Sarah Goodwin's Blog, page 4
October 11, 2012
Blurb of my opcomming novel – After the Fall.
When Connor wakes up in a hospital bed, he realises that the accident that broke his leg has also wiped his memory. His wife is a stranger, his dead parents just a photograph, and his home an unfamiliar, shabby place that smells of dog.
At a local support group for amnesiacs, Connor meets Nate, a fellow sufferer of retrograde amnesia. Nate has no memory, and no idea how he came to lose it, but he remains easy going, and Connor quickly considers the foulmouthed, chain-smoking Nate a friend.
But, when Nate makes a pass at him, Connor starts to question everything he’s learnt about himself. Is he really a happily married 32 year old, or are secrets being kept from him? Who is the mysterious ‘Coop’ whose cryptic emails are still in his inbox? And why, on the day of his accident, was he driving with another man in his car? A man whose life, and death, are still a touchy subject at home.
Another Interview with Me!
I don’t want to give you the false impression that I’m popular, or very interesting, but here is another interview with me. This one was conducted by email, recently, for Top2Bottom reviews, to go with a review of my second novel, Ink.
http://top2bottomreviews.wordpress.co...
An Interview With Me
Last year I had a housemat ewho was….trying, at best. But, he does have a blog about erotica, and he did interview me on it. If you want to hear my voice (and why would you?) it is here.
Yes, I am a terrible blogger.
Hello!
I never seem to have much luck with blogs, maybe it’s because I’m not that great at writing about myself, or maybe it’s because I can go for large stretches of time without doing much…who knows?
Anyway, last time we spoke, I was newly homeless, and trying to find work in Bath.
Alas, and thanks to a lot of time wasting interviews by the dipshits at certain Bristol based companies.
(I was in particular most upset when one interviewer said, baldly, that if I was a writer, I couldn’t do a 9-5 job. Well, I think that’s for me to decide, isn’t it? and not some bitch who couldn’t even be bothered to wash her hair before interviewing me.)
…I have now moved home to Hertfordshire, to live at my parent’s house while I continue to job search.
In the last two and a bit months, I have also written a new novel, tentatively declared ‘ready’ and in the final stages of proofing and editing. It is to be titled ‘After the Fall’ and I’ll put a blurb up on here in a bit so you can see what it’s all about, along with my most recent reviews for my first two books.
After the Fall, is actualy my fourth novel in the last two years, but the third, a chick-lit novel, is currently being sent to agents, as I want to see if I stand a chance in the competative market that it women’s fiction. I very much hope to see it published, in one form or another, but next year.
I will do my very best to keep you lovely people updated 
July 31, 2012
When life shits in your bucket….ummm…buy a new one?
Loyal Hillians!
No, just kidding, it’s me.
We haven’t spoken in a while, save for that one short post about my book being reviewed on Top2bottom. So I thought I’d update you on my life.
My life, is, shall we say, in the mid-stages of upheaval.
For a start, following a series of slights at work (namely, the fact that my bosses chose to ignore certain statutory rights of mine, acted like total fucktards and took away my day off without notifying me first, then openly bad mouthed me to my collegues) I chose to leave their employ. I was kind of entitled to, after all, my trial period was just then finishing, I wasn’t required to give notice.
I did pack up all mine and my friend/co-workers stuff and move out in the middle of the night without telling anyone – but, if your bosses were that crazy, you’d understand why it was necessary.
It was made a little complicated by the fact that the friend-of-a-friend who was going to give us a lift at 7 that night actually had to work late, so she couldn’t come and help us move.
Which we found out at around 6.
And then both my bosses (Mr and Mrs, shall we say, Hitler) had to come back to work to sort out a computer issue. So, I had to hide in our dank, unearthed, poorly plummed flat with all my worldly possessions until they’d gone.
In the end, it took two journeys on foot across Bath, and three taxi rides, to get everything we owned back to our student house (which we’d had to keep up the rent on – and thank god we had).
I was so nervous, so terrified, that I slept in my friend’s room, and got very little sleep as a result (she is a kicker).
So, I am now unemployed.
