Just one novelette-o, give it to me

^ I cannot take credit for the title of this post - all Mother Divine's work - but I was so excited about it that it's been waiting as a draft for weeks (and I mean weeks). Busted. ^


Yes, my new book is available and it's the same one I talked about here.

I'm not going to make a song and dance about it, I'll just show you the cover instead:

It is the final instalment in my WEIGHTING TO LIVE series. A novelette (still my favourite word) standing at 12,042 words (first draft 14,371 words).

I loved writing about these characters and shall be sad to say goodbye to them (for a while at least...) but I suppose it's out with the old and in with the new - I ALREADY HAVE WITHDRAWALS!

You can buy it as an eBook here (UK Link) here (US Link) and at all Amazons around the world!

I am taking some time off from writing to catch up on some reading, get away from the computer to save my poor battered eyes and to think about what to do next for the best - I have a couple of ways I could go, it's just deciding which route to follow.

Until next time.

At it again

As previously warned, this is going to be another blog post all about changing my front covers. For a while now, I have (yet again) been working on the two front covers for my books that I thought were already finished (to read about the ridiculous cover journey, click here).

I think for now, I can safely say that they are done (this is probably a lie) so here they are:

COVER FOR 'WEIGHTING TO LIVE' (Before & After)

The very first cover *sad face*

The in-between cover when I foolishly thought it was done.

And the finished (FOR NOW) cover! 

COVER FOR 'CHANGES: A SHORT STORY COLLECTION' (Before & After)

The very first cover. OUCH.

Th in-between cover when I was in ignorant bliss and thought I had finished (MISTAKEN)

The finished cover (for today at least).

As you can hopefully tell, both covers have undergone a lot of changes. I am pretty new to all this pixel this and pixel that stuff but now, fingers crossed, they should be the perfect size for Amazon KDP and look a little more polished than they did before.  

Since Friday, I have also been simultaneously going through both books to sort out a couple of issues that needed to be addressed - the main one being that I decided mum, dad, nanny etc shouldn't be in capitals and that formatting was not a thing I should do much of (foolish). They are now done and the new version of both is up for sale looking a little more like an actual book than before. It's amazing as well how many typos, speech marks and other bits you miss regardless of how much you go through them. Sigh.

I am now going to get back to working on the third book in the WEIGHTING TO LIVE series which is NEARLY done - it's only a novelette though (still obsessed with the word novelette).

Until next time.

A no-frills update

I thought I would post a little update as I hate not writing on here regularly. It's like a diary, I suppose (and the only one I've been able to stick with as long as this).

In my last post ten days go (here), I showed you my new and improved front covers that I was really happy with ... until I looked at them some more and realised I wasn't happy. So between Tuesday 14th April and now, I have been editing the draft I talked about (here) and working on those two covers (plus another one for the draft I just mentioned). *I would like to thank the soundtracks of Martin Guerre and The Pirates of Penzance for getting me through it all.

There is nothing groundbreaking to say about the editing process of the draft I am working on at present - I would say it is now 95% done but I am taking a short break from it as I have a couple of niggles with my two self-published books WEIGHTING TO LIVE and CHANGES: A SHORT STORY COLLECTION. I want to spend some time reading them both to make sure they are perfect then format them properly as I know they definitely need it.

The most rewarding part of this self-publishing journey so far, plus doing it all myself, is the amount you learn in so many different areas. It has been harder than I expected but so much fun at the same time.

I shall be back (I hope) very soon with a post informing you that those blasted covers are finally finished. That, my friends, is a pipe dream.

Until next time.

Oh, I do love a good makeover!

There is no other way of putting it. Looking at the covers for my books WEIGHTING TO LIVE and CHANGES: A SHORT STORY COLLECTION made me upset. Because I have been in what can only be described as a manic writing phase, I have been too tired and er ... manic to do anything about it. Everyday, when I checked my amazon pages for any reviews etc (still none ... is that a good or bad thing?) I came face-to-face with THESE:

The screenshot of my Amazon author page *breaks down*
(Please ignore twitter feed that is basically a homage to Poldark)

My mother did the drawings for both covers and I love them but something (A LOT) was majorly lacking. The main issue for both Mum and I was the painted orange and grey. In a nutshell, we used a dodgy paint and brush set from a seller on Amazon that totaled £3.00... with delivery - and I think it shows. Not only did the cheap watercolours ripple the paper, mother really had to battle to get some colour out of it THEN when she did, she faced the ridiculous nightmare of trying to make the brushstrokes (using the terrible brushes) even and smooth. I think for a while, I was in denial and I kept saying to myself Oh, they are lovely! but with a heavy heart.

