Rochelle Elliot's Blog: The World of WellyChelle, page 3

Hi De Hi Campers!

Let us not dwell on the fact I have not been actively blogging for, oh, a little over a year.

We shall instead just wave out to each other, smile brightly and welcome in the new year.

2016. Honestly chickens, how can it be 16 years since the whole millennium palaver?

Looking forward, I’ve set myself one wee resolution. To finish what I’ve started.

Oh how wonderful I am at starting stories. I have a veritable feast of fiction! I have notebooks, and folders and files all bursting with brilliant ideas. And so this year I am going to stretch out my writing muscles, get my head in the game, and get some happy endings!

In the mean time, I leave you with a quote from Jane Green, an author I am mighty fond of…

 

And then I said, “Sure, I can write a book in a year.”

How did it start?

When I published my first novel, Lighthouse Love, it took me approximately 2 1/2 to 3 years from writing the first draft, to holding it in my hands and marveling at the beauty of my words, on paper, bound and with cover, available for all the world to read, if they so desired.

It took me the better part of a year just to get the finishing touches right. Editing, choosing a cover designer, an online ebook distributor. Writing synopsis and blurbs and marketing information. Then taking orders, posting books, finding places for my book to live!

So when I had a spare couple of minutes one morning, I considered all the skills and knowledge I had gained, and I thought about the traditionally published authors I read and how they mostly turn out a book once a year. And I thought why not give it a crack?

Planning

Now I was careful in my planning. I didn’t plan on writing War and Peace in a year. I had already formed an idea around my obsession with dance show Strictly Come Dancing, which I knew would be fun to write and not too intense.

I also knew the organisation end would be a little easier second time around, knowing I would use my wonderful book cover designer Nada Orlic again, and having a collection of people already willing to help me when it came to publication details.

I had worked with Book Baby on Lighthouse Love, but the second time around I wanted to do the distribution myself, starting with Amazon, Kobo and bring on Apple and others down the track. Book Baby is a wonderful company to work with, but the delay in sales details is up to 3 months, so I always felt a step behind when it came to knowing how sales were going. I wouldn’t know how many books I sold in February until May, and I really struggled with that. It’s probably a bit of a personality thing about my need for control or something!

Now writing is not my only activity, as is probably the same for most self-published authors. I look after my nephews before and after school, so my hours for writing are pretty much 9.30 – 2.30, four days a week, with the odd few hours thrown in on Saturdays and Sundays when I can get up early enough! So I needed to be organised. No opening of a blank word document and going where the words too me this time.

I started out with a very detailed plot summary and character back stories. I planned dancing couples, dances, the scores the judges would give and the way I would flow from one dance to another. I planned Mabel and Xanthe’s sisterly relationship, and thought hard about the relationship wrangling I would bring into the story. I even created a timeline.

And then I started writing. And two plots diverged….

Oh, I marked the first for another day,
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken, 1875

As you might guess, as I meandered through territory with a compass but no map, like every good explorer, I had to improvise. Sometimes I found myself dancing circles round the You Tubes, watching Salsas and Sambas, ChaChas and Charlestons. I changed names more times than I care to talk about. This caused all kinds of drama for my editors, who were left at times, wondering exactly how many judges were in the story and who these strange people were they hadn’t been introduced to!

But my biggest speed bump on the road to writing a book in a year, was when I decided a couple of months in, that having written a few chapters, I would change from using first person narrative to third person. Only to decide, having written over half the book, that I much preferred it in the first person. I then had to go back to the start and edit my way through about 20 chapters. There’s a couple of months of my life I won’t get back!

Editing

There is no escaping this word. It is as important as the creative process of getting the words on to the page.

After I had written Lighthouse Love, I had the expert assistance of Rebecca Gumbly at Correctness.co.nz. Alas, my budget this year was much tighter, and I simply couldn’t afford to pay. This was one of those problems I stuffed in the bottom draw with my half crocheted blanket and my wooden block picture frame that Aidan cut out for me in 2007 so I could sand back, paint, and attach photos to.

So I’d made like an ostrich for a few months, and when the time came for some one other than myself to read my book, I was in a bit of a pickle. But there’s only one thing to do with a pickle. Stick it in a cheese burger and eat it.

 Two of my fabulous friends stepped up and took on the challenge. Donna and Cherie worked quickly and with wonderful accuracy, hoovering up all the spelling, punctuation, and grammatically interesting prose that needed tweeking.

