The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 6,600 times in 2014. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.
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Number 2 in Nikki Moore’s #LoveLondon Series is out already. Just in time for me to add it to my ereader for the run up to New Year.
Here’s the blurb:
New Year, New Love… or Old Love, New Start?
Everyone keeps telling Frankie Taylor that a new year is a time for new beginnings. She’s not so sure. Single for just over twelve months, she’s been more than happy on her own, thanks very much!
At least, that’s what she thinks until she receives a note on New Year’s Eve inviting her to follow the clues, and her heart, across Knightsbridge.
But who’s behind the romantic adventure? Old flame Christian who she loved for years and was always there for her, or new admirer and work colleague Zack, who has the habit of turning up in all sorts of unexpected places?
There’s only one way she’s going to find out…
Available to buy as an ebook at http://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Year-Ritz-Love-London-ebook/dp/B00PFBTMSK for just 99p!
More books in the #LoveLondon series coming soon!
Released from December 14 to May 15 by HarperImpulse;
Bk 1, Skating At Somerset House (Short Story) Released 4 December 2014
Bk 2, New Year at The Ritz (Short Story) Released 22 December 2014
Bk 3, Valentine’s on Primrose Hill (Short Story) Coming January 2015
Bk 4, Cocktails in Chelsea (Short Story) Coming March 2015
Bk 5, Strawberries at Wimbledon (Short Story) Coming April 2015
Bk 6, Picnics in Hyde Park, (Novel) Ebook Coming May 2015, Paperback July 2015
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1 Not everybody spends Christmas at home with loved ones. Thank you to all of those of you who will be working – whether it’s in a hospital, a police station, a war zone, a restaurant, an airport, a residential home, in entertainment or one of the many other places that never stops. I hope that you get a little time to yourself to read a good book.
2 If you’re one of the many for whom Christmas is a trial, through bereavement, isolation, illness, estrangement, worry for a loved one (see 1 above), belief or lack of it, you’re the put upon one who makes Christmas happen for everybody else and go largely unnoticed, or plain old bah-humbugedness, I will be thinking of you. See 1 also re the read a good book thing.
3 For those who will have a holiday, pig out, watch too much TV, play with the kids’ toys, welcome your friends and family into your home or go and trash theirs, I wish you a Happy, Healthy and Peaceful Christmas.
And lots of books.
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Welcome to a very special Festive Feature on my blog, where every day up until Christmas some of my favourite authors will be sharing what they love most about the festive season, including their favourite films, food, music, presents, memories, books…Plus much more!
It is with huge excitement that I welcome to fantastic Sue Moorcroft to my blog today. Over to you, Sue..
Although I’m not now a great Christmas fan (which makes me wonder how I ended up writing a Christmas novel and a Christmas serial this year), when I was a child it was a magical time, as it should be.
As I was part of an army family I was brought up in Germany, Cyprus and Malta as well as the UK. We left the last of these overseas postings, Malta, when I was eight-and-a-half. Of those years I’d spent nearly five of them in Malta so…
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Starting Over is part of the First in Series promo in the iBooks store. At the time I’m writing this blog it’s at number 15 in the Free Chart, which is fabulous!
This book has a history. Some time ago my then agent got this close to selling it but, ultimately, Starting Over and the following book, All That Mullarkey, emerged from acquisition meetings unacquired. My first novels published were Uphill All the Way (Transita) and Family Matters (Hale – which only came out as hardback and was later released as Want to Know a Secret? in paperback).
It was a few years before I pitched Starting Over to Choc Lit and they bought it in three weeks flat. And wanted All That Mullarkey, too! I count Ratty, the (slightly unlikely) hero of Starting Over, as my most popular hero because he’s the only one to have received his own fan mail and done his own interviews.
Starting Over is the first of my novels set in the fictitious village of Middledip on the edge of the Cambridgeshire fens. I have a whole drawer devoted to Middledip information, including maps, timelines for each novel and an overall timeline for the series but I wish that when I began I’d realised I was writing linked books because I would have kept more.
