joan are well known and it gain a few sales. By doing this, I also promoted the fact I was published writer living in the village. The local reading group (which I didn’t know about) took an interest and asked if they could order nine copies of the books from the publisher. A local WI member also reached out to me as they were always on look out for speakers. ( unfortunately Covid19 put a stop to this marketing opportunity)

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Anyway, back to yesterday. I decided to post a photo of my newly framed Stone Angels book cover poster, a copy of Stone Angels, a glass and a bottle of champagne on the village Facebook page. As the site doesn’t allow selling, I knew I couldn’t add Amazon links and my wording had to be carefully chosen otherwise Admin would remove my post.

I decided to open the post by saying that I was now officially a novelist as my first crime novel Stone Angels was being launched by my publisher today. As I had planned to do a book launch garden party, at my home, but because of the Covid19 it was cancelled. I was going to invite the village to a book signing (this was all true) but instead I hoped they would join me on Facebook and rise a glass to help me celebrate the launch of my book.

And they did. To start with villagers congratulated me, then a young man posted a link to Stone Angels on Amazon. I politely thanked him, and asked if he could remove it because I was worried in case Admin removed the post. The young man did, but what happened next delighted me. Anyone who asked “where they could buy the book,” he would popped up and say Amazon. Someone ask if it was available locally and did I have any copies to sell. I told them to message me and a young lady bought a copy for her mum from my home.

By the end of the day I had received nearly two hundred comments and likes on the site. Quite a few said they had purchased the book, or were looking forward to reading it. Also I was able to keep them in the loop as the day panned out. When the publisher posted about my novel reaching the number one slot, in real time I was able to relay the news to everyone following the post.

All in all, I felt as though I was reaching out to real people, making much stronger connections to readers on a personal level as we all live in the same village. Having a physical bond with your readers, I believe will make them more interested in reading your next book. At the same time I was posting on the village site, I was busy updating my own private Facebook page, my Facebook writing group, & Bookshop, Twitter and LinkedIn. Early signs show I made a few sales yesterday which was great. Now I hope those turn into book reviews. At the moment, I have two reviews so please check these out.

Look after yourselves and thank you for reading my blog.

From Funeral Birds to Stone Angels.

I’m super excited. First of all today is the launch date of my first crime novel Stone Angels. So I hope you all will be celebrating with me. Cheers to determination and dedication! Thank you to Darkstroke for giving my novel a chance to see the light and find some readers.

Yesterday, I received my first royalty statement for my novella, The Funeral Birds. Okay, so I won’t be booking a holiday or buy my husband a new car, but I could afford to book us a table in a good restaurant. Myself and my publisher Demain Publishing are pretty chuffed by how well it has sold. Thank you to everyone who has bought it, and especially to everyone who has reviewed The Funeral Birds.

[image error]The Funeral Birds

As Stone Angels now steps into the limelight, I just hope my first crime novel is well received too. So my fingers are crossed and I pray the Gods of Authors and Writers that they are watching over my first novel.

I hope you enjoy watching this video my friend, David and I put together to launch Stone Angels. It’s the first time I’ve edited a video, so please forgive the roughness of it. The Interview

[image error]Stone Angels is launched today

The Tenth Day of Darkstroke’s Author Challenge.

Okay, so I’ve skipped a few days but I thought I would join in today. I’m suppose to post an old picture of myself. Don’t you think ageing is a funny thing? We all do it, but we are unaware that it is happening to us. I remember, as a small child, asking my grandmother about being old. The funny thing is then I asked her, she was probably younger than I am today. She said, that she didn’t feel any different. I have to agree with her, I don’t feel any different inside. I’m only really aware that I am aging when I look in the mirror, or at photographs of my younger self.

[image error]The only baby picture of my mother and me, also father and my big brother.

I guess we all reach a point in our lives when the balance of time tips the other way. It is at this point we stop looking forwards and start looking backwards, remembering how things use to be. Places no longer look the same, progress has overtaken us and things are done in a different way. I’ve always tried to be positive about ageing. All ages give you something while taking something else away. We all accept growing up and becoming independent from our parents, going to work, getting married and starting our own family. To do such thing we had to leave our parents, school, toys behind as we move forward into the future.

