Authors Electric

Last month I told you about choosing a cover for my memoir. This month I want to tell you about my book launch, or more specifically how to set out a display table for an event. In my past I have created displays for a charity shop window so I like to think I have a good grasp on how to make something look appealing especially when pulling together an eclectic mix of ephemera. This skill certainly came in handy when I had to make a display with NO BOOKS! I didn't even have enough Os to write OOPS! Yes, I held a bookless book launch. Maybe not the first ever but this is how to pull it off with aplomb. I must just say it was my own fault for not ordering the books on time but my memoir is about grief and loss following the unexpected death of my husband. It is about making the best of things when something goes wrong, searching for the lost glitter that sparkles. “It’s quite ironic really.” Said my youngest son, with a wisdom beyond his years. I started my display with so...

December is a time for looking back and although I’ve written a few Christmas letters in my time reminiscing about what we have been up to as a family I have never looked back at what I have achieved as a writer in the past 12 months. To be honest I tend to play down many of my writing exploits, but with my memoir about to be published in the New Year it’s time for a change, a time to be bold and update my writing CV. In January I discovered a new opportunity writing for Paddler Press magazine .  My piece based on Silence was accepted on January 6th and the magazine arrived all the way from Canada on the 28th.   According to my diary I was also very busy writing lots of 100-word stories for my memoir. At the beginning of February I wrote a 100 flash for the Retreat West monthly microfiction competition.   By the end of the month, I was crowned the winner and I took home the People’s Prize as voted for by the readers. March was a month where life took on a ne...

A group of writers came together with one vision: to build an independent consortium of experienced authors, professional editors and talented designers producing engaging and inspiring books of the highest quality for readers everywhere.  Ruth Leigh , who used to regularly write for Authors Electric, is the sort of friend who always leads me into some new adventure. First, she got me a slot here writing a monthly blog post and more recently she invited me to join Resolute Books. I’ve become a member of this consortium at just the right time, missing the zoom meetings about setting up a constitution and other more mundane stuff but arriving with perfect timing to attend a lavish book launch. Some of the Resolute authors - glasses of fizz in hand! To borrow Ruth’s words from the blog, Resolute Books was conceived at the end of 2022 when “two experienced and multi-published authors came together to talk about a collaboration. They wanted to create a group of like-minded people ...

  Book launches scare me, I have to confess. I’ve done a couple for my own books. One I had at home, inviting friends and neighbours for wine and cake and suggesting, as tactfully as possible, that if they would like to buy a copy of my new book … Needless to say, everyone bought a copy of “ House of Shadows ” which should have left me feeling elated, but being me, I started to worry if they had felt obliged. Once the guilt kicked in, it was hard to convince myself to repeat the process even though in financial terms it had been very successful. Each time I’ve had a new book coming out, I’ve thought about doing it again and each time I’ve shied away from the idea. I suppose it’s all part of my writer’s fear of being rejected, which to a certain extent is compounded by being Indie published. Not that I want to change that though I suspect that the validation of traditional publishing would give me the confidence to host another launch. The crazy part of all this is that when...

  Recently I rediscovered a long- lost love. No it wasn’t via Social Media, but it was unexpected and heart warming nonetheless. Life changing? Not exactly -   but it has definitely enriched my life in ways I am very grateful for... I recently rediscovered our small, one room, local book Library, with it’s bookshelf lined walls and it’s part-time hours. It was my grandson’s fault. Well as he is only 15 months old, I can’t really place the blame on him. But his mother was the catalyst. She wanted her son to find some new books to look at. It was sparked by her happy memories of visiting the library herself. Of finding an Aladdin’s cave of books, and sitting and enjoying the treasure there, and then gathering more books to take home. I must have started taking her and her brother when they were quite small, as we progressed from the brightly coloured picture books to ones that were more words than pictures. I remembered the time fondly too -  and wondered why, and when, we ...

  Yesterday my second full length novel was finally published. It has been a busy and exciting time in the run-up. The writing of the book was finished a long time ago - I long for those days! Now I am in the throes of the far less appealing marketing stage. Wouldn’t it be fun if we could just spend all our time writing, and not worry about getting our books sold and read? Sadly, that is not the way of things. My first book came out during lockdown. I was vaguely aware at the time of something called a book tour – where authors travel from place to place and talk to enthusiastic gatherings about their new release. I was frankly grateful that Covid just made all that getting out there impossible. But how to get my book talked about, seen, bought even? I was fortunate enough to be a part of a writers group who introduced me to the idea of a blog tour. This simple idea relies on recruiting bloggers and book reviewers who are willing to read and review your book on their blogs. I...

  The Fall of a Sparrow by Griselda Heppel Well, The Fall of a Sparrow  is out at last, hip hip hooray! Officially, that is. Publication Day was three days ago.      But given that copies have been available (online at least) for a couple of weeks already, the actual date feels less significant than it used to; and since the pandemic, even insignificanter. (Yes that is now a word. I have used it.)      Because there's something missing.  Ahhh those were the days. Traditional launch of  The Tragickall History of Henry Fowst at Blackwell's bookshop, Oxford That great JOY of bringing out a book, the fizz of excitement of a launch, the wonderful opportunity for a party with friends and book lovers queuing up to your table piled high with fresh, gleaming copies which you sign away merrily, glass in your other – third? – hand … gone. All gone. It’s hard for even the most well-known authors not to feel a sense of deflation; but they at lea...

The day before yesterday I launched my third book. I'm still on a high from all the support I received.  Ironically, I called my second book my first never giving myself credit for my first, the guidebook I wrote for my students.  Isn't that undermining? Why do we as artists inflict our own injuries? It's a form of denial and sabotage. Last month I attended the Book Publicists of Southern California meeting.  Michael Levine, celebrity Publicist and author of PR Guerrilla said, "Why would anyone write a book and not market it?   That's insane.  Writers have an obligation to promote themselves.  Toot your horn." he insisted.  So with that,  I'm giving you a short summary of my third, not my second book.  Echoes Amongst Us, a whirlwind journey of dreams and lofty ideals.  It speaks to women with creative and romantic impulses who question love within the context of social norms.   Echoes Amongst Us is a memoir...

In Her Defence : Bunch Courtney Investigation #2  has hit the stores at last! There is only so much one can say about a book launch.  We have all been there with the drinks and cakes - in this case it was tea and homemade cakes. We went with the alcohol free a s the launch was in the City Central Library, Hanley on a Saturday lunchtime, plus tea and cakes rather fitted the WW2 ethos of a tea party. Books were bought and signed and much chatter occurs. I gave a short reading and then a Q&A session, which was interesting in that many of the questions revolved around my research - how much did I do, was it online or in hard copy etc.   The reading was a little over ten minutes but the questions and answers went on for almost half an hour. But it was great fun. The blog tour on the other hand was more tiring in many ways.   Fielding contacts across various platforms every day was a full time occupation! So here it is – In Her Defenc...