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Michael's Blog (195)

Ups and Downs

June 11th. 2016

 

Interesting week for a couple of reasons: progress with my WIP and our puppy. I have re-worked my novel, and am slowly putting together something that should make a reasonable mystery/thriller. There is still a long way to go of course, but the end of the year is my target. The Skype interview I mentioned in last week’s blog did take place, but not on the day we planned. The Canadian writer, Alexandra Amor (alexandraAmor.com), contacted me on the…

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Added by Michael on June 11, 2016 at 8:36am — No Comments

One eyed Optimist

June 5th. 2016

 

Today I’m sitting in front on my computer just four hours after a cataract operation. My glasses are on crooked because of a patch over my ‘new’ eye, which makes reading and typing rather awkward, but I soldier on, ever the eternal optimist. By all accounts my eye should be back to normal very soon. Then I’ll have the other eye done to balance both eyes. What it will do for my writing is a different matter, apart from the physical aspect of focussing…

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Added by Michael on June 4, 2016 at 7:39am — No Comments

Points of View

May 28th. 2016

 

Progress on my current novel is slow at the moment, giving me all sorts of problems, but at least they are self-inflicted. I’m in a kind of quandary about the way in which to develop the story. When I look at my other books, I see action and adventure, thrills and spills and one romance. Now I seem to have drifted into a kind of Dick Francis state of mind, and I’ve no wish to emulate that man — not that I could. I do remember during one interview I…

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Added by Michael on May 28, 2016 at 8:41am — No Comments

Big Oak Trees From Little Acorns Grow

May 21st. 2016

A mixed but busy week for me; I’m still writing and have reached about 18000 words. I keep getting writer’s block though which doesn’t help. I search around in my head for situations that leave a question mark over the end of a chapter or scene, and then find myself writing in my head and forgetting where I was going with the story. I have a character who is pushing for a bigger part. Sounds daft? Ask most writers if their characters do this for them, and I’m…

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Added by Michael on May 23, 2016 at 7:30pm — No Comments

Progress with Tales and Tails

May 14th. 2016

 

I’m still managing to keep my head above water in the book sales stakes, but only just. My averages fell away sharply over the latter part of April, but have picked up now, although my Amazon ranking is dropping slowly. I signed up for a promotion with BooksGoSocial (mentioned last week), and so far they are tweeting every day to eight different places. Part of the contract, I know, and it is something I would expect. The owner of BGS, Laurence…

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Added by Michael on May 14, 2016 at 5:30pm — No Comments

Fitting it all in

May 8th. 2016

 

After my successful promotion with BookBub and a comparatively successful promotion with Robin Reads, my average sales have now succumbed to their pre-promotion levels. At this point I had planned to use Facebook to get the balls back up in the air, so to speak. But instead of FB, I have gone with BooksgoSocial. This is a Dublin based group who have an impressive CV, but more importantly they have more of a personal contact with their authors. Plus…

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Added by Michael on May 8, 2016 at 9:19am — No Comments

Taxing Times

April 30th.

 

My weeks get filled with a puppy dog and storytelling, and I don’t need to tell you which one is winning. My wife said it’s easier having a baby because when you put them down, they stay there, unlike our Tuppence who decides when she wants peace and quiet. It’s rather like writing in a way: once you put the words down you expect them to stay there, but they have a habit of demanding your attention. And sometimes they bite you, metaphorically speaking,…

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Added by Michael on April 30, 2016 at 9:34am — No Comments

The Puppy is WInning at the Moment

April 23rd. 2016

 

It’s been a hard week. Puppies don’t realise what a strain they put on their owners. I’ve been exercising muscles that have been dormant for ages. How do you make a garden puppy proof? A lot of hard work. How can you get work done when you are keeping an eye on the little one because your wife is having a well-deserved break from it all? Me and Tuppence fell asleep while I was on duty. Fortunately she woke me up before my wife came home. But I have…

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Added by Michael on April 23, 2016 at 8:25am — No Comments

Puppies and Projects

April 16th. 2016

 

Two things happened this weekend which will help to re-order my life. Did I say ‘help’? We picked up our eight week old puppy, Tuppence, today and we are now experiencing a minor, soon to be major, disruption. At the moment she is fast asleep in a cardboard box. No, we didn’t force her to go in the box; she chose to do this herself despite the lovely soft bed we bought, the blankets in her cage where we thought she would feel safe, and the lap my…

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Added by Michael on April 16, 2016 at 8:11am — No Comments

Falling averages but still selling

April 9th. 2016

 

As a writer, words interest me. I came across one yesterday on one of the author forums I use. The word is “Pantser”. No, me neither. Anyway, the word appeared in response to a post about the author Lee Child declaring that he doesn’t plan his books; they just happen. Whatever sentence he writes, he isn’t sure how the next line will develop, something like that. Sounds like fun, but I don’t believe it is strictly true; Lee Child has a wealth of…

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Added by Michael on April 10, 2016 at 8:30pm — No Comments

Not enough hours in the day.