I know editing is a hard work. At times I lie on the floor and stare at the ceiling. I talk to myself a lot in this phase of book writing. I talk to Buttons the cat. I make many trips to the pantry and eat chocolate chips and cornflakes from the containers. I drink tea. So much tea. It is my hardest and most important part of writing a book I think. Yet the enjoyment only comes when the task is done. There is nothing you can do but wade through it. One page at a time. One chapter at a time. Until you finally reach the last page and you can take yourself out for an ice cream to celebrate.

 Production and Marketing

All that was left was getting the book out there. Making Over Mabel had a title, all the characters were correctly named, their full-stops and speech marks accounted for.

First up, I spent a lot of time on the googles, checking out how best to use Amazon and their key word search. I learned that these wee key words can make or break your sales potential on Kindle, so I had to choose carefully so that I would direct people to my book.

I wanted to enable people to use Paypal for print book options, as even though I am a boutique book publisher (HA!) I wanted to offer the opportunity for folks to pay with their credit card.

So with hubby’s help we set it up on my Website, http://www.wellychelle.co.nz and I was able to offer pre-orders on Amazon Kindle.

For the first time ever, I hosted a book launch for friends and family, which was a wonderful evening to celebrate my second book, even though I had written a lovely speech which I forgot to give! I really do need to employ a publicist!

Another friend Caroline helped me write my first ever press release, which you can find here.

Marketing is my hardest area. I am not the most confident when it comes to self promotion, in fact I’d give away all the books I write if it didn’t cost me an arm and a leg to make them! But I am determined to get better at it. Building my fan base ( just call me Taylor Swift) is on the top of my list.

Would I do it again? 

Hmmm. I’ve come to the realisation that those traditionally published authors have a whole business support network pre-formed. They have editors and marketing departments and production assistants and book design teams and all that stuff that when you self-publish, you have to take on yourself. That is definitely a challenge with both positive and negative elements.

I loved having a goal. It kept me focused on my writing, where I may have wondered off to do other important things if it wasn’t for the deadline I’d set myself and told everyone about.

But life as I know it went on hold in the last few months. The publishing and production takes more time than I had allocated, and it was a big rush at the end. It meant all hobbies and outside activities ceased to happen while I devoted myself to getting the book finished.

I think in the future I will probably separate the Writing and the Production and Marketing into two different goals. I can definitely write a book in a year. I just need an extra three or four months for the other stuff, so I can enjoy the process and work out the kinks that come up without ending up with a week long migraine!

I love writing. It will always be part of my life. I will probably write books until my fingers can’t type. But as with all things in life, there needs to be balance. 

Is there a goal you’re working towards? How are things going? 

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Tagged: book, bucket list, contemporary, dancing, editing, Fiction, goals, kindle, Lighthouse Love, making over mabel, Rochelle Elliot, self publishing, sisters, strictly, time management, womens, writing

Buttons and threads, felines and fables.

Buttons is my most constant writing companion. She is a perfect partner for a story writer, in that she can’t talk, so her distractions are limited to sitting on the keyboard and digging her claws into me when she’s trying to get comfortable on my lap.

Buttons doesn’t mind when I mutter to myself about plot threads and character back stories. In fact she knows these are often the best times she can get a head scratch, while I scratch my own!

On sunny mornings, Buttons will stretch out in the sun beside me. If I make eye contact, she will meow, as if to tell me to stop day dreaming and get back to work. But she isn’t really bothered if I don’t do as she says. And she never tells anyone when I spend far too long on Pinterest in the name of research.

I like to think Buttons doesn’t mind when I read aloud to her, and ask her for suggestions. What do you think Buttons, will we call him Ingelbert? No? She will purr sometimes. Other times she with give me a withering look, reminding me that she is far superior and more enlightened than I can ever hope to be.

Except in storms. Buttons really isn’t a fan of wind, which is quite a phobia to have when you’re a Welly cat. Those days writing is stilted, often one handed, while patting and soothing and promising that it’s just the wind, and that the sticks dancing across the deck are not zombie sticks, coming to get her.

Buttons is quite a high maintenance feline. She will not use the cat flap, due to it’s placement on the side of the house where the big scary white cat from next door seems to have claimed territory. She will play cat flap tag through the cat flap, but chooses to use the planter boxes on the deck for a toilet, which is both annoying and stinky.