Between Starting Over and my most recent Choc Lit novel, The Wedding Proposal, came five other novels, including the others in the Middledip series, Dream a Little Dream and Is This Love?
That some readers like linked or series novels is no surprise to me as I like reading them myself. It’s satisfying to see various characters in the cast get the chance to tell their stories and to check if the characters I’ve already met are getting along (and haven’t messed everything up). I like the constant but secondary characters such as the lady in the village shop who is agog over every bit of gossip or the landlord of the pub who looks like a miseryguts but has a heart of gold. When I find a series I like I tend to read everything in it.
I hope that you find as much satisfaction in reading the Middledip books as I have found in writing them.
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As I write novels, serials, short stories, articles, columns and writing ‘how to’, I’m sometimes asked for my tips. I’ve collected them together in this post:
1 You need to know about more than just writing.
2 You need to know about publishing. Publishing is an industry and has to make money to survive. If you don’t learn something about how it works you’re making your life unnecessarily hard.
3 You may need/prefer to know about self-publishing. You get control and you get more of the cut each time your book is sold. And you get all of the work, or have to pay/persuade people to do some of it.
4 You need to know what ‘discoverable’ means. Promotion will almost certainly be part of your life. Website, blog, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, ELLO, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram … OK, you don’t need to know all of them but many publishers expect you to have a platform. Readers want to find you and tell you how cool you are. Journalists need to research you before interviews. If you’re self-publishing the need may be greater than if you’re traditionally published.
5 Networking can be fun, if you enjoy parties, conferences, seminars, literary festivals, forums and classes. Or it can be a nightmare if you don’t enjoy parties, conferences etc. Either way, it’s almost always useful. You get your name in front of editors and agents and learn a lot from other writers. You hear about possible destinations for your work and a lot about what-not-to-do. Learning what-not-to-do is a lifelong process for me.
*You can network on social media, too.
6 You can’t be without self-motivation, if you want to be a writer, unless you’re already a staffer on a paper or magazine and motivation is provided for you in the form of ‘You’re fired!’ if you don’t write. In your study at home you can work in your dressing gown, you can drink tea all day, you can go on Facebook whenever you want. But a month’s work takes a month. If you want work done, you have to do it. Nobody will fill in for you when you’re sick or on holiday, either.
7 Rejection. (Cue scary music and a feeling like cold mud in your belly.) Almost every writer gets rejection. A lot of rejection. The trick is a) to learn from it b) not to let it stop you writing. Swear and throw something at the wall if you must (I must, personally) but then get back to writing.
Final tip: Become reasonably proficient with every piece of technology that will help you in points 1-7 or identify which skills you’ll pay for in others. Learn to type. Touch type. Yes, really! Your writing life will be so much easier.
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Out on 4th December
Book 1, #LoveLondon Series; Skating at Somerset House by Nikki Moore
It’s no secret that Nikki Moore is one of my favourite people – not just because she’s my niece, but because she’s a great writer! Here are the exciting stories coming up from her from today:
There’s nothing Holly Winterlake loves more than Christmas and skating, so working as an Ice Marshall at London’s Somerset House is a dream come true.
Noel Summerford hates the festive season and is a disaster on the ice, so taking his godson to Somerset House is his idea of the nightmare before Christmas!
Things are bound to get interesting when these two collide…
With a forty foot Christmas tree, an assortment of well meaning friends and relatives, and a mad chocolate Labrador, will this festive season be one to remember … or forget?
Available to buy at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Skating-Somerset-House-Love-London-ebook/dp/B00P5V4T4C
More books in the #LoveLondon series coming soon!
Released over December 14 to May 15 by HarperImpulse;
Bk 2, New Year at The Ritz (Short Story)
Bk 3, Valentine’s on Primrose Hill (Short Story)
Bk 4, Cocktails in Chelsea (Short Story)
Bk 5, Strawberries at Wimbledon (Short Story)
Bk 6, Picnics in Hyde Park, (Novel)
After being hooked on her last book, Crazy, Undercover, Love, I’m really looking forward to this bonanza.
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Sue Moorcroft blog 