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Happy News Year!

2025

Happy news to share

Happy New Year to you all. We’ve had gales, rain, snow and sun and we’re nine days in only. I’m looking forward to getting back into my writing theatre, on which I’ll post another time, but for now, I’ll keep writing from the warmth of our home.

I say writing. At the moment it’s all about revising, editing, and learning how to be an indie author.

The Writing Theatre

Change of direction

I’m extremely lucky to have a fantastic support system from my family and friends to my writing family and friends. The Romantic Novelists’ Association continues to provide excellent guidance, advice and opportunities for writers of romantic fiction (which is a broad genre), and its members are kind, wise and generous with their help and offers of expertise. Without this support, the decision to self-publish wouldn’t have been an option for me, but I’m excited and raring to go.

Three years ago, the publisher of my first trio of books, Choc Lit, kindly reverted those books rights to me, bar a few outstanding licenses. It wasn’t just the physical book – it was the audio, digital, foreign and large print rights too. This month sees the final right reverted.

With this deadline on the horizon, and with novel number four, currently titled, Make Your Own Kind of Music (MYOKOM), written, edited and revised to the point I can no longer see the proverbial wood for the trees, and with the added consideration of chronic health conditions and disabilities management, it was the perfect time to rethink my career.

How it’s going

Self-publishing is not the easy route, but the more I research, the more I feel it is a good fit. As a person who manages her spoons (the Spoon Theory), indie authorship will allow me autonomy and the grace of flexibility. Publishers have deadlines, printing schedules and contracts, and I happily signed up to all that ten years ago, but I’m less energetic these days, and struggle more with fatigue. Going at my own pace will reduce the chances of letting people down. Perhaps this is a naïve perspective, as I know how hard my indie author/hybrid friends work, but I have good people behind me (family and friends cheerleading), trusted experts on board and a small, but perfectly-formed team of beta readers waiting for their first look at MYOKOM.

In the meantime, I am updating the previously published novels, starting with Follow Me Follow You, which was my second women’s fiction, but my first paperback. I love this story for so many reasons – the fun my daughter and I had inventing the social media site, EweSpeak, Victoria Noble and her journey in trying to understand her son, Seth, little Seth himself, beautiful Chris Frampton and his unconditional love for his family, and the setting of Chesil Beach and Portland, Dorset. Also, in theory, this book shouldn’t take too long to revise …

My third novel, What Doesn’t Kill You, will be my second release. My debut, Truth or Dare? will take longer. If I had written it today, ten/twelve years on from when I set out to ‘write a novel’, it would have a different feel. A different voice. A rewrite might be involved.

Got it covered

Image I used to promote Follow Me Follow You when it was first published. This was a photograph taken of our son when he was four. I adapted it using an app called Watercolour. To this day, I adore this photograph and it will be forever linked to little Seth, Victoria Noble’s (the main character) son.

Follow Me Follow You will be retitled Follow Me, which was its original name. The exciting news with this is I have received the cover design visuals and they are gorgeous. I have spent the day looking through the different versions, as they all bring something unique to the book, but I have chosen the one with which I would like to proceed.

Once it’s agreed and finalised, I will do the reveal here.

Follow me (see what I did there?) on this blog if you’d like to be one of the first to see the fresh, new cover.

Comms

If you’d like to receive updates in the form of a newsletter, drop me a comment below. Currently, I do not run a newsletter, but I’m interested to hear your thoughts as readers as to how you prefer authors to send out communications.

What’s next?

Right now I’m off to email my talented and clever cover designer, and then maybe have eggs on toast for lunch. Then it will be back to the revisions.

Catch you all soon.

Laura xx

Happy Publication Day, Catherine Miller!

Wishing my amazing and talented friend and fellow Romaniac, Catherine Miller, a wonderful publication day.
THE MISSING PIECE is out now.

While you’re there, why not check out all Catherine’s books. From emotional, family relationships to octogenarian Olive and her Gin Shack buddies, Catherine’s novels will make you cry, smile, and sigh with satisfaction, as you turn the last page.

Wishing you a wonderful day, Catherine. THE MISSING PIECE will fly.

Laura xxx

Review

I was excited to receive an ARC (early review copy) for Requiem For A Knave, written by the uber talented Laura Carlin. Here’s my review:

Told from the perspective of the ageing, Alwin of Whittaker, Requiem For A Knave is an intelligent, historical tale which cleverly examines modern day themes and issues.


As an eighteen-year-old, Alwin is lean and strong, but inexperienced and naïve, having travelled no further than his local area. He lives with his mother and grandfather, with the Father Oswald, a holy man, as his male role model. Tending the farm suits Alwin, but his life is turned upside down when on her deathbed, his mother reveals there are family secrets she has been forced to keep. She urges Alwin to leave the cottage in search of the truth.