April 4th. 2016

 

I’m late this week, simply because of too much to do. Went to a wedding on Saturday, which interfered with my usual Saturday treat of watching football. Sunday was a visit from our grand-daughter, Gemma (lovely), and then a trip across to see our puppy, Tuppence. Such a busy life I lead! Blogging took a back seat for a while. I have kept an eye on my book sales and rankings, and can now see the tail end of the BookBub promotion results. I’m really…

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Added by Michael on April 4, 2016 at 10:23am — No Comments

Book Talk and buying a puppy

March 26th.

 

I held my Book Talk event last Saturday and enjoyed it immensely. About fifteen people turned up, which meant there was no over-crowding in the room, and I managed to sell a few books. That wasn’t the purpose of the event, but I took my books along just in case. I have seen both the one hour videos of the two hour event, and if I’ve learned anything, it is that questions from the floor cannot be heard when it’s only me who has the voice microphone. If I…

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Added by Michael on March 26, 2016 at 9:51am — No Comments

A Good Week with BookBub and a Book Talk

March 20th 2016        

 

This has been a good week for me both on the book and domestic fronts. The Kitchen fitter turned up as planned, my book promotion went out on BookBub, and on Friday I celebrated my 75th. birthday. The kitchen fitter completed the job in one day, and my promotion exceeded all my expectations. So now we have an upgraded kitchen, new tiles, work tops, cooker and hob etc. and I have a smile on my face because I have sold over 3000…

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Added by Michael on March 20, 2016 at 9:45am — No Comments

Promotion, can't do without it.

 

March 13th. 2016

 

I sent an e-mail to my subscribers yesterday letting them know that I was promoting Roselli’s Gold with a BookBub advert on Monday and had dropped the price to £0.99/$0.99 for the promotion. Yesterday I sold 11 books. Roselli’s Gold is the kind of book that rises up and disappears in my sales figures, so it was a kind of tongue in cheek e-mail, hoping for something but expecting nothing. So, a nice little…

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Added by Michael on March 13, 2016 at 2:35am — No Comments

Busy Boy

March 6th. 2016

 

We’ve had a full week, one way or another. Saturday (eight days ago) we went to the funeral of a dear friend who succumbed to cancer. Monday we visited friends in Southampton for a meal. They are off to Spain today to their holiday home; back in May. Friday was a visit to my sister and then yesterday we were with number three son, John and his wife Bryony, so all in all a busy period. The kitchen work tops turned up Tuesday — couldn’t get them in…

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Added by Michael on March 6, 2016 at 5:32am — No Comments

Good and not so good news, but mainly good.

February 26th  2016

 

Last week I received an e-mail from a writer in Israel. He had finished reading my latest thriller, A Dangerous Game, and said he hoped it would not be my last book. He then went on to take the book apart, saying he found the plot “interesting, even intriguing, but more than a bit implausible”. He pointed out the errors in my characters, none of whom escaped his criticism. But he did admit that he found my style and vocabulary “enviable…

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Added by Michael on February 26, 2016 at 10:09am — No Comments

Climbing the learning curve

February 20th. 2016

 

This week has been more of a learning curve for me with respect to promoting myself and my craft. My proposed “Book Talk” at the local Arts & Craft shop next month is not attracting people. Whether it’s because there are no potential writers or budding wannabees in the area, I’ve no idea. Let’s face it, not everyone wants to sit at a desk or in front of a computer writing their memoires or the next best seller. Just because I think it’s a…

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Added by Michael on February 20, 2016 at 8:30am — No Comments

Good days and not so good days.

February 13th 2016

 

On the whole my week has been good in places and not so good in others. The kitchen didn’t happen: the suppliers called to say they couldn’t fulfil the order, so we had to reschedule the delivery. This meant phoning the kitchen fitter and making other arrangements. I picked up a head cold (man-flu for those who know how it is), which has left me coughing and sneezing all over the place. And so far I’ve had no real interest from the public in my…

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Added by Michael on February 13, 2016 at 9:17am — No Comments

A Bouncy Week, but I'm Still not King of the Castle

February 7th. 2016

 

I’m slowly coming back down to earth after a pretty good week with my book sales. Although I am nowhere near the hundreds and thousands mark, there are levels that mean a great deal when sales are mediocre. As a result of my Facebook advertising and some other more parochial adverts, I have managed to sell about 175 eBooks. After seeing an average sale of about one or two a day, it’s nice to see the average lifted to something like twenty or so…

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Added by Michael on February 7, 2016 at 8:07am — No Comments

Winners and losers: the lotteries of life.

January 23rd 2016

 

I finally uploaded my Facebook ad. It went live on January 19th. Since then, 4 days ago, my subscribers’ list has grown by about twelve to fifteen a day. This is a handsome increase from my usual one a day. The…

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Added by Michael on January 23, 2016 at 8:15am — No Comments

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