THIS BLOGGING THING
A lot of people have been saying to me of late, "So why do you never do a blog or do any touting when one of your books is being promoted or offered free for a period so readers can sample your books?"
Well, truth is, I guess I'm not a "touting" kind of person, so it never occurred to me. I still get a hard time from some for not blogging regularly, only now and then, and I still have a hard time thinking of what to say to those who read my blog in the first place.
Who are they? Because none ever comment. I know a lot of them are in America and quite a few in Australia, and then there are the silent majority here in the UK. I know they read my books, because they keep buying them and leaving good reviews on Amazon, so my true feeling is that there really is no point in talking to unknown people out there in cyberspace.
The only blog I enjoyed writing, and did it on impulse in one sitting, was my tribute to Muhammad Ali - because I like writing about GREAT men. Didn't even have to pause and think about that one, out it came, fast and true, and I didn't give a damn if anyone read it or not.
No one commented on that either - but I was knocked out by the number of guys who emailed me through my website to say how much they loved it, or were very moved by it, and I have a suspicion a lot of those guys grew up in Kentucky, same as Ali - it doesn't matter if you don't know anything about boxing, Ali is a legend of past greatness in every city in the world.
Robert Emmet is still a legend in Ireland, songs about him are still sung and are numerous, yet few knew he was a Protestant, and his story of patriotism and unrequited love is one of the greatest in Ireland's history.
Lachlan Macquarie is a legend in Australia , most of the buildings in Sydney are named after him, yet few Australians knew he was Scottish, just that he was British. Few knew anything about his personal life as a young redcoat in India, or that his own personal love story in India was one he never forgot up to his dying day.
As F. Scott Fitzgerald, that great author of The Great Gatsby once said, "Show me a hero, and I'll write you a tragedy".
Most of my books seem to be about heroes - real heroes too - not made up ones - heroes reclaimed from the past and their stories told again, because there is always something to learn from a story that is true. I love writing about the past because it makes me appreciate the present and the great world we live in today.
People often say to me, "Why do you always choose such tough subjects?"
I suppose because they are the only ones that really interest me.
When "Tread Softly On My Dreams" was first published, my publishers (Headline) lost patience with me because I refused to do any publicity for the book. It was something I learned later that publicity was something I HAD to do, but always by force, and never happily.
When I DID agree to do publicity a few years later when it was republished by a second publisher it went straight into the bestsellers in Ireland - North and South - because readers couldn't tell if it was written by a Protestant or a Catholic, because the disembodied voice telling the story was totally unbiased, as all writers of true stories should be.
But one reason I will always love that book "Tread Softly On My Dreams" is because it was specially purchased by The Princess Grace Irish in the Palace of Monaco, as well as the University of Notre Dame in the USA. Those were two pieces of news that brought tears to my eyes, and affected me much more than any bestseller list. Not bad for a kid brought up in an Irish orphange, eh?
No, Gretta, not bad at all.
I'm arranging to have Tread Softly On My Dreams put up on an ebook promotion in July, but right now it's BY EASTERN WINDOWS, the first book in the Macquarie Series that is up there now on a free promotion. I'm still writing the concluding book in that trilogy and hoping to have it finished by summer, but they tell me that''s no excuse for NOT writing my blog for months on end.
Personally I think it's a great excuse, because I'm not a blogger, I'm a writer.
Gretta
Well, truth is, I guess I'm not a "touting" kind of person, so it never occurred to me. I still get a hard time from some for not blogging regularly, only now and then, and I still have a hard time thinking of what to say to those who read my blog in the first place.
Who are they? Because none ever comment. I know a lot of them are in America and quite a few in Australia, and then there are the silent majority here in the UK. I know they read my books, because they keep buying them and leaving good reviews on Amazon, so my true feeling is that there really is no point in talking to unknown people out there in cyberspace.
The only blog I enjoyed writing, and did it on impulse in one sitting, was my tribute to Muhammad Ali - because I like writing about GREAT men. Didn't even have to pause and think about that one, out it came, fast and true, and I didn't give a damn if anyone read it or not.
No one commented on that either - but I was knocked out by the number of guys who emailed me through my website to say how much they loved it, or were very moved by it, and I have a suspicion a lot of those guys grew up in Kentucky, same as Ali - it doesn't matter if you don't know anything about boxing, Ali is a legend of past greatness in every city in the world.
Robert Emmet is still a legend in Ireland, songs about him are still sung and are numerous, yet few knew he was a Protestant, and his story of patriotism and unrequited love is one of the greatest in Ireland's history.
Lachlan Macquarie is a legend in Australia , most of the buildings in Sydney are named after him, yet few Australians knew he was Scottish, just that he was British. Few knew anything about his personal life as a young redcoat in India, or that his own personal love story in India was one he never forgot up to his dying day.
As F. Scott Fitzgerald, that great author of The Great Gatsby once said, "Show me a hero, and I'll write you a tragedy".
Most of my books seem to be about heroes - real heroes too - not made up ones - heroes reclaimed from the past and their stories told again, because there is always something to learn from a story that is true. I love writing about the past because it makes me appreciate the present and the great world we live in today.
People often say to me, "Why do you always choose such tough subjects?"
I suppose because they are the only ones that really interest me.
When "Tread Softly On My Dreams" was first published, my publishers (Headline) lost patience with me because I refused to do any publicity for the book. It was something I learned later that publicity was something I HAD to do, but always by force, and never happily.
When I DID agree to do publicity a few years later when it was republished by a second publisher it went straight into the bestsellers in Ireland - North and South - because readers couldn't tell if it was written by a Protestant or a Catholic, because the disembodied voice telling the story was totally unbiased, as all writers of true stories should be.
But one reason I will always love that book "Tread Softly On My Dreams" is because it was specially purchased by The Princess Grace Irish in the Palace of Monaco, as well as the University of Notre Dame in the USA. Those were two pieces of news that brought tears to my eyes, and affected me much more than any bestseller list. Not bad for a kid brought up in an Irish orphange, eh?
No, Gretta, not bad at all.
I'm arranging to have Tread Softly On My Dreams put up on an ebook promotion in July, but right now it's BY EASTERN WINDOWS, the first book in the Macquarie Series that is up there now on a free promotion. I'm still writing the concluding book in that trilogy and hoping to have it finished by summer, but they tell me that''s no excuse for NOT writing my blog for months on end.
Personally I think it's a great excuse, because I'm not a blogger, I'm a writer.
Gretta
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