[image error]Paula at 14 years old

Our acceptance of the ageing process stops us from becoming a bitter person. It is too easy to envy others for their youth as we grow older. Our time on earth is short and we can waste it all too easily. I’m a glass half full girl. When I was born my mother was still mourning for a loss of a child. Her second son, Paul. In those days when a child dies a mother was told to have another one as soon as possible. My mother had wanted two boys, so I wasn’t the ideal replacement. She went on to have two more children both girls, and then twins who were still born. Mother never achieved her dream of having two boys. Her disappointment was tangible. One day while sitting in a cafe she told my sister and I if she’d had her two boys she would never have had us girls. The tone in her voice as she said those words cut through us. We knew she’d never fulfilled her only ambition in life.

I laughed it off. What else could you say knowing you were a disappointment to your mother. It wasn’t as though she could’ve sent us back. Growing up, I had always felt closer to my father aware of my mother’s distancing from me. Mother called me, Daddy’s girl, in a dismissive tone. My father told me when I arrived into this world Mother didn’t want anything to do with me, so he had to change and feed me.

In the late 1950’s the attitude towards mothers, like mine who were young enough, were told to have another baby, as though a replacement would repair their broken heart. Unfortunately no baby but a baby boy would’ve repaired my mother’s heart.

In my collection of short stories Day Pass like a Shadow, the story Burning the Midnight Oil tells the tale about the coldness of a mother towards her son. Also the story covers the theme of the death of a parent too. Even though I wasn’t the son my mother longed for I remained at her side until she drew her last breath on the day she died. She may not have wanted me, but I’m forever grateful that I was born. Mum had learning difficulties and she wasn’t one for sharing her feelings. One day when my husband and I took her out of her nursing home for the afternoon in a wheelchair we shared a memorable moment together. My husband went to pay at the counter. I was standing at the back of the wheelchair, leaned over and wrapped my arms around my mother’s neck. She patted my hands and said, “I love you, Paula.” My heart broke, and I sobbed. I had waited a lifetime to hear those words.

[image error]A collection of loss and death tales published by Bridge House Publishing.

Sometimes during those last few months before Mother left us, she would remember that I was busy writing a book. I never tried to explain that I was actually working on my third unpublished novel. On this particular day, my husband was pushing her in the wheelchair. We had tired to included her in our conversation, but she wasn’t very chatty. As my husband and I paused in our conversation, Mother piped up, “How’s that novel of yours coming along,” before falling silent again.

Remember as a writer none of life’s experiences goes to waste.

Have a great day, and thank you for reading my blog.

Paula R.C.

Busy, Busy, Busy.

There I was happily writing a new post every day as I took up my publisher’s Darkstroke Challenge. Things were going well until I got up to day four and then… Yep, life stepped in.

[image error]Photo by Md Iftekhar Uddin Emon on Pexels.com

On Wednesday my friend David came over to help me make a video for my Stone Angels book launch for the 11th August. As it was a nice sunny day we were able to sit in the garden. Once we had made the video, I needed to edit it. Though, I feel I have mastered editing my writing, editing a video isn’t something I’ve ever done before. First I purchased an editing program off the net. PowerDirector 18 Ultra seemed to have everything I needed to produce the video, I wanted. Of course it won’t be perfect. A little rough around the edges as it is the first time I’ve edited a promotional video.

I had to watch a few videos on YouTube to understand how to use the program. First I had to free up more memory on my computer by deleting my photos. These I moved onto my main computer. Once I had enough memory to run the program I set to work. I wasn’t sure whether I was doing it right, but I was only using a copy as I kept the original one on my camera card.

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Once I had added my publisher’s logo and some special effects and music, I was happy. Next problem was it was too large to send to David via messenger. The same problem loading on to YouTube. I looked to loading it onto another site only to find you had to pay.

I would’ve be quite happy to pay but having just spent £79.99 on the editing program, plus another £26.00 on an external memory box to keep all my photos in, I felt we couldn’t afford any more outlay this month, especially as my husband car need a service. As I’m not earning any money from my writing I have to be careful.

Here’s hoping that the launch of Stone Angels bring about a turning point in my writing career and I can start receiving a return in my investment into my writing.

[image error]Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

Guest Book Tour: Gail Aldwin

Welcome to my guest page. Here, every few days, I’ll be sharing a conversation, over tea and cakes, or maybe a glass of something stronger, if they are not driving, with a friend about their work in progress, or latest book release. I’ll be talking to all sort of writers and authors at different levels of their writing careers.

