Happy Valentine’s Day. This is more of an update than a blog, since pretty much all I’ve done since the last blog is beaver away at the next novel. I think it goes well. Words pop out every day and slowly mount up. Some days the words seem brilliant and some days paragraphs seem barely literate. It all depends on one’s frame of mind. But, having reached the half-way stage, I recently re-read my manuscript in one pass, as objectively as possible, and was pleased with the result.

Apart from write, I’ve visited a couple of book clubs and talked to members about Edith’s War, and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I was amazed how easily members talked about Edith, Will, Shamus, et al as though they were all people they knew intimately. In fact many members had insights into their characters and motivation that I hadn’t seen myself, which was slightly alarming in a Frankenstein-ish way.

Book clubs usually mean direct sales (from me, rather than a book store) which has helped fill the coffers somewhat. Also, for some unknown reason, there’s been a surge of e-book sales — some forty or so. It’s impossible to pinpoint why such sales surges happen. It is possible however to track where they happen — the majority were in the U.S.A. with a few in Canada and one or two in Europe. Which doesn’t help solve the question why, if anything it makes the reason more mystifying.

Book club and e-book sales, plus a welcome cheque from my distributor, means I’m edging towards break-even — just under $3,000 to go. But consider the fact that it’s taken almost 2 years (during which time I’ve earned zero for myself), and one can’t help but wonder why one bothers...

...for the writing of course, which gets me out of bed in the morning and I can afford to do without actually starving. So onwards and upwards. But first, just for fun, here are a couple of  short segments from a longer interview I did recently with Lana Richards, host of Cogeco TV’s program, ‘By The Book.’ The first segment is about the book itself, the second about the self-publishing process.
http://bit.ly/A1FAeG     http://bit.ly/yPKcIQ