Where has the year gone

Wow! It’s been a year since I first sent my child out into the big scary world alone. By ‘child’ I mean my first novel, Havoc. It’s been one hell of a ride!

If you’ve followed this blog over the last year, you’ll know it’s had it’s ups and its downs. Over the last 12 months, I’ve been ceaselessly promoting Havoc while setting myself the challenge of putting ‘Blast’, the second book in the series, together. All this while trying to hold down a day job. 

As you’ll have read, I’ve detailed the challenges and hurdles that these two lives have caused but, you know what?, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. 

Havoc took many, many years to put together and publish. Mainly because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it and also because I was nervous about how it would be received. Thinking back to the 1st September 2018 I can now laugh at my indecision. It really was a fantastic day! Reading the posts on social media, watching the traffic on my website and seeing the sales appear: I remember by the end of the day I was completely washed out and exhausted but in a good way. The culmination of all my work, of all my hopes and fears, had been crystallised into a single point. It was a tremendous release.

Then came the tricky part; the second album, as it were. I had to continue the story and write a follow up. It actually came into existence much easier than I thought it would. 

I’ve always had the idea for the story in my head but I was worried that, the first book having taken so many years to complete, the second would also become a multi-year project. Happily, the new story tripped off the keyboard with alarming rapidity. In fact, the finished story is fast approaching that moment when, like its brother, it will be revealed to the harsh glare of daylight. 

Of course, nothing goes quite to plan and, as reported in recent blog entries, my normal life has got in the way things a bit. Just as the final fence rears into view, and Blast readies itself for an accepting public, so work on it ground to a halt. Clients and mortgages, car accidents and summer madness, all came into play. Luckily, everything is now back on track. I’m back at the keyboard and editing furiously. Hopefully very soon you’ll all be able to judge if the wait has been worth it.

Where was I going with this? Oh yes, what a year. From learning how to compile a manuscript, to battling with the British Library, to navigating the underpinnings of Amazon, it’s been a frantic year. Learning to layout a text was hard. I remember sitting with my head in my hands uttering the words ‘I can’t do this.’ Then I had to learn how to build the website, this was something I had never done before. After that, there was the social media, of which you are a part. Navigating all that took a lot of help from a trusted group of people. Plus there was this actual blog. What was I going to say, would people even read it? Could I keep it going? All these things seem so trivial now. 

But above all, what kept me going was the constant twist and turn of the story in my head. I have many, many volumes still buzzing around in my mind and I hope that they will all come out and bask, like the others, in the bright sunshine. Here’s hoping.

Anyway, I’d just like to say a big thank you to everyone who has supported me on this adventure. From my readers to the people who leant me expertise and advice. Some say writing is a solitary business and yet so many people seem to be involved with the publication and enjoyment of my books. I feel blessed.

Contabilience really does say it all ;)

(An obscure family joke. Don’t worry you’re not supposed to get it)