Bad Backs and New Year Dreams - by Rosalie Warren

As I write this, just before Christmas, I'm feeling rather sorry for myself. I have a sore throat and a cough, which get much worse if I lie flat. I also have a painful back, which complains unless I spend every alternate hour or so lying flat on it! Sitting at a desk, even on my new super-dooper-bad-back-chair, is impossible for more than five minutes at a stretch. I have shopping, baking and cleaning to do, guests arriving for Christmas, a father up in Yorkshire who needs lots of help from me, his only daughter, and - urrgghhh, I won't go on...

(Btw, I know, really, that I have many things to be thankful for and am much, much better off than some. But if you remind me of that, some nasty primitive reflex might be triggered and I might try to kick you, so please beware...)

A kind Twitter friend just recommended that I try lying on my tummy in order to type on my laptop, placed on a stool at the end of my bed. It works, at least for a short time, and I'm very grateful for her suggestion. At least, if I can get on with some work, I don't feel such a useless lump.

And now, having got those moans out of the way, I'm going to tell you about one of my plans for 2012. A couple of years ago I wrote a short novel, of about 42000 words, about an elderly woman called Marguerite, who has Alzheimer's. In spite of her condition, she retains her sense of humour (note to self: take note!) and develops a deep friendship with her great-granddaughter, who is going through tough times at home and school.




I thoroughly enjoyed becoming Marguerite for a while. I did some research, of course, but have no idea, really, whether her character will convince my readership. I've done my best and now I can only hope. What I can do is put the book out there and make sure some readers notice it and give it a go.

From what I gather, no publisher will look at a novel of this length; not unless you are Ian McEwan or someone like him. So, having had some useful criticism from fellow writers and readers, I'm hoping to publish Mondays with Marguerite as an eBook, sometime in 2012. I've got a fair bit to learn first, both about the mechanics of the process and how to publicise it, but I'm very happy to be hitching a lift alongside the many experienced authors on this blog who have already ventured into the world of ePublishing, some with considerable success.

I hope, too, to continue to be 'traditionally' published in 2012. I'm in talks with an editor about a new series for 7-9s, which I can't wait to begin. Charity's Child, first published by the indie publisher Circaidy Gregory Press in 2008, is to be reissued as an eBook with the same publisher in March 2012, this time marketed at age 14+. And my science fiction novel for adults, which I'm currently redrafting on my tummy, will be under submission, I hope, by the middle of next year.

So I may be hobbling around and coughing like crazy (as so many of us currently are), but my eyes are firmly set on 2012, hoping it will be a better year for readers, writers, independent booksellers, libraries - indeed for everyone who truly cares about books.