With THEIR RIGHT TO VENGEANCE out last week I’ve been keeping busy with getting SHATTERED DESTINY, the final book in the series ready. I’ve now completed my edits, along with some initial formatting and sent it of to my editor.

However, I haven’t yet chosen how to end the book, and the series. The first ending point leaves the story on a high and the door wide open for more adventures of Carrie and James working together. The second ending is only a few more paragraphs, but it’s a lot darker and leaves the reader with some questions, and perhaps a shock to the system. It does not totally rule out continuing the series at some point, but it would make my life a whole lot harder.

The longer ending is the original and I think it offers a nice jolt for people to remember, but then again, it might be too much. I have asked my editor to comment her thoughts on the matter, plus I might get the opinion of some trusted readers too.

This all means that I’m now officially projectless, although, as you know, I have a long list of things I want to work on. The plan at the moment is to outline the sci-fi time-traveling comedy and see how that goes. I’ll aim to do a short story first then see if I, and the readers, can get excited about it for something longer. It feels like I haven’t written anything new for ages. The last new project would have been STOPPING POWER Season 1.

I”ve started the blurb writing process for SD and I’ve also been doing some image searches for its cover. Once I have the blurb, I’ll commission the cover.

MARKETING AND PROMOTION

I put together a landing page for IN THE END, which you can check out here. I don’t think it’s working as my sales are break even, if that. I have now reduced the price of the first book to £1.99 to see if that helps. It’s only been running at this price for a day so I’ll see how it goes over the weekend. If I get no traction then I’ll switch back to directing people straight to the Amazon produce page instead.

I’ve started going through the Ads for Authors course from Self Publishing Formula and noticed that it is a new version, updated in 2020. I bought Ads for Authors some time ago but only completed three of the available courses. It’s time to get my money’s worth.

EVENTS

Last weekend I was in Thame, Oxfordshire and the day did not start well as whilst I was packing up my kit at home I found my Square card reader had failed. A blinking red light of doom told me it was time for the bin. That left me with a problem. If I didn’t sort it out then I would have to take cash only and I could guarantee that I would lose lots of sales.

After a quick search I found Argos stocks the reader, so, thinking my worries were over, I ordered one and it told me it was ready for collection immediately. The shop wasn’t much of a detour so I rushed out of the door (forgetting my wallet), and headed to the store only to find it didn’t open for another hour DESPITE THE APP SAYING I COULD COLLECT IMMEDIATELY!

If I waited an hour then I would be late for the event. I instead searched for stock in the shops near Thame, but that was no good. I would seem that all of the stock was clustered around where I had to leave. With no other option, I called my wife and she came to the rescue, waiting until the shop was open then driving to deliver the card reader (and my wallet) fifteen minutes before opening time. She doesn’t enjoy driving at the best of times and especially somewhere she’s not been before. I was very grateful.

Now I have also bought a spare so I won’t have to go through this situation again!

It turned out to be an excellent day of sales despite a very slow start and the terrible weather.

I have a couple of weeks off then it’s in to the Christmas madness. Another seven events in a three weeks. After that it’s a two month break until it all starts up again in March.

That’s it for this week. Next time I’ll be back with some news as to what I decided to work on. Comments and suggestions welcomed as always.