CHIEF COOK AND BOTTLE WASHER
Me outside the famous Mermaid Inn clutching my proof copy with all my might before going through it looking for typos… might have called in for a drink to help power through!
I’m currently on the cusp of having my book, The Allotment Sisterhood, go to print and available to pre-order on Kindle.
Getting to this point has been the result of so many different jobs its fair to say my head is spinning. For anyone not involved in writing and self-publishing the list is as follows -
Writing the story, getting feedback and incorporating this into the first of many redrafts. Getting beta readers to say what works and what doesn’t. More redrafting and some hard thinking about characters and their arcs.
I then had a final version (laughs manically, how foolish) and decided to buy a programme to format it myself. This was not too bad but there were some very big bumps in the road which the Sunderland author Carrie McGovern was kind enough to help me with.
Amazon gives you a relatively cheap paperback proof which is handy to go through as mistakes jump out at your compared to a word document. Anyway, I have ended up checking not one but four paperback proofs as I kept finding little mistakes annoyingly.
However, I want The Allotment Sisterhood to be as near perfect as I can get it so I’ve battled on and hope, if you read it, you enjoy it.
Over the past week I’ve travelled to parts of the country I’ve not explored much and thoroughly recommend them. Lyme Regis was a great visit to an historic seaside town. I saw John Fowles’ old house from where he could view the famous Cobb, going out into the sea from the harbour. The Cobb was made famous in his book The French Lieutenant’s Woman and Meryl Streep played the lead role in the film of the same name.
I also visited Dorchester where I saw the house that Thomas Hardy used as the home of the Mayor of Casterbridge. Failed English Lit A level came flooding back!
My journey then took me to Rye in Sussex, which used to be near the sea and is now miles inland, due to the silting and blocking of waterways. Unexpectedly, I also met an avid South Shields FC supporter who runs a pub called the Ypres Arms, if you are ever nearby.
The trip ended in Suffolk and I heartedly recommend a visit to Hemlingham Hall if you are there. It won the best Historic House garden in 2019 and I can see why. It was stunning.
Another interesting trip related to The Detectorists TV series as I saw Framlingham where some of it was filmed and where Ed Sheeran was brought up, coincidentally.
Now I’m back home and planning my launch at The Bound, Whitley Bay. My brilliant friend, director of the Bay Tales crime festival, Vic Watson, will be interviewing me and it’s sold out. I’m looking forward to everyone seeing the cover, by the Cullercoats artist Joanne Wishart, in real life.
I’m also pleased to say my book is available now for pre-sale. The link for The Bound order form is here and for Kindle it’s here. They will be published on 15 July and are £9.99 and £3.99 respectively.
If you don’t know what it is about, in a nutshell, three women are running away from their pasts and are working on a neglected allotment together. Their secrets do not stay as buried, as they would like, but their friendship blossoms which helps.
With being busy publishing my book I’ve not had much time to read so I’m very excited to be going to the Harrogate Crime Festival for the first time in July. On the opening evening I’m reading a brief extract from my draft political novel, The Power of Truth, at the Noir at the Bar event, which will be nerve-wracking but good fun, I’m sure.
Thanks for reading this and if you buy The Allotment Sisterhood please let me know what you think or leave a review on Amazon/Good Reads. It would be very appreciated.