Sarah Goodwin's Blog, page 2
November 25, 2013
Competition Deadline
Entries for the cover competition need to be with me by the end of the 30th of November.
This is so I can make a decision and release the book 
November 1, 2013
About the New Book Title…
I’m playing around with a few ideas at the moment, so there is currently no title. If you’re doing a cover for me, then yay! You can leave a space, put ‘Title Goes Here’ or use the current work in progress title, ‘One Fish, Two Fish’.
Sorry for not including that with the origional post.
October 31, 2013
Competition Time
Hey guys, as promised here is the blurb for the new book, which is almost in its final editing stage. To celebrate, I’m running a competition to design a cover for the new book – the winner will have their cover used on the Amazon ebook, and the Lulu.com perfect bound copies AND will recieve a free perfect bound copy of the new novel.
I will also sign the perfect bound copy, which if anything will actually decrease its value 
Aside from the blurb below, here are some hints to get you started – the main character works in a call centre, loves fish, has a background as a Renaissance art graduate, and named his dog after Piero di Cosimo.
Blurb time!
Scott is in a lot of trouble.
His vet is holding his frozen dog to ransom, and if he can’t come up with £500 quickly, he’s lost him forever. His job at Chapterhouse Insurance is on shaky ground, and Scott needs a promotion if he’s going to outlive his failing department.
Only, everyone who gets promoted at Chapterhouse seems to get married first.
Against the advice of his friends, Scott decides he needs a wife to secure a promotion, and the money to finally get his dog back. But, being a fish obsessed semi-recluse, he quickly realises that he’s not going to find a woman the old fashioned way. Turning to the internet, Scott eventually finds a Russian woman looking to move to the UK.
When Maliki turns up at the airport, half Scott’s age, and definitely male, Scott begins to realise just how much trouble he’s in.
Send Entries to harvest-moon@hotmail.co.uk
COMPETITION TIME!
I will also sign the perfect bound copy, which if anything will actually decrease its value :P
Aside from the blurb below, here are some hints to get you started - the main character works in a call centre, loves fish, has a background as a Renaissance art graduate, and named his dog after Piero di Cosimo.
Blurb time!
Scott is in a lot of trouble.
His vet is holding his frozen dog to ransom, and if he can’t come up with £500 quickly, he’s lost him forever. His job at Chapterhouse Insurance is on shaky ground, and Scott needs a promotion if he’s going to outlive his failing department.
Only, everyone who gets promoted at Chapterhouse seems to get married first.
Against the advice of his friends, Scott decides he needs a wife to secure a promotion, and the money to finally get his dog back. But, being a fish obsessed semi-recluse, he quickly realises that he’s not going to find a woman the old fashioned way. Turning to the internet, Scott eventually finds a Russian woman looking to move to the UK.
When Maliki turns up at the airport, half Scott’s age, and definitely male, Scott begins to realise just how much trouble he’s in.
October 27, 2013
Novel Number Six...
Watch this space for a blurb, as it's in the editing/proofreading stage.
August 3, 2013
Novel Writing – And a Promise to Improve :)
Heartless has been out for a few weeks now, and the reviews are starting to come in. I’m pretty happy with most of them so far, the aspects of the novel that I worked hard on have come across well in general, and all the extra proofreading seems to have cut down on complaints over typos and spelling errors – which was one of my main bugbears with my writing.
In other news, one aspect of the book that I wasn’t happy with has come under fire, teaching me that important lesson that, if it doesn’t feel right to me, if won’t to someone else. Bailey and Cohen’s relationship, I agree with the reviewers, is not the focal point of the story, and needed more time devoted to it. I regret not delving deeper into their characters, and really drawing them out. Something I clearly have to work on.
I say to myself, every time I write something new ‘this is going to be the best thing I’ve written, so far’ and one of the things I do as I’m writing my next novel is to look back at what I, and otheres, dislike about my previous ones. I’m nowhere near where I want to be as a writer, but I’m always glad to see people saying that I’ve improved, and that my writing is changing, it gives me hope that, with a lot more practice, I’ll come out with something even better next time.
At the moment I’m up to 60,000 words on my new novel, started some time back in February. It looks like it’s going to be a long one, my normal length is around 80,000 and I’m only about halfway through the plot of the new one at the moment, and it’s still only got a working title. But, with every review for Heartless, I get more of an idea of what not to do, and I’m so happy that people have taken time to help me improve.
This is also going to be the novel I take with me to my masters course, which begins this september! So, with another year of creative writing degree under my belt, I will hopefully be able to make it a lot better than my previous work.
And, the one after that, who knows I’ve already got some ideas.
July 5, 2013
New Novel News
Hello!
Yes, it has been a long time since I’ve posted here, again. Looks like permanent employment is not such a boon for one’s internet life. But, never fear, it does not (really) interfere with writing. So far I’m up to my elbows in novel number six, but number five is all set to be released in 12 hours time.