Today I actually have an interview at the job centre, because, frankly, if I can eat muffins I find in bins, what is so bad about being on the dole? It’s taken me two weeks to apply, and I’m surprised at myself, I really thought I had no shame, but apparently I do, when it comes to accepting bail out money from the government. Even money that I deserve, money that I paid in tax. My mind was clearly warped at an early age by my Nan’s copies of the Daily Mail.
I’ve traded in my non-functioning Xbox 360 for a bumper £8, sold my vintage handbags, considered returning to my old gig of selling my used panties to perverts via craigslist, and am in the early stages of setting up my own detective agency to bring in some extra cash.
But, then, I suppose that’s typical for unemployed writers.
Speaking of writing, I’m also trying to get my (now finished) chick-lit novel published. I’ve had it proofread by trusted creative writing friends, and I’ve got all my letters written and saved…now just comes sending them.
I have to admit that I’ve never been good with rejection.
I once had an interview at Matalan, and was turned down because I was twenty minutes early, and my shoes were too pointy. And I didn’t shop there for over a year. I still get hives when I go in.
But, as I’ve been applying for jobs for the last two weeks, and received almost no word…it might be time to get used to the idea that rejection is just a natural part of life.
Employees reject their bosses’ bullshit.
Potential employers reject graduates.
Publishers reject novels.
I reject the notion of failure being a possibility.
April 29, 2012
A Fresh Start
Hello! Welcome to the brand new site for…well, me, I suppose.
This used to be the blog where I sporadically uploaded about my self-publishing career. I don’t believe I’ve updated it since sometime in 2016. A lot has changed since then. Most notably, I have gotten older, and discovered that I like olives.
Also, I have a book coming out.
To cut a long story very short, in those missing five years I wrote several books and they were, sadly, not considered for publication. I moved from Bristol and came home to Hertfordshire to live with my family, then got stuck in to temp work and forgot about writing entirely. I also started a podcast, reviewing books and films that have to do with my favourite subject – witchcraft. Witchfix podcast was a wonderful creative outlet which I hope to keep creating.
In 2019 I knocked the temping on the head, determined to take a last stab at writing something that would take me from ‘self-published’ to just ‘published’. The result of that was my novel ‘Stranded’. I started on it just as we were getting news about this new ‘Corona Virus’ emerging in China. As I wrote the novel this virus took over the world, sparking lockdowns and fear everywhere. It was a very tense time for everyone, my family included. But it also taught me a lot about isolation and uncertainty, which informed the plot of ‘Stranded’ as it began to unfold.
As for the novel itself, I wanted to do two things with it. 1. Write something with a touch of horror to it, which meant writing about one of my own worst fears. 2. I wanted to sneak something witchy into it and get it past my agent, who hadn’t liked most of my (pretty terrible) witch novel ideas.
Obviously I wouldn’t have changed my blog if something major hadn’t happened. So yes, my long-suffering agent liked the novel (including the witch stuff) and, after some lengthy changes, it was submitted to publishers.
All of this sounds like it happened quite quickly, doesn’t it? It wasn’t while I was living it. I don’t think I’ve ever waited so anxiously for something to happen. But happen it did, and ‘Stranded’ was picked up by the lovely people at Avon – an imprint of Harper Collins.
I told myself that, if I was unpublished by the time I turned 30, I’d jack it all in. Settle down, go permanent at a terrible office job, and forget I ever dreamt of walking into a Waterstones and taking obnoxious selfies with my first novel. Fortunately, I made it, with only a few months to spare! (Although technically I will be 30 by the time the book hits shelves in September 2021. But I’m still counting it as a win.)
Here’s the blurb:
Eight strangers.
One island.
A secret you’d kill to keep.
When eight people arrive on the beautiful but remote Buidseach Island, they are ready for the challenge of a lifetime: to live alone for one year.
Eighteen months later, a woman is found in an isolated fishing village. She’s desperate to explain what happened to her: how the group fractured and friends became enemies; how they did what they must to survive until the boat came to collect them; how things turned deadly when the boat didn’t come…
But first Maddy must come to terms with the devastating secret that left them stranded, and her own role in the events that saw eight arrive and only three leave.
I’ll share some more details when the cover art (!) is revealed. You can also add the book to your to-read list on Goodreads or even pre-order it from Amazon, using the link below, or in my profile.