[image error]Photo by Lisa Fotios on Pexels.com

Today, I’m welcoming Gail Aldwin to the clubhouse tearoom to share a cuppa and a chat.

Thank you for inviting me, Paula to chat about writing. It’s always something I love to do.

Can you start by telling us a little about your latest writing project.  Is it a new idea, or one you have been mulling over for some time?

My work in progress is called Little Swot and it’s a dual timeline novel about a journalist who is made redundant in her fifties. She decides to try podcasting as an alternative source of income and investigates the disappearance of her schoolmate, who walked out of her last end of school examination in 1978 and was never seen again. It’s good to be back in the thoes of a new writing project after a dry period of a several months. I left for a volunteering role at Bidibidi refugee settlement in Uganda in December 2019 and was repatriated early due to Covid-19. I had great plans to write while I was away but nothing materialised because the experience of living and working in a remote and under-resourced area was intense. Each evening I’d go back to my accommodation physically and mentally exhausted. The electricity supply was very erratic and often I had no light to read by. Instead I kept my mobile charged and listened to lots of podcasts.

Returning to the UK at the start of lockdown was a strange experience. Although I was happy to be back with my family, the life I’d left only four months earlier was significantly changed. I didn’t want to return to the driven woman I had been, determined to get my stories out into the world. Instead, I wanted to take my time and get back into writing when I was ready. At home I continued to listen to podcasts and it was while I followed the story of a man who (it was suspected) had murdered his wife, I realised some of these real-life experiences could not have been plotted better if it had been fiction. I find plotting the hardest part of novel writing and now take time to sort out the story before launching into the writing. So, I took this idea about podcasting and started to think about a possible story line. At the same time, I started to write a few flash fiction pieces based on Covid themes. When these found publication homes, I regained my confidence to begin a new novel.

[image error]The Well Traveled Gail Aldwin

Do you write a synopsis first or write the first chapter?

For Little Swot and my last novel This much Huxley knows(set during the Brexit referendum from the viewpoint of a seven-year-old), I used a grid to plan out a three-act structure for the writing. Once this was done, I launched into the first three chapters and then drafted a synopsis. I attend a writing group and it’s useful for members to have some background material about the story arc to inform their feedback. The synopsis becomes a working document that is updated with new developments. In writing Little Swot, I’ve also developed a one-line pitch and a one-paragraph pitch as I find it helps to have a rehearsed version of what the novel’s about should anyone ask. The publisher of The String Games,Victorina Press has just made a marketing/publicity appointment and I was asked to come up with a tag line for my debut. The final wording was agreed as: A lost boy, a splintered family, a sister’s guilt. I think this sums up the novel very well.

Were any of your characters inspired by real people?

I have to know what my characters look like before I can begin to give then beliefs, attitudes, skills and knowledge plus all the other paraphernalia that comes with character creation. Often I will settle on the image of an actor or photo in a newspaper or magazine. I have used real people to help in creating characters in the past but then I always got tempted to make my character like the person they were based on and that didn’t always suit the plot.

How do you select the names of your characters? & do you know everything about them before you start writing their story? 

I focus on the year the novel is set and work out which names were popular during that period for characters of different ages. My name is straight out of the sixties and I think yours is too, Paula! I was a school teacher from 1990 to 2000 so I have lots of children’s name in store from that period. I also think about why characters are given certain names in the context of their fictional world. In choosing a classic name for a child, the parents may be aspirational. Using an unusual spelling or a name that links to cultural heritage also says something about the family and their priorities. I often change a character’s name during the writing process and that is precisely because I don’t know everything about them when I start off. Writing is about discovering.

What is your work schedule like when you’re writing? Do you set yourself a daily word count?  

When I started writing novels ten years ago, I had a daily word count. But after one or two completed manuscripts I realised I was frequently writing complete cr*p just to reach my daily writing goal. So then I switched to working for a specific number of hours and aimed for quality words. Now I’m back to drafting a new novel I’ve reverted to a daily one-thousand-word goal. It does mean that I can power through the painful first draft in a few months and then get onto the joy of redrafting.

Thank you so much for joining us Gail. The cakes were very nice here.