The two books are part of a series and because of that, I wanted to have the theme of grey, orange and black and for it to LOOK like they are a set but they didn't. So on Sunday evening, as I had put myself on a self-imposed writing ban for the weekend, I finally braved looking at them again and knew I needed to do something about them STAT.  At first, I was only messing about, seeing what I could do - just out of curiosity. I got up the good old reliable Paint program on my laptop and started playing around with the orange colour on the clown's hair ... and from there, I spent about a day on the covers and only finished a couple of hours ago.

Without further ado, here is the before (left) and after (right) for WEIGHTING TO LIVE:

 

As you can see, they are still very similar, but at the same time, SO VERY DIFFERENT. Instead of me rambling for paragraphs (which I could easily do), I'll just list what I changed:

• The first thing to bite the dust was the hilarious grey of the scales. I couldn't believe the difference.
• I had always been bothered by the cactus pot in the bottom right-hand corner - it was too high - so I brought it down and made it slightly larger to fill the space better.
• When I went over what mum had drawn with a black pen, I ruined the swan's face so sorted out my mistake as best I could, then I moved it slightly in.
• I filled in the tweezers the same colour as the scales.
• I took out the horizontal lines - the ripples I mentioned earlier caused by the cheap watercolours. 
• There were a lot of pencil & paint marks that shouldn't have been there so I tidied them up.
• I enlarged the coconuts in the top left-hand corner and made them a little more central.
• I 'painted' Elizabeth the First's barnet, the swan's beak and the 2 separate candles a bright orange colour.
• I evened up, then thickened the black border.

I think that's all for this cover but it took HOURS, so I'm sure I tinkered with other stuff too that I've forgotten about.


Here is the before and after for CHANGES: A SHORT STORY COLLECTION:

It's pretty obvious what 'changed' here but I'll tell you anyway:

• I coloured in the clown's hair orange and made the semi-circles more even. I also sorted out his bloomin' wonky mouth.
• I coloured the end of the cigarette the same orange as the clown's hair and added tiny white dots, then put in the odd stroke of orange and black where the ash is.
• The marmalade cake took approximately 2 hours to complete. The trickiest bit was making sure the proportions were right so I shifted where the cake slice ended and coloured it all the same orange as everything else and moved the candle back a bit.     
• I made a thicker black border for it.

I also want to mention that while I worked on both covers, I listened to everything Boublil and Schönberg ever wrote (and I mean literally) and I forgot how much I love their music. It blew me away as if I was hearing it all for the first time and if you have never heard the soundtrack for Martin Guerre, do it, because it's an underrated GEM of a musical!

There you have it! A long winded explanation. The end.

Until next time.

CH-CH-CHANGES!

^ There is no other title appropriate for this post, I'm sorry (not sorry) ^

It's official, CHANGES: A SHORT STORY COLLECTION is available to buy worldwide as an eBook on Amazon! To read all about the book's journey click (here) and (here).


Curious what the cover looks like?  Well here it is!

As you may have so rightly guessed, the (very) random pictures represent each of the stories and when you read them, you'll understand how (Ooo). The cover is by my fabulous mum with the black pen and writing by me.

Each short story concentrates on a character which appeared in my first book WEIGHTING TO LIVE. Here is the mini blurb about it:

Four short stories.  Four people whose lives are about to change. 

This is a companion to Lily Divine’s debut novel WEIGHTING TO LIVE focusing on four characters from the book. They are standalone stories but it is advised that you read WEIGHTING TO LIVE first as there are spoilers. 

The four short stories are: 

Father Says (Mary Rose) 

The New ‘Kid’ in Town ('Italian' aunt) 

The Girl with Green Eyes (Scottish cousin) 

Miss April in August (April) 

I just adored writing them all and it was fabulous to revisit certain characters I loved writing about in the first book. I have priced it for now at 99p and to buy CHANGES: A SHORT STORY COLLECTION click here (UK) and here (US) plus it's also available at all other Amazons around the world!