Heartless is the name of the vampire novel that I was toting around on here last time I posted, and huzzah! it is finished and proofread, and has a gorgeous cover – so now its on its way to being posted on Amazon. As we speak it is ‘in review’ and readying itself for your goggling eyeballs.
So, if you’re stuck for something to read on the beach this lovely weekend, or you’re stuck inside thanks to the rain, pick up a copy of Heartless, over on Amazon
April 15, 2013
News and Reviews…
Ba-na-na-naaaaahhhh!
TRIFORCE!
Only kidding, but there is a trifecta of stuff going on at the moment, which is why I haven’t been blogging. Firstly, I became a permanent employee at my temp job, which means I now have a contract, more money and basic human rights, like sick pay and holiday!
Great thing number two, following an interview that I thought went disaterously wrong (and which was accompanied by the worst case of saggy tights EVER – seriously, I had to take them off on a bus, and I think I accidently flashed an old man) I was offered a place on an MA course for Creative Writing!!! I’m very excited, and saving like bonkers, because it’s going to be very expensive – but it means that I’ll be writing better books in a matter of months!
Good thing number three, this reivew, for my latest novel, Prior Engagements,
What we say – review by Nikki Mason:
Five years ago, Annie was jilted at the altar. Since, life has been pretty dull, earning minimum wage in BHS and living in a tiny flat in Bristol. The only highlight is her best friend Will and the cafe they run. But then, into the shop and her life, enters Dorian – also a jilted fiancé, who needs a date for a wedding and persuades Annie that she could fill the role. After the wedding, on a drunken whim, they fly to Vegas and get married to each other and thus starts a rich new chapter In Annie’s life. And she can finally leave the past behind her, far behind her, as Dorian lives in America, at least she could if she hadn’t discovered that Will, her wonderfully kooky Will, has always been in love with her.
Now Annie is faced with a choice: doing the right thing and making a go of it with kind, generous new hubby Dorian, whose posh family are a bit of a culture shock to poor Annie, or following her passion and discovering real happiness with her sexy best friend, with whom she can honestly be herself.
Annie is a fabulous heroine: down to earth, cynical and sharply witty. Many will sympathise with her good intentions as she struggles with her heart in a very British manner. Indeed all of Goodwin’s characters are true and fresh, adding to the hilarity in this bouncing ball of a story that will fill you with warmth and a determination to find your happily-ever-after.
http://bestchicklit.com//?s=Goodwin
So, things are on the up and up, to add to that, I’ve finished proofing my novel Heartless, and I’m working hard on the next novel.
Hyrule out!
March 23, 2013
Review for my latest novel, Prior Engagements
http://chicklitplus.com/book-review-prior-engagements-sarah-goodwin/
“I really enjoyed PRIOR ENGAGEMENTS and thought that it was a really good read. At first I wasn’t quite too sure what to think about Annie but after a little hesitation on my part, I soon fell in love with her character. Sarah does an amazing job at crafting flawed characters who are also very realistic. On numerous occasions I felt that Annie and I would make great friends. I knew instantly that Stephen was a douche bag and ironically, am glad that she got left at the alter because she was so much better off without him. I must also admit that I was quite surprised when she married Dorian in Vegas … I definitely didn’t see that one coming. Overall though, this book is a really great read from a debut author. I think that if you are looking for a hilarious book with a lot of wit and heart, then this book is for you.”
January 19, 2013
A Busy Old Day
Today, I did two very heartening things,
The first was, I finally grew a life plant on the Sims (applause).
The second was, I finished what has heretofore been refered to as ‘the vampire novel’ and which I can now reveal is titled ‘Heartless’.
Of course there’s still proofreading and rewriting to do, but, I can now at last furnish you with a blurb, and the news that the first chapter of this novel, will be previewed at the end of ‘Prior Engagments’, when it comes out on Monday. Just another reason for you to buy it you know, aside from it being hilarious, romantic, heartwarming and knicker-moisteningly sexy.
Ahem.
So, here’s the blurb.
I couldn’t say ‘I love you’, what I did say was.
“Forgive me.”
Bailey lives in a world where vampires are real, and not everyone’s happy about it, least of all him.
Because of a law introduced before his birth, Bailey is a donor, the one person from his family who has to live in a vampire’s compound, and provide them with blood. Bailey was eighteen when he first came to a vampire’s home, leaving his brother and sister behind, and, six years later, he hasn’t seen the outside world since.
When Bailey is bought by a rich, incredibly old vampire, and moves to a new house, he finds that not all vampires are the same, and his new boss, Cohen, is not what he’d thought him to be at all.
As Bailey begins to feel an attachment growing between him and the vampire he serves, he also becomes aware of the disappearance of donors, and witnesses hideous executions as the terrorist group The Martyred Lamb fights to eradicate vampires, and all humans who sympathise with them.
And then there’s the question of what really happened to his family…