So dear readers, if you would like to find out more about Gail Aldwin’s debut The String Games (Victorina Press, 2019), is a coming-of-age novel and a finalist in The People’s Book Prize 2020 and shortlisted in the Dorchester Literary Festival Writing Prize 2020. She won a poetry competition and was awarded a contract to have her debut poetry pamphlet adversaries/comrades published(Wordsmith_HQ, 2019). Her flash fiction collection Paisley Shirt (Chapeltown Books, 2018) was long-listed in the Saboteur Awards 2018. Scheduled for publication in December 2020 is her first children’s picture book Pan de monium which features a purple panda who causes havoc in a department store and learns something about herself from the experience. You can find Gail on Twitter @gailaldwin and on her blog https://gailaldwin.com.

https://www.wordsmithhq.co.uk/shop/adversariescomrades-poetry-by-gail-aldwin

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Guest Book Tour: Cathy Mansell

Welcome to my guest page. Here, every few days, I’ll be sharing a conversation, over tea and cakes, or maybe a glass of something stronger, if they are not driving, with a friend about their work in progress, or latest book release. I’ll be talking to all sort of writers and authors at different levels of their writing careers.

[image error]Photo by chudesabyvaut on Pexels.com

Welcome to my guest page, Cathy. I’m so pleased to have a chance to chat with you.

Thank you for asking me to join you at the clubhouse tearoom today, Paula.

You’re very welcome, Cathy. We first met at the RNA parties in London. My good friend Ivy Lord (Maggie Ford) introduce us. Anyway, here comes our drinks and a selection of lovely cakes.

[image error]Cathy, Paula & Ivy Lord aka Maggie Ford

I would like to start our conversation by asking you when you first begun your writing journey what drew you to your chosen genre?

I guess the influence to become a writer came from my great aunt, who went to live in America in 1914. She was a poet and wrote the lyrics for sheet music that sold all over America. My father wrote plays and my three sisters all write for pleasure. Writing is in my blood. But what drew me to my chosen genre was childhood memories and the need to write about what I know. 

What writing elements do you think is your strongest points, and what would you like to do better? I’ve been told by a well-known writer that I can plot. In fact, I love a good plot in a story. The things I would like to do well are details and descriptions of things and places that I can’t visualise in my mind’s eye. I find I have to work hard to get them right.  

Tell us a little about latest writing project.  Is it a new idea, or one you have been mulling over for some time? After I finished The Dublin Girls, I had a strong urge to write a sequel. However, my agent advised against it. I can see her point of view that if my previous books didn’t do well, my publisher might not want a sequel. But I couldn’t rid myself of the itch. I wrote 17,000 words before the penny dropped and I knew it would not work as a standalone. I then wrote a story on Kate’s life, one of the sisters in The Dublin Girls. For me this worked and I’m enjoying her journey. I’ve now written 83,000 words.

[image error] Cathy Mansell Book Cover

Were any of your characters inspired by real people? No, not really, Paula, apart from the first novel I penned, Where the Shamrocks Grow. It is part biographical and part fiction. Young Jo’s early development in the story is based loosely on my mother’s young life.

What did you learn when writing your book (story, play)? In writing it, how much research did you do? I love the research part of writing, but when I began writing The Dublin Girls, it practically wrote itself. I was familiar with the setting and the places mentioned in the book. My two aunts lived at the top of a tenement in the 1950s, and each Sunday my father used to take me and my sisters to visit the aunts. We loved climbing the dark staircase and dad had to keep striking matches so we could see our footing. My aunt who always heard us tramping up the stairs had the tea ready by the time we reached the top. There was no research involved and why I wrote the book so quickly.

[image error]Cathy Mansell Book Cover

Is there anything about you your readers might be surprised to find out?

I don’t have any special talents, Paula. Although, readers’ might be surprised to learn that I come from a musical family. I still play the Melodion and the Mouth Organ, but not very good. The instruments only come out at Christmas. 

How many hours in a day do you write? I try to aim for 1000 words a day, but depending on what’s happening it can be as little as 500. I used to spend more time writing, in fact eight hours every day, on and off. I am now caring for my 96-year-old husband, and I have less time.

How do you select the names of your characters? & do you know everything about them before you start writing their story? I spend little time pondering over character’s names. Once I’ve created them, a name comes into my head. The names come easily as I know the era and the place I’m writing about.

[image error]The dedicated Cathy Mansell

What was your hardest scene to write? Some scenes can be difficult and when this happens I go away from it and come back at a later date. The hardest passage to write so far was the rape scene in The Dublin Girls. I had nothing to base it on, and I was concerned about upsetting people who this had happened to.

How long on average does it take you to write a book (story or play)? A year, once I have the idea, know the era, the setting, and the characters I will use in the plot. With research, it can take eighteen months or more.  

