Time for a break

June 17 2015

Tomorrow we are off to Alaska for a seven night cruise, flying from Heathrow to Seattle. Three nights in Seattle and then board the Ruby Princess on Sunday. Am I looking forward to it? Well, it’s a long way to go for a week’s cruising, but I’m sure the trip will be enjoyable. Not so sure about the 13 hour flight. We’ve done the 24 hour flight to Australia, which was a pain. Always is when you fly economy. We did fly business class once. What a difference, eh? Can’t do that again unless I sell more books or win the lottery. But selling books is something of a lottery: some writers crack it, others don’t. My sales have increased slightly to about 3 a day. The average is probably slightly below that, but who’s going to argue? Since starting my subscriber campaign with MailChimp on March 14^th. I have seen a steady increase in the subscription rate and the daily sales. I now have about 216 subscribers, and all the time that figure keeps increasing, I can expect, hopefully, an increase in my sales. But how do I keep the faith with all of them? There is a great deal of advice on how to sell and increase your reviews out there on the web. The trick is to pick the right one. When we get back from our holiday (we also have to travel up to Norfolk for a wedding) I hope to be able to knuckle down and start promoting as well as finishing my current WIP. I have reached 63,000 words and am now at that big hurdle known as writer’s block. The problem isn’t really finishing the story, but making it as intriguing and fast paced as you can without just tapering off to a kind of ho-hum so what ending. I’ve managed to put three of my characters into a situation that I never intended should happen, and that has kind of thrown me a curved ball: where do I go from here and what do I do to get these characters back in line? Ah, but I’m the creator of this intriguing piece of fiction, so I should have no trouble continuing with the story and taking any path I choose. I could even re-write the whole thing, but would that solve my problem? Believe it or, I began this book in 2011 — four years ago. In that time I have shelved it, written a full length novel (Past Imperfect) which was published in hardback and Kindle this year, had cancer, gone through chemo therapy, sold our house in Spain, moved into rented accommodation and finally arrived back in England eight months ago. And now I’m struggling with a WIP that my common sense tells me I should have thrown in the bin four years ago. But writers aren’t sensible people, otherwise they wouldn’t write. So why do I do it? Because I’m a romantic; I’m a story teller. I’m still a kid who makes up stories. And that’s the rub: I can’t stop myself. I will carry on until I drag myself over the finishing line with a completed novel in my hand and wonder why I ever doubted the process. Wish me luck! See you all in about a month’s time.