Book Launch Hell

I am in the middle of house selling/buying hell, and now is the best time I could choose to launch a book?

Short answer is no; it just seems to have happened that way. If those were the only things on my list life would be a tad quieter but I've the second crime novel and three short stories to finish before mid June, and a couple of ‘promised’ guest blogs. The less said about all of those the better right now. (My Authors Electric blogging deadline is an absolute. Short it may be – but I’m here!)

I shall be floundering around in book launch madness for my forthcoming crime novel Winter Downs until3rd June, and all other matters are barely registering in my rapidly addling brain so please excuse all obsessional ravings until further notice.

The story so far?

Securing the services of City Central Library, Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, on 3^rd June for the launch was just the start. If anything it prompted a few dozen new slots on my to-do list.

This week, for example, I spent a few happy hours scouring Dagfields, a local crafts and antiques venue, for tiered cake stands to use at my 1940s styles ‘Tea and Cakes’ launch. A successful trip! (Yes, I could have bought them on ebay – but where is the fun in that?)

I have used ebay to source some Union Jack bunting and suitable WW2 clothing to emulate Bunch, my Land Army sleuth, for those readings. I still need to source a few chintzy table cloths (from charity shops) and suitable background music (Amazon).

Fellow Penkhull author Jem Shaw, who by co-incidence also has a WW2 themed book later this year, came up with the idea of "Letters From Home" to be read at the launch along with other guest readings and an extract from Winter Downs itself. Letters From Home is an exchange of letters between and imagined pilot, Terry, 'somewhere in France', and his wife Muriel, waiting for him back home.

Yes, it is adding to that word count needed to be fulfilled by July, but it is rather fun to collaborate on a writing project instead of ploughing on alone. Mad? Perhaps I am but it has to be done.

I am blessed with having the Penkhull Press team behind me, but somehow the launch of one’s book always feels positively Sisyphean. (If anybody has any further suggestions to make, however, feel free to shout! I am – as the saying goes - all ears!)

Still to do on my list, and without doubt looming the largest of them all, is the book tour to finalise and all those wonderful bloggers to contact with my arc.

This is always the tough part for me. Those who know me might think me loud and possibly even opinionated – but it’s all carefully constructed disguise. Behind all of that noise I am excruciatingly shy with people I don’t know. The process of approaching strangers and asking them to review/promote Winter Downs is a very real torture far harder than writing and editing Winter Downs in the first place.

In the middle of all this I have to find a new home and pack up the old one. Fortunately that is a deadline as yet to be set as a firm date on the calendar, so I shall just juggle it in with the rest and hope it all slots into place. If I last that long...

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Jan's crime novel Winter Downs will be launched at 11.30 am on 3rd June 2017 in the Tolkien Room at CityCentral Library, Hanley, Stoke on Trent.  All welcome! For those who can't be there it will be available through the usual online sources in both paper and ebook formats and there will be an online launch to follow.

*Go to Jan’s blog page and sign up for her newsletter before the launch for a chance to win a copy of Winter Downs.*

Jan Edwards can be found on:
Blog: https://janedwardsblog.wordpress.com/

Facebook: jan.coleborn.edwards

Twitter: @jancoledwards

Other Jan Edwards titles in print (all available in print and eformats) Fables and Fabrications;  Sussex Tales;  Leinster Gardens and Other Subtleties