PERSONAL UPDATE

My birthday came and went this week, marked with a wonderful cake made by my wife and with it a need to eat more salads to balance it out. The weather has been wonderful in my part of the UK and I’m looking forward to the weekend when I can enjoy it with the family.

WORK IN PROGRESS

Beginning of the End Audiobook – I approved the extended sample of the book today so hopefully this will be ready by the end of June.

Purple Rain Series Book 1 – I’ve finished the first draft and it comes out at around 80,000 words. Early next week I’ll circle back and start updating the draft with the new additions I come up with in the process and then it will be revising the work in the second draft process. I think the final work will easily fall between 85,000 to 90,000 words which is what I aimed for. After getting to this stage I have a new enthusiasm for the project.

From the Dead – Still barely any progress on the read-through of the latest Carrie Harris novel.

SALES & MARKETING

Sales were great in May and if I could just add a nought to the end and make them consistent then I’d be able to earn my living! This next month will be a good indicator if the effort I have put in to get more people on my mailing list pays dividends. I am attempting to continue the efforts this month in the same way but the pool of opportunities are dwindling. Finding good content for the mailing list subscribers will be key.

Fan Club

I haven’t yet set this up despite getting many messages to go ahead with it. Perhaps this weekend I’ll have a good think about what’s needed. So far I know I need a name for the group and some imagery for the Facebook page.

Events

There’s been no recent change to the event schedule with the next one coming up at the end of this month. I’m really looking forward to getting back out there!

IN MY EARS

To vary things up a bit I thought I’d add a few things I’ve been listening to and enjoying.

Fantasticland by Mike Bockoven. This audiobook tells the tale of the murderous events that took place in a theme park staffed by teenagers when a storm cuts them off from the rest of the world for a month. Think Lord of the Flies with teenagers and comes well recommended.

I’ve also been enjoying to Bad People on BBC Sounds, a true crime podcast and a new podcast which is hosted by the writing software company I use, Scrivener and interviews well known authors about their work and how they use Scrivener. It is clearly a sales vehicle, but the interviews are interesting and it’s useful to find out how other people use the system. It you want to check it out it’s called ‘Write Now with Scrivener.’

That’s it for me this week. Although there is much going on, what I’m doing doesn’t make exciting writing for you to read! Comments and suggestions welcomed as always.