Buttons also has very particular tastes in meat. She has developed a liking for the fancy feast broth, proving once again her superiority in the house. No run of the mill jelly meat for this lady. She likes her’s food to have some flare.

Buttons is capricious, especially around the time she expects us to go to bed. She will spring up from a slumber, eyes like saucers, overcome with an urge to dance, prance and practice for the Cat-Olympics. Long jump, Diving, Rhythmic gymnastics. At these times, it is best to keep your toes still under the blanket.

In the mornings when she wakes, Buttons does not like to be ignored, preferring to alternate between attempting to drink from our water glasses beside the bed, and sitting on someone’s chest until they can’t breath. Then she will try and cajole you into giving her another fancy feast and likes to be let out in a huff when biscuits are offered instead.

At other times of the day, you will find Buttons at the window in Isabelle’s room, waiting for the children to come home from school, or curled up on the Sky box when she wants an extra burst of heat.

Buttons especially likes butter, crunchy wetas and scratching the side of the couch. Grrrr.

How do your furry friends help you in your every day life? 

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Have you read Making Over Mabel yet? 

Tagged: cats, pets, writing

Would you like to meet Mabel?

Tonight is the night. Making Over Mabel goes LIVE on Amazon Kindle. I say ‘tonight’ because 12.01 PST in the USA is 8.01pm here in Kiwi-land. And that’s when Mabel will enter your lives… 

But I figured you might like to meet my Mabel. Especially since I’m hoping my Mabel will soon be your Mabel as well. 

For those purists among you I must state at this point, that the introduction to Making Over Mabel, the first page, is below. So if you’d like to NOT see it yet – CLOSE THE PAGE, CLOSE THE PAGE!!!! 

*****SPOILER ALERT *****

Here’s the introduction to Making Over Mabel, and a chance for you to get to know the warm-hearted, funny and fabulous woman, whose journey you are about to share. 

Have you met Mabel? 

Mabel Cartwright is Marketing Manager for Fred and Frankie, unofficial leaders in New Zealand for their work in celebrity management and branding. Though she only had fifteen minutes between a fashion shoot and a book launch, I bribed Mabel with a latte and a stroll along the waterfront, which she insists is as close to exercise as she ever gets. I started by asking Mabel what exactly goes on at Fred and Frankie.

“We specialise in promotion and campaign planning, personal marketing strategy, website and logo design, really we do it all,” Mabel explained. “Frankie and Fred are the most amazing bosses. The minute I walked into their studio for my interview, my brand new Marketing Diploma grasped tightly in my hand, I knew I would love working for them. They were glued to this big old television in the corner of the room. They apologised profusely, explained the Oscars were on, and would I mind popping out for coffee and chocolate éclairs. I was 22 years old, and knew I’d found a place I belonged.”

Mabel is exactly the kind of role model we love at Swish! Magazine. She has worked her way up from coffee girl, to managing the branding and celebrity endorsement for a number of elite clientele. I know you’re all clamouring to know which celebs Mabel works with; alas Fred and Frankie have a very strict privacy policy.

“We don’t dish dirt,” Mabel states firmly. “We work hard to create a positive environment around our clients, and their privacy is our top priority.”

However one person Mabel has worked her magic on was more than happy to reveal herself to Swish!

It turns out Mabel is responsible for former Flight Attendant Shazza’s make-over, post her thrilling exit from hit reality show “Fish Bowl.” You all remember Shazza falling in love on live television, with her married fishy friend Jack James? Oh, the drama! Poor Shazza bore the brunt of a brutal public backlash while JJ flip-flopped back to his wife and begged forgiveness. Shazza admits it wasn’t her finer moment.

“I’ve grown up a lot since that show. Watching back I realised how much I was trying to be someone I’m not. I wanted people to think I was this confident cool chick who didn’t care what people thought. It’s taken a long time to find the real me. Hours of therapy and hard work rebuilding my reputation. I’ve apologised where I needed to, and I’m moving on.”

Turns out Mabel Cartwright is the fairy godmother behind the scenes at Team Shazza. She’s turned the bottle blonde flight attendant into a flaming red-head, getting her a spot on Good Morning, and pairing her up with edgy British hair care brand Fly-away! It’s a match made in heaven. Now Shazza has swapped one kind of high life for another. She’s a huge hit in the UK, dividing her time between London, Auckland and Wellington. She puts her successful new modelling career down to Mabel.