The Dublin Girls book link:

A Place to Belong book link:

www.cathymansell.co.uk

email: cathymansell1@gmail.com

Thank you so much Cathy for joining me here at the tearoom. Please join me again soon.

#August Author’s Challenge Day:4

Today challenge is all about the settings for my work in progress. Like so many other Murder Mystery it is good to have a fictional setting. Just think about the popular television series Midsomer Murders. That’s not a place you want to live or go on vacation to as the body count is way to high. The setting a English Rural Village with the church and pub and your normal array of characters. It could in a sense be an Agatha Christie‘ novel maybe that’s why cozy crime book always go for a rural setting. When the familiar becomes uncomfortable and bad for your health.

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In The Funeral Birds I hadn’t really given the book a setting as such. The descriptions of the place could have fitted any town or place, but then the book was just a novella. My WIP will be a follow-on novel. A large word count will give me scope to take my characters further a field. Thus I felt it was important that I gave my reader more of a setting and a sense of place. With this in mind and the fact the village where I live has a great historical past, and most importantly hasn’t been included as a backdrop in any novels I decided to set it here. Plus I’m more than familiar with the area as I have walked the footpaths surrounding my village for over twenty-five years.

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Using the name of my village and part of a historical settlement nearby I have come up with a name for my fictional market town. This then allows me to move settings and buildings around to suit whatever nasty deeds I may come up with when writing my plots.

Have a great evening, I shall catch up with you all again soon.

Paula.

#August Author’s Challenge Day: 3

Today I must write about my main character. In The Funeral Birds there are three main characters. Though I suppose the character who carries the story forward, the main voice has to be your main character. In that case the main character in The Funeral Birds has to be Dave, a 40 something married man. Self employed as a private investigator, he works in a converted Victorian house which houses start-up businesses. Where other businesses have developed and expanded and moved out, Dave’s office has remained where it’s always been in the roof space at the top of an uncarpeted staircase.

[image error]Photo by Aa Dil on Pexels.com

Dave isn’t very good at his job. It’s not that he’s incompetent, far from it. You might say he has hidden powers of deduction when solving a problem. His disability is that he isn’t making any money from his business, because he’s giving his services away for free.

Dave’s wife Joan knows her husband far too well and why the books don’t balance. She’s told him to close up the business and start working from home as this will help save some money. Dave hasn’t told Joan about his secret member of staff.

Here’s the Funeral Birds Book trailer

And now to my other news. The wonderful team at Black Hare Press has selected my short story Darkness in the Soul for their School’s Out Anthology. I’m really getting a taste for writing dark. The great thing about writing for an anthology is that you get to share the limelight with other great writers too. Black Hare Press knows how to look after their writers as they publish the books in three forms, eBooks, paperback, and hard back. They are a company, I really enjoy writing for.

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Guest Book Tour: Joan Livingston

Welcome to my guest page. Here, every few days, I’ll be sharing a conversation, over tea and cakes, or maybe a glass of something stronger, if they are not driving, with a friend about their work in progress, or latest book release. I’ll be talking to all sort of writers and authors at different levels of their writing careers.

[image error]Photo by Julia Khalimova on Pexels.com

Welcome to my guest page, Joan. I’m so pleased to have a chance to chat with you. I’m sure we have met before at the RNA in London at one of their parties. I was there with my good friend Ivy Lord (Maggie Ford). It was a few years ago. Anyway, here comes our drinks and a selection of lovely cakes.

May I start by asking you, what drew you to your chosen genre? Actually, I don’t have one chosen genre. My books, some of which have yet to be published, include literary fiction, mystery, and middle-grade fantasy, including one that is bilingual (English/Spanish). Right now, I am concentrating on the Isabel Long Mystery Series.A few years ago, an author friend wrote a mystery, and being a big fan of the genre, especially British mystery shows, I said, “Why not try one.” I got hooked right away and here I have just finished my fourth.

What writing elements do you think is your strongest points, and what would you like to do better? I believe my dialogue is true to life, likely from my years working as reporter when I was required to listen to the way people talk and write it down. Also, I enjoy creating characters that become real to me, and hopefully my readers. As for doing better, I wish I had sharper eyes and mind when it comes to proofing my manuscript.

