Talk, Talk and a Rainbow Shark

October 15^th. 2016

Last Monday, one of our CHINDI authors spent an afternoon in Chichester doing video interviews for each of our members. These were short, five minute interviews which will go on our You tube channel, and subsequently on to our own websites and that of CHINDI. It was simply a video of us reading an extract from our latest book and a description of what the book is about. Five minutes? Gosh, we writers need a load more time than that because we want to talk about ourselves and our writing, don’t we? But thanks to Dan Jones who spent his afternoon doing this; we really do appreciate you, Dan.

On Tuesday I dropped the price of my latest thriller, A Dangerous Game (B01AKCLP60) Why did I do that? Believe it or not, I can’t remember. There was a note in my diary to drop the price. Obviously it was because of an upcoming promotion. Trouble is, I can’t remember who the promotion is with! It will be a free one of course, because no money has been taken out of my bank. Must be my age; how on earth can I miss something like that. Now I have to keep the price low for a week or so, just to make sure I don’t default on the mysterious promotion.

Wednesday I was in Brighton doing a book talk for the Royal Sussex Hospital radio. I agreed to be there before ten o’clock, and left home early enough. I arrived in Brighton at 9.30 and spent about twenty five minutes looking for a parking space. I walked into the studio at two minutes past ten. Phew! As much as I am happy to do this kind of thing, there is no feedback from the event. Rosemary Alex, who runs the book talk, told me that the average stay in hospital is about four days, so there’s no follow up from patients who have listened. It’s an unquantifiable event, but nevertheless it’s done in good faith. Hopefully someone would have enjoyed me talking about myself and my books.

My WIP is gathering momentum. My word count has reached 65,000, which puts me 15,000 short of my target. But I have a feeling I will go beyond that, simply because this is the first draft, and I’m expecting to put some meat on the bones when I do the rewrite. I find myself now going over the story in my head, writing scenes that fit in nicely and getting quite excited to think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have conjured up a nice little twist to the story which I’m itching to write in, but I’m forcing myself to hold back. It’s the kind of twist that will have the reader thinking … well, I can’t say what they might think, but I know what I would say.

Our CHINDI group is now promoting the #lovetoread party in Chichester on Friday 18^th. November. This is in aid of Dyslexia Action, and will be an entertaining evening which will include a local band. There will be all manner of things available including fine wines, hand-crafted chocolate, raffle prizes and, of course, the opportunity to buy our signed books. All proceeds to the dyslexia charity.

I bought more fish for the aquarium this week including a Rainbow Shark. No, not Jaws, but a cute little shark that I’m told might grow quite big and start eating the little fish. Hopefully my little fish will have grown bigger by then and be able to defend themselves. Wish me luck!