What follows is a beautifully told tale which explores identity, family relationships, the right and wrongs of tradition, and love. It is an adventure, a mystery and a romance, woven together by nimble fingers.
The language the author uses carries the reader along, words effortlessly gliding from one page to the next. If the page is a river, the words are leaves floating downstream, but don’t be misled – the ease with which Requiem For A Knave can be read is testament to the author’s skill.
There are moments of pure tenderness, times of breath-taking tension, and a feel to the story that is palpable. The rhythm and language put me in mind of Hardy and Elliot, and at times, Stoker. As a reader, I have lived Alwin’s life, witnessed everything he witnessed. Felt his every emotion. I was lost in his world and I was happy to be there.

Requiem For A Knave is an authentic, beautiful and page-turning novel that is a joy to read.
It will stay with me for some time.

Thank you to Laura Macdougall for the advance copy.

Work In Progress

Work In Progress

I must apologise for my lack of blog these past few months. I have experienced technical difficulties in posting, but hope to have the issues sorted very soon. As it stands, the website and my novel are works in progress.

The current novel stands at 31,000 words, the first draft hitting 50,000 words. It has changed considerably since the first draft, so I’m not sure if I’m rewriting or writing – a mixture of the two, I guess. Having not completed a full length novel in two years, due to poor health, I am determined to get the The End.

 

So that’s it for now, but I will be back once my website is running efficiently.

 

Hope 2018 started well and continues to sparkle.

 

Laura x

 

Special Offer! WHAT DOESN’T KILL YOU at 99p

Special Offer! WHAT DOESN’T KILL YOU at 99p

Hi, everyone.

Just dropping in to let you know that the digital download of my third novel, WHAT DOESN’T KILL YOU, is on special offer at the time of posting, at £0.99p, here.

This book is very dear to me for a number of reasons and I hope this special promotion will help it reach a wider audience. If you’ve read and loved WDKY and are happy to leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads, that would be fantastic and very much appreciated.

Thank you.

Laura x

 

 

 

Exciting News!

Exciting News!

My third novel, currently in digital form, is to be published in paperback next year!

WDKY_FRONT_300dpi

I’ve blogged over at The Romaniacs, as it’s my week chatting on the Life Cycle Of A Writer series.

Please do hop over for a read.

I’m busy writing guest posts for the upcoming virtual book tour, while fighting a chest infection, but nothing can stop the excitement of waiting to handle that paperback.

Watch out on my Facebook page and Twitter feed for dates of the tour and for Christmassy treats from my publisher, Choc Lit.

Wishing you all a very happy Christmas.

Take care,

Laura xx

Offers!

Offers!

Exciting times! I have two books currently involved in promotions.

Click on the images to go straight to the deal.

The first ends this Thursday, 12 th May 2016. This is a Kobo UK offer:

FMFY Kobo UK 3 For 2 Sale May 2016The second is the Amazon May Madness event, which ends 22nd May 2016.

WDKY Pebbles May Madness

 

 

If you’ve read and enjoyed any of the Chesil Beach books, each linked, but standalones, would you consider leaving a review? That would be lovely, thank you 🙂

Take care,

Laura x

The Middle Distance Writer

The Middle Distance Writer.

IMG_6672
My writing shoes.

I’m in the throes of writing my first novella. It’s quite different to anything I’ve written in the past. It’s not quite the sprint of flash fiction, nor the thrice round the track with a 1500 word short, (Bitter Sweet) but neither is it the long distance 110,000 word novel, such as What Doesn’t Kill You. Having sought advice from my fellow writing friends I understand the novella should have one main plot, as the writer does not have the luxury of a large word count to explore sub plots; to keep the cast to the main players and concentrate on developing them; to make every word earn its place.

There are more pointers, but these are the three that stuck in my mind and the ones to which I keep returning. My inner editor is having a field day highlighting where I’ve gone off topic, or questioning whether or not I need to introduce another character. How important is this person to the plot or hero and heroine?

I’ve never been able to silence my inner editor and I accepted two books ago it’s how I write. My first draft is rarely a true, dirty first draft as I’ve cleaned it up day-to-day. I don’t submit the first draft to the publisher, as there are always things to improve, but I’m hoping the second draft of the novella will be up to submission standard. I call it a second draft, but I’ve usually redone so much as I’ve gone along, three or four, maybe more times, it’s probably a fifth draft.

So, I’m heading back into the work in progress, and flexing my previously unused middle distance muscles and loving every minute.

Take care.

Author Pic 5

Laura x