It's been what can only be described as a full-on week and I'm definitely feeling the effects of it now (stiff hands anyone? Or a self-induced cold perhaps?) so I'm taking the rest of the weekend off.

Until next time.

The joy (and total confusion) of an easy edit

Stuffed with chocolate, regretful of said chocolate but determined to work, on Easter Monday, I started editing the four short stories I talked about (here). In that post, I mentioned that they went very well and I was happy with what I had written but was still expecting to have to edit them a fair bit ... well, I was (wonderfully! Gloriously! So very) wrong. I was giving myself until the end of April to finish them but how long did they actually take? Five days.

Here is a (sorta) chart of my progress:


DAY 1 - Monday 6th April 2015
Started (and finished) editing short story 1 @ 3,420 words (first draft 3,484 words)
Started editing short story 2
*It was a great first day of editing and so much fun! I was not expecting this at all - more of a me crying in the corner trying desperately to make sense of what I had written, kinda day.


DAY 2 - Tuesday 7th April 2015
Finished editing short story 2 @ 5,026 words (first draft 5,041 words)
Started (and finished) editing short story 3 @ 2,524 words (first draft 2,580 words)
*I have nothing different from yesterday to report. Just another brilliant day of editing.


DAY 3 - Wednesday 8th April 2015
Started (and finished) editing short story 4 @ 3,727 words (first draft 3,837 words)
I spent the rest of the day reading through all four short stories to make sure there were no errors or words I'd missed.
*Nothing dramatic happened today and the only emotion I felt was confusion that they didn't need much work.


DAY 4 - Thursday 9th April 2015
In the morning, I put the four short stories into one word document in the right order, made a table of contents etc then spent the rest of the day checking and double checking (yet again) the short stories for errors.

Later on in the evening, I helped my mum finish off the front cover and was extremely happy with how it turned out.

Arty shot of the (VERY) unfinished front cover.

DAY 5 - Friday 10th April 2015
I continued to check through the stories in a paranoia that I had made mistakes I hadn't seen and clocked in about three words per hour. I went slightly mad for most of the day.

In the afternoon on a break from the snail's pace checking, I ran over to my local library (THE SAVIOUR) and scanned the front cover then when I got home, continued to check SO SO SLOWLY for any errors. By dinner, I was nearly finished but about to have a meltdown.

When I had FINALLY finished checking the blasted thing, I got mum to look through it one last time and then I felt ON TOP OF THE WORLD! I am now a frazzled mess writing this blog post and tasks before bed tonight include: write the blurb for the book, add a thin black border to the front cover, convert word document into a html file, upload it all to Amazon KDP to publish it ready for the weekend!

Part of me is rather scared that I'll regret just self-publishing them without yet more editing but what's the point when I think they are ready now?

I have absolutely no idea how this happened. I really can't believe that they were in such a good state after the first draft ... I think I just got very lucky I suppose and will DEFINITELY not get used to this kind of thing.

Fingers crossed it will only take overnight to process and publish and of course, when it's ready, I will let you know about it, so expect another blog post on the morrow with all the details!

I hope you don't mind these little updates but selfishly, they are pretty great for me to look back on and see how far I have come in my writing journey.

Until next time.

Teeny tiny book haul!

Last week I bought two books and this morning they arrived so I thought I would share them with you as well. They were a 'Girl, you've done a fair bit of writing in the last few weeks, get something nice' kinda purchase. I don't really buy many books for myself, instead I cling to my local library as if it was life support (budget fun), so when I get the chance to treat myself, they have to be pretty special and I think these two definitely fall into that category.

THE BOOKS!

'I love a good spine me'

Yes, you need three pictures to see the books at all angles..

If the book covers don't give it away (ahem), they are Me Before You by Jojo Moyes and Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë and both are real favourites of mine. I actually did a mini review of Me Before You (here) so check that out if you want to know more of my thoughts (SPOILER: the book will break your heart).

