The sharp-eyed among you may have noticed it’s gone a little quiet here in Breezy Bottom. That’s because I’ve been frantically searching and pitching for work. Writing the biography last year took a lot of time out of my working week. In fact, it took most of it. And for four months, that’s pretty much…
Book review: The Christmas Lights
This feature is in association with NetGalley. The Christmas Lights, Karen Swan Thanks to NetGalley and to Pan Macmillan for an advance copy of The Christmas Lights by Karen Swan. This story begins in 1930s rural Norway, then skips to the present-day South Pacific. It jumps back to the fjords, and then we’re in present-day…
The income octopus: update
For almost two years I have been trying out the income octopus. You can see the original post if you follow the link. Basically, it’s a method to ensure that you are earning income from at least eight different sources, and the idea is that if one source dries up, for whatever reason, whether temporarily…
Going forward
The last few months of the last year were very busy, one way or another, and I didn’t have time to catch my breath. We’re already into the third week of the new year (or the second full week), and this time I’m sticking to the plan as much as I can. I want to concentrate…
News, News, News
I have three items of news to share with readers. The first is that there’s a new post up on the Alphabet Adventurers. Please follow the link to see K is for … the Kilburn White Horse. The second piece of news is that the Richard Cadbury book is finally done. It was submitted before…
Happy New Year! Goals for 2020
First of all, a very Happy New Year to all of you! Here’s to health and prosperity! The last three months of 2019 were quite stressful with one thing and another, but I managed to clear my desk of all overdue work. I’m officially not back at work until Monday, but I have been doing some…
Diary of a non-fiction book: Website research
I have been beavering away at the biography, but it is dragging on a bit now. We had so many interferences and interruptions that the deadline kept on being pushed back. I was ill and then the poet was ill and then we were burgled and then we had another attempted break-in … and, and,…
Wednesday 20 November 2019
Yesterday was another successful day of two halves. Once again, the morning was spent doing admin and chores. I did my daily job search but didn’t fancy any. They’re all far too poorly paid at the moment – $100 to edit a book of 125,000 words? I don’t think so. It would take me 25…
Monday 18 November 2019
Friday seems like such a long time ago now. I was very busy and forgot to write and schedule a post for this morning. The morning was spent doing all of my admin jobs and household chores again. I did my daily job search and pitched for one job and I pitched for an extra…
Friday 15 November 2019
What a horrible day Thursday turned out to be. I’d already had a disturbed night between the cat and the dog both wanting attention several times at different times, so it didn’t start well in the first place. And then it went downhill when I heard my printer make the kind of noise it makes…
Thursday 14 November 2019
Hmm. Not only is the old classic WordPress interface much easier and quicker to use, it also posts when I schedule it to. The new editor isn’t exactly on a winning streak at the moment … Yesterday was a good working day. I got up on time, was at my desk on time, and I…
Wednesday 13 November 2019
As it happened, I did remember to schedule yesterday’s post for 8 o’clock in the morning, but for some reason, it didn’t. I have today checked the settings, and the only thing that was incorrect was the local time. But that was an hour earlier than what it actually is, so it still should have posted…
Tuesday 12 November 2019 (list alert!)
I had a busy week last week removing most of my self-published books – ebooks and paperbacks – from Amazon KDP. I’m setting up a proper publishing schedule and re-releasing them all on Draft2Digital, initially just as ebooks for now. I’ve heard so many horror stories about Amazon and how they display their authors’ books…
Book review: Snowflakes at the Little Christmas Tree Farm
This feature is in association with NetGalley. Snowflakes at the Little Christmas Tree Farm, Jaimie Admans Thanks to NetGalley and to HQ digital for an advance copy of Snowflakes at the Little Christmas Tree Farm by Jaimie Admans. Leah’s drunken rebound isn’t what you’d normally expect. No, Leah’s drunken rebound is a neglected little Christmas…
Repackaged, rebranded and republished …
… and removed from Amazon KDP. Only the ebook is available at the moment – or it will be once it’s been through the process. The paperback will follow, and that, in turn, will be followed by the audio book. I’ve been meaning to transfer all of my own books from Amazon to Draft2Digital for…
Book review: Let it Snow
This feature is in association with NetGalley. Let it Snow, Sue Moorcroft Thanks to NetGalley and to Avon Books UK for an advance copy of Let it Snow by Sue Moorcroft. I thoroughly enjoyed this story. I love Christmas anyway, and this book had snow too. Lots of snow. And a spotty dog. Lily wants…
I’ve been having a play …
… because, like, I’m really, really busy. Everybody else seems perfectly able to use Canva for promotional material, but I didn’t even know where to start. And when another one ended up on my newsfeed in Facebook, I just had to have a go. I found a step-by-step idiot guide and took it from there….
I’ve been busy, honest!
I’ve not been completely idle since 17 October (that’s more than two whole weeks ago!). But I have been tied up with stuff I’d sooner not be tied up with. Actually, I’d rather not be tied up at all, but you get the drift. As a result of losing two whole weeks of work, along…
Almost human again
I thought I was just tired and overdoing things a bit, but an upset stomach turned into full-blown flu symptoms. Before I started to feel poorly, I tidied up a short story, Pippa & Davey Forever, and sent it off, and I prepared another partial for Night Crawler and sent that off. I cleared the…
Thursday 10 October 2019
You’ll be pleased to know I finally made some inroads on the copywriting job yesterday. I started with some handwriting practise because my handwriting is becoming quite unreadable. Then I wrote up the day’s Pomodoros, because I hadn’t had chance to do that the day before. And I wrote my daily writing blog post. Then…