Tell us a little about latest writing project.  Is it a new idea, or one you have been mulling over for some time? I just finished Killing the Story, the fourth in my Isabel Long Mystery Series, and it is set to launch Aug. 26. It’s an interesting project writing a series. In terms of the plot, I want to give only enough info from the previous books to acknowledge what happened to those who read them without giving the story away to those who haven’t. I also decide which characters I will carry over from book to book, ones that might make a cameo appearance, and those that are relegated to one only. Anyway, in Killing the Story, my protagonist Isabel Long is onto her fourth cold case — solving the murder of a small town newspaper editor. Isabel, a former journalist, feels a kinship with the victim. The case also takes her — and her 93-year-old mother who is her ‘Watson” — to a town that seen better days and where the police chief has made it clear she is not welcome.

How many unfinished projects do you have on your computer? Well, I have three adult novels and a middle-grade series that have yet to be published, so I will count them. I also have a work in progress for the kids series and toyed with the idea of using a few of the characters for a YA novel but that hasn’t gone very far. Then, there is the new Isabel Long Mystery, tentatively called Working the Beat, which I’ve begun but have to set aside to concentrate on the launch of Killing the Story. I am itching to let myself loose on that one.

Do you write a synopsis first or write the first chapter? (If you only write short stories, or play or poetry do you plan your story ( poem), or let the characters lead you.) One of the best books on writing is Stephen King’s “On Writing,” in which he says writing is telepathic. Although I’m no Stephen King, I believe that’s the way it works with me. I sit down and let it go. Pretty much what I write in that one long fell swoop stays. Of course, I have to do edits, but those are typically not drastic, just word changes here and there.

[image error]The all-inspiring Joan Livingston

Were any of your characters inspired by real people? In my mystery series, Isabel Long’s mother is loosely based on my mother, who is 96. Also, there is a lot of my personality in Isabel. But the other characters are strictly from my imagination, which is fueled by my experiences with people, especially in the rural areas I have lived. Of course, that doesn’t stop people who know me from trying to guess if a character is based on a real person. Sorry, no. Now, in an earlier book, inspired by my college experience, I used characters similar to people who I knew then, which ticked off a few. Lesson learned.

Is there anything about you your readers might be surprised to find out? I have six kids, now adults. For many years, my creative energy went into them.

What is your work schedule like when you’re writing? I have a full time job as editor-in-chief of a daily newspaper, which consumes a lot of my time in and out of the newsroom. Fortunately, I am an early riser. When I am writing, I will put in an hour or so, more on the weekends. I did the same when I was the editor of another paper. In between those jobs, I got to spend a lot more time writing, and I was able to finish my books faster. These days I aim for 500 words in one sitting. Anything more is golden.

[image error]Joan Book Cover

Did you ever consider writing under a pseudonym? Ha, I am too vain not to take credit for my books.

How do you select the names of your characters? & do you know everything about them before you start writing their story?  Just like the rest of my book, the names of my characters just pop into my head. I get to each one as I write about them. I will admit I love all of my characters, including the bad ones. They are very real to me.

Thank you so much for joining me in the clubhouse tearoom, Joan.

If you would like to find out more about Joan’s writing please check out the links below.

Website:www.joanlivingston.net. 

Facebook: www.facebook.com/JoanLivingstonAuthor/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JoanLivingston

Instagram: www.Instagram.com/JoanLivingston_Author

#Author August Challenge:Day Two: WIP

After years working on one novel, and having a few publishing successes with short stories it wasn’t until the beginning of 2020 I had my first success with a crime/ horror novella. I couldn’t believe my luck when Demain Publishing selected The Funeral Birds for their Murder Mystery Mayhem series.

[image error]The Funeral Birds Link

The Funeral Birds was one of those chance submissions. My dear friend Alyson Faye posted on the For Writers only, who write without Fear of Rejection (a Facebook group) that the publisher was looking for submissions. I had a failed competition submission that I like and thought would be great as a basics for a novel. I quickly extended the short story and sent it off. Just before Christmas last year, Demain Publishing accepted The Funeral Birds and they published it in February this year. I was amazed and completely blown away. The Funeral Birds has taken on a life of its own after receiving 15 reviews world wide.

My WIP has become a challenge to turn the novella’s success into my next novel. The characters of Dave and Joan have been well received in the reviews The Funeral Birds has on the internet, especially Granny Wenlock. The next adventure my characters will have has been plotted out, now I just need time to start write, but first I must finish some other projects.

[image error] Darkstroke August Challenge