Hard Labour

Well today, I told myself, was going to be the day when I rejoined Facebook and tackled Twitter and once again began to take advantage of all that lovely social interaction - not to mention enjoy the undoubted value of another platform for publicizing my writing.    It should be easy, everyone tells me so, and I even have a book which is helpfully titled `Facebook & Twitter For Seniors For Dummies' to help if I got stuck.      I got stuck immediately of course and then inexplicably seemed to give myself an important Life Event by getting married yesterday!   Now that, I hear you say, should be easy to undo but it hasn't worked out that way and already several messages of confused congratulations have rolled into my mailbox.   
Downloading a profile photo also loomed up like the Thames Barrier and making the webcam work proved impossible so in despair I resorted to  a strange photo of me in the kitchen standing before a cake of some kind....which I was obviously proud of because someone had been detailed to take the photo in the first place.    
I haven't even started on Twitter but anyway I am giving up at this point and am heading downstairs for a gin and tonic instead!   

Read an Ebook Week starts tomorrow at midnight!

I have just enrolled in the 2014 Smashwords Read an Ebook Week promotion March 2-8.   For just one week thousands of authors and publishers will provide readers big discounts on ebooks.  And  many books will be completely FREE including my two 2013 publications below.
DECEIVED BY FAITH  a psychological thriller about obsession, internet identity theft and revenge. (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/300309)
CHALK PITS & CHERRY STONES a  memoir about growing up in industrial Thameside Kent (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/320718)
And when you have had time to read one or both - I'd be delighted to hear all comments (flattering or flattening).

Have a look at my 2013 ebooks at Smashwords

This year I wrote my first two ebooks - and with some trepidation I must admit.  The strange new world of epublishing was extraordinarily challenging for someone more accustomed to dealing with the comfortable environment of child rearing/education magazines and the desks of  the guardians of old fashioned publishing houses.  Not so very long ago manuscripts were either dismissed or cautiously accepted with crisp references to where improvements might be made.  Not so any more.

I finished my novel DECEIVED BY FAITH quite quickly and once the required cover design and formatting had been completed  by an efficient lady somewhere in Chicago, all I had to do was grapple with the intricacies of the Smashwords website.  I must admit I enlisted the help of a visiting son for this as it all looked far too difficult for my aging brain.   I priced the book competitively and was delighted when it appeared online and totally accessible almost immediately. Go to: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/300309

Fired with enthusiasm I then completed the childhood memoir I had been writing on and off for some years CHALK PITS & CHERRY STONES.   This time the cover design and formatting went in different directions - Sweden and Malta, and again the work was completed within a pleasingly short space of time.  I decided to make this book totally free to download in order that it could be available to Kent local history groups, schools, etc.   Go to: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/320718

Thus far I have to say that my experience of electronic publishing has been a positive one.

Ebooks

My two new books have been available at Smashwords for some months.  DECEIVED BY FAITH is a novel and CHALK PITS & CHERRY STONES is a childhood memoir.

Storybridge Weekend

Well a great time was had by all at Selwyn College last weekend and in the process this - my very first Blog was born (and very painful it was too).   I am still at the drooling over the new baby stage so any readers that may happen upon this post-birth stage will undoubtedly forgive me.  It is coupled, terrifyingly, with the advent of my new laptop which is making the process a whole lot harder than it ought to be.  Still, fun eh???

Getting there slowly but surely.

Much more slowly than surely but there you go.

Magic!

At last, with the help of genius James, this blog is beginning to take on a better shape.