I'm not sure if Wuthering Heights is my all-time favourite book but it's definitely in the top three for sure (Harry Potter counts as one book, yeah?) and I have wanted my own copy for a long time. I could have gone with one of those clothbound versions or an elaborate copy with fancy gold writing but instead, I went for this relatively plain one in comparison because I am a huge fan of Wordsworth Classics. At £1.99 they are pretty cheap but that doesn't mean you aren't getting an excellent quality item. I am so impressed by the books and to be honest, I actually prefer the simplicity of their designs - I really can't recommend the company enough!

You can buy Wuthering Heights (here) & Me Before You (here).

After that small bit of  literary eye candy, I must get back to editing my short stories and stop staring at the books.

Until next time.

The Art of Never Giving Up

*Brace yourself for an honest and rather random post*

I have now had my book WEIGHTING TO LIVE (here) up on Amazon KDP for just over a month and my feelings throughout this time have swung mostly between fear & determination. Yes, those two extremes have been raging a full-on battle in my brain but so far, I'm pleased to report, determination has won over the fear. I think these feelings have stemmed from the fact that even though about 150 people (mostly free sales but still, yay!) have downloaded it, I haven't really had any feedback. Apart from a (wonderful) woman on twitter and, of course, my mother, I have no idea what the people who have it at this moment in time on their kindles and apps think of it ... and it really brings out the doubts and gremlins in your mind. Am I a terrible writer? Should I just do something else? In the past if something wasn't working out, I would just give up without really sticking at it and going through the hard times and would move on to something new but this time, I can't. All I think to myself is that I will keep on writing regardless.

Every day, I check my ratings on Goodreads and Amazon in fear I'm going see my first review and it will be a one star corker with text along the lines of This is the worst book I have ever read in my life. But everyday, I ignore that fear, check it, then keep writing anyway.

In the title of this post I called never giving up an art form, because I think it is. It requires willpower and passion. The temptation to succumb to fear is easy and to live a safe, sheltered life instead ... but sometimes, you've got to come out of the shade and feel the sun (I do acknowledge how corny that entire passage was).

I do acknowledge this was a rather pointless, silly ramble but I suppose it's me saying, let's all of us do what we love even if it scares the living daylights out of us.

Until next time.

The making of a 'novelette'; my new favourite word

If you have been following my blog for a little while, you might remember in my last post (here) I mentioned that on Monday (30th March) I was going to start writing something new. When I first thought about the story I intended to write, I envisioned a full length novel but as I gave the idea more thought, I realised it should really only be a novelette. Any more than that and it would be, to be perfectly honest, bloody boring. I wanted to keep it snappy, and so the idea to write a novelette was born. (I also need to mention how much I love the word novelette - it's frilly and absolutely ridiculous and I AM SO GLAD I WROTE ONE!)

To clarify, a 'novelette' is a story between 7,500 and 17,500 words. Sandwiched between it's little sister, the short story and it's older brother, the novella, this middle sibling fulfills my every desire ... on this occasion.

Here is how I got on writing my NOVELETTE:

Day 1 - Monday 30th March 2015
Word count - 3,323
*I wrote I think, about 1,700 words or so but didn't like a pretty crucial detail about the plot so I had to go back and sort that out before I could continue but I was still happy with the amount of words I was able to get down.

Day 2 - Tuesday 31st March 2015
Word count - 3,549
*In the morning, I had such high hopes for the day - I thought, 'I shall write at least six THOUSAND words today' ... but then a handsome dark-haired man called Ross Poldark came into my life and I caught up with three and a half episodes I had missed AND I DON'T REGRET A THING! I suppose 3,549 words still ain't a bad number though.

Day 3 - Wednesday 1st April 2015
Word count - 7,060
*Yeah, it was an ok day ... of DREAMS! I actually got to the end of the story leaving only a couple of small gaps I needed to return to the following day.

Day 4 (TODAY!) - Thursday 2nd April 2015
Word count - 439
*As I mentioned above, I'd already finished yesterday so I spent the morning and afternoon reading through what I had already written, tinkering, deleting and adding bits and come 4pm, I was left with a COMPLETE FIRST DRAFT!

TOTAL WORD COUNT FOR THE FIRST DRAFT OF THE NOVELETTE - 14,371 


And there you have it! First draft all done and I am SO happy with how it turned out. I'm not writing any more now until Monday when I will be starting the hilarious job of editing the short stories I talked all about in my last post (here).

Until next time.