“Mabel is my lucky charm. She’s completely turned my life around, and made my dreams come true.”

But there is more to Mabel than meets the eye. She is also responsible for the not-for-profit arm of Fred and Frankie. She is on the board of Small Seeds, a charity providing care and support for low income families, encouraging parenting and early childhood education. She has worked tirelessly for free, to promote the charity and recoup the funding they lost in the latest round of Government spending cuts.

On top of her commitments to Small Seeds, when Mabel learned of 50 small children and babies left orphaned and alone in a small African village last year, their parents murdered at the hands of a militia, she pulled together a group of like-minded business people and celebrities from across the globe to both fundraise for and promote her Reach Out campaign. Mabel’s hard work has ensured the orphans will be well cared for, with full access to education and health care for years to come. The Reach-Out program is now a model many other charities are looking at using, to ensure sustainable support for communities around the world, especially those affected by war.

Though Mabel’s job usually keeps her behind the scenes, she was thrust into the spotlight this year, when her partner of two years, Adrian Trigg, won a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Since then she has, somewhat reluctantly, become half of a golden couple that have the women’s magazines and Sunday papers buzzing.

Though her partner’s medal success has stolen the spotlight this year, Mabel has been very successful in her own right. She took home Australasian Business Woman of the Year, and was awarded a medal of honour by New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, for her services to charity. But modest Mabel is hesitant to accept praise for her hard work.

“I am one part of a team. I love working with others, and I share my success with my co-workers, with my clients, with those who are willing to work together to make great things happen. I would not be where I am today if I hadn’t had the amazing opportunities and experiences of working with Fred and Frankie, and the support of my wonderful friends and family.”

With an attitude like that, we know Mabel is the kind of woman you’d love to meet!

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Tagged: Books, Chicklit, kiwi, making over mabel, new release, New Zealand, Rochelle Elliot, women's fiction

Pre-order Making Over Mabel.

That’s right chickens, Making Over Mabel is now available for pre-order from Amazon Kindle. And you’ll have it in time for the weekend, how perfect is that? Just click on this link:

I WANT TO ORDER MAKING OVER MABEL 

Check out the beautiful cover Nada Orlic designed, is it not the most wonderful book cover you’ve seen this year? I can’t stop staring at it!

Tagged: book, celebrity, Chicklit, contemporary, dancing, ebook, Fiction, New Zealand, sisters, womens

Giant cat protects New Zealand homes from property speculators.

Tagged: cats, home ownership, housing market, New Zealand, politics, property, rent

13 Days till we start Making Over Mabel!

Hello my lovely chickens!

I know I have been a terrible bore since the last school holidays, having put the blogging on the back burner while I scribbled and edited my way to a fully functioning work of fiction.

But I’m still here!

Last night, someone on twitter asked for people to name the thing they most like about themselves, and I had to admit it’s my writing.

When I stop and consider the patience and commitment that goes into writing, I am often stunned that I ended up in this place. Where once I was a person who flitted from one idea to the next, who never really followed through (or so I would have myself believe) I have developed a discipline that I never realised was inside me. I have my mountains to climb, my terrible spelling, my over use of adverbs. Having to look up what an adverb is. But I’ve also learned a lot.

There is a writing muscle that has been growing in me these last few years, and it is a pretty exciting thing to find I can flex and point it where and when I need to. This didn’t happen over night, and I feel there is still a great deal of ground to be gained. But you know what, it’s there.

There are enormous challenges with being a self published writer, from a little country at the bottom of the globe.

But my fiction comes from the people and places of New Zealand. And what a marvellous foundation that has given me to create characters that are funny and open to new experiences and ideas.

So here I am, two weeks out from Making Over Mabel’s publication day. A new clan of characters to introduce to you all. And I can’t wait!

Image courtesy of jesadaphorn at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Tagged: author, Books, chiclit, kiwi, making over mabel, New Zealand, publishing, Rochelle Elliot, women's fiction, writing

Save the date… Making Over Mabel: Monday 6th October 2014

My new novel is out next month…

Image courtesy of Salvatore Vuono at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

Mabel Cartwright doesn’t need a New Year’s resolution. She’s got a great job marketing celebrity clients, and her fingers in a couple of not-for-profit pies. Her boyfriend Adrian has won a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games, and though his ego is a handful, Mabel thinks their life together is pretty good.

