January Blues - Katherine Roberts

January Blues in my 'rich and famous' author days.

January always seems the wrong time of the year for making resolutions, let alone keeping them. It's dark, it's cold, it's usually wet. Christmas has been and gone, and drained the bank account on its way out. The pretty lights and baubles have been packed away in the loft. All I really want to do is curl up in bed under the duvet with the cat and emerge sometime around April, when the spring flowers are in bloom, or perhaps take off skiing in the Alps like I used to do back in the heady days when my books were in the shops, before Brexit fears messed with the exchange rates. But since this is my posting day, and I'm only dreaming of the Alps this year, I've emerged from hibernation for a few hours to tell you about my 2017 resolutions. Or three of them, anyway.

Resolution One
I 'closed' my personal blog Reclusive Muse at the end of December (you can still read the posts, but you can't comment on them any more, and there won't be any new ones because I've freed my unicorn-muse so he can trot back into the enchanted mists). This is a symbolic way of saying I've let go of the younger end of my writing, at least temporarily, while I take time out to reconnect with the passion that carried me into children's fiction in the first place and resulted in my first novel Song Quest winning the inaugural Branford Boase Award. If the unicorn returns of his own free will, I'll know he loves me.

Resolution Two
Rather than making endless, soul-destroying submissions to slush piles in the absence of an agent, I'll probably indie-publish anything that emerges suitable for a YA or adult audience. But don't worry - to avoid possible confusion with my books for younger readers, I'm using my middle initial for projects that contain more mature material. For the time being, you can find these books on a different page of my website under my new signature list for older readers.

 Signature List.

Resolution Three
Meanwhile, I'm tidying up my backlist and making all those books re-available in paperback, as well as ebook format. You can already get I am the Great Horse as a print-on-demand paperback, although he is rather expensive because of his great length - count yourself lucky, he was 200,000 words in the first draft! My other books should work out cheaper.

Finally, before I go back into hibernation to dream of carving fresh tracks down snowy mountainsides, my Earthaven ebooks are on a special 'January Blues' offer at only 99p each until the end of this month. Download them below for your favourite e-reading device:

SPELLFALL - only 99p until January 31st.
Apple
Kindle
Kobo
Nook

paperback (£7.99)









SPELL SPRING - only 99p until January 31st
Apple
Kindle
Kobo
Nook

paperback (£7.99)

Katherine Roberts writes a mixture of historical fiction and fantasy inspired by legend and myth for readers aged 9+. Find out more at www.katherineroberts.co.uk