GOING DOWN THE INDIE ROUTE - FROM RECORD STORE TO ROCK ROMANCE.

Hi everyone. Sorry it's taken me so long to write another blog.  Life's been getting in the way and sometimes I find it easier to compose another novel! However, I'm here now and ready to catch up. Please feel free to leave comments, I don't bite and I'm always happy to answer any questions you may have. All the novels in my series are now available in paperback from Amazon, but if anyone would prefer to buy a signed copy direct from me then please get in touch at pam.waltonhowes@btopenworld.com .
I think it's time I told you a little bit about myself and how I accidentally became an author. It wasn't in my life plans. I can't lie and say I loved writing at school and yearned to be the next Enid Blyton. I enjoyed her books, what kid didn't in the fifties? All that fun with Aunt Fanny and Uncle Quentin and trips to Kirrin Island with Timmy the dog, not to mention the lashings of Ginger Beer!   But then I left school and wanted to do something more exciting, like working in a recording studio. Making coffee for the stars at Abbey Road would have been enough. But it wasn't to be. Girls didn't do that sort of job in the mid-sixties. So I never got the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of Phil Spector or George Martin and produce Rock'n'Roll records. 

Instead, I did the next best thing; I got a job in my local record store. From that day my life took on a whole new meaning. Books were put aside in favour of the New Musical Express and Oh Boy and Roxy magazines and the latest top ten charts. I got to hang around with the lads who'd started bands on leaving school. I helped scribble down the lyrics of hit songs for the groups of boys craving stardom. And I was also lucky in being given free passes to the clubs in the area, not to mention the cinemas. Going out hardly cost me a penny so I could afford to keep up with all-important fashion trends and makeup. I saw many a top group, including The Who, The Small Faces, The Walker Brothers, The Yardbirds, Jimi Hendrix, an extremely young and leggy Rod Stewart and a serious chubby guy with glasses named Reggie Dwight, who played keyboards for Bluesology, a 60s UK R&B group. Reggie later became known as the one and only Elton John!


Anyway, all this hanging around with the groups and music-minded people was to be my inspiration when I had a mid-life crisis. The Interior Design career I'd chosen in my thirties was abandoned in favour of attempting to write fact-based articles for music magazines. This idea somehow grew into THREE STEPS TO HEAVEN, the first novel in what has since become a best-selling series of Rock'n'Roll Romances. I've been completely overwhelmed by how readers have welcomed my stories. The many wonderful reviews, comments and messages from my readers bowl me over. My greatest thrill is being compared to two of my favourite authors, Lesley Pearse and Joanna Trollope and to have rubbed shoulders with them in the Amazon sales rankings knocks me out. My fictional band The Raiders has taken over my life in a way I never thought possible. All I planned was one book. No way did I expect another to come flying out of the pen, never mind a third and fourth as well as a prequel and a short story anthology.

In 2011, during another personal crisis, and amongst producing all this Rock'n'Roll stuff, I wrote a stand-alone that's very close to my heart. FAST MOVIN' TRAIN was published in early 2012 and is a sensual romance based on a true story. For my book titles I always pick song titles that have a special meaning; each one carefully chosen to match the book's content. I'm currently working on another stand-alone love story. CATHY'S CLOWN is all about the relationship between an unlikely couple, student nurse, Cathy Lomax and Wall of Death rider, Gianni Kandola. I'm also in the throes of plotting two further Raiders stories. Will let you know the publication dates nearer the time.

Choosing to be an Indie Author might not suit everyone, but for me it's perfect. I have a great editor and a fabulous cover designer and between us I think we produce some good looking books. I choose my own working pace and I don't have to fit in with anyone's house-style. My genre of writing doesn't exist, apparently. It's a made-up one! I love the marketing side of things and I'm part of a great Facebook group of authors. We go by the name of Writing Kindle Books or, WKB.

To any new authors contemplating going down the Indie route, I'd say go for it. You've nothing to lose, no waiting around for years, only to have someone tell you that you don't fit their lists. There's no rejection letters to paper your office walls with, and you just might have an awful lot to gain. Until next time, all the best, Pam.