But New Year’s isn’t at all what she plans, when Adrian goes and chooses celebrity over celibacy, leaving Mabel with an empty flat, and a ruined reputation.
Of course the media just love a public bust-up. Mabel gets caught on camera buying cat food in her track pants, and takes to her bed, cloaking herself in a blanket of helpless heartbreak.

Lucky for Mabel, her sister Xanthe knows what a loser Adrian is. She’s got a plan to get her sister out of bed and back into the world.
But Making Over Mabel is no easy task. Xanthe’s going to need a spread sheet, a pair of rubber gloves and an iron will.
She introduces Mabel to her Personal Assistant Duncan. He has a friendly smile and a lovely Scottish accent. And he’s single. But Xanthe’s marvellous meddling doesn’t stop there. She’s snagged her sister a spot on Synergy, the latest reality television dance show!

Mabel is reluctantly thrust into the spotlight, partnered with a smoldering Spaniard, and beamed into living rooms across the country. But being under the spotlight is a pocket size predicament for Mabes, because she can’t stop kissing men, her salsa is stagnant, and bumping into Adrian and his new girlfriend Roxalina is enough to throw anyone off their twinkle toes. Will her problems will ever stop multiplying?

As sure as the Tango is strong and dramatic, and the Rumba needs spirit and soul, there has got to be someone out there who can bring back Mabel’s sparkle.
But is she quick-stepping in the right direction?

Pull out your judges’ score cards and glide into your glittery gowns… you’re about to find out!

Tagged: Books, Chicklit, Contemporary fiction, Dancing with the stars, humor, new release, New Zealand, Strictly Come Dancing, women's fiction

Short Stories from the World of WellyChelle

This project has been on the burner for a while, and I’m excited to finally have a selection of my short stories in one place!

It’s only on Kindle, and available for 99 cents, with any profits going to the #TwitterAunties and their support for their Women’s Refuge.

The idea is not to make money from this one (other than in support of my twitter aunties,) but to collate my stories that might otherwise disappear into the dusty corners of the internet, never to be read again!

So if you’ve got a spare $1… shuffle on over to Amazon and get your copy!

Short Stories from The World of WellyChelle  

 

Tagged: Life, love, New Zealand, relationships, Short stories

A slice of Ginger Cornflake Fabulous

Ginger Cornflake Fabulous Slice

So much fabulousness

I am calling this what it is – fabulous! 
Don’t be afraid to mix up the quantities. Stick more coconut in if you like it, with a few less oats, or more cornflakes and less oats. It seems to be rather forgiving with all the honey and butter gluing it together!
It’s so easy to make, and such a joy to eat. Really. It’s chewy and sweet and gingery, so lovely with a cup of tea on a cold winters day!

 

Ingredients 
BASE

125 grams of butter

1 tablespoon of honey

1/2 cup of sugar

2 cups of lightly crushed cornflakes (or leave them whole if you like bigger bits)

1 cup of oats

1/2 cup of desiccated coconut

 

ICING

75 grams butter

3 tablespoons of ginger

2 tablespoons of golden syrup

2/3 to 1 cup of icing sugar (depending how you like your icing) 

 

And off we go…  

Melt the butter, honey and sugar in a pot until it’s all runny and the sugar has dissolved. 

Whack in all the other stuff and stir it up.

Put little bit on a spoon and taste it. You know it’s going to but you should check anyway. All good cooks check their food. 

Line a slice pan with baking paper then plonk the mixture in and spread it out with the back of a spoon. It’s rather sticky, so to get the top nice and flat, and the slice compacted down enough, I used a piece of baking paper and lay it on top, then pressed all over with my hands. 

Put the slice into the oven for 10 – 15 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius, until its golden brown. 

While it cooks, eat the bits that are left on the spoon and in the pot. Talk very strongly to self about not opening the oven door and scooping the mixture out of the tray into your mouth. 

When it’s out of the oven, let it cool down a bit on the bench, while you make up the ginger icing. 

 

If you are the kind of person who likes their icing thick and buttery, and I hear you – nothing wrong with that – then you might want to double the recipe!

Melt the butter, golden syrup, add the ginger and icing sugar and stir it all up on a low heat till it’s silky and delicious. You will need to try the icing, because you want to. 

Spread the icing over your cornflake base, and let it set. 

Lock the door, fill the tea pot, get a good book and hide in a corner with your fabulousness!