Day 449

This past week has been great! My author copy of Slippery Souls arrived in the post. And other than an ‘n’ being missing from the end of ‘seen’ towards the back of the book – I really love it. I’ve placed my bulk order, which should be with me by the end of the week, all going well. So I’m a lot calmer now!

After some fiddling on Photoshop, Windows Movie Maker, and then sifting through various royalty free music websites – I’ve produced a book trailer, which can be viewed here: http://youtu.be/2OZ7wsQPNBk?hd=1

Oh and I received my first book quote, which was rather exciting!

Edward Smith, the creative director of FeedARead.com, says, “We’re delighted to publish Slippery Souls, it’s a uniquely entertaining story from a talented new author.”

My Team Leader from another lifetime ago, in my days of IT, has kindly been helping me to promote the book – and so far she’s been getting more leads than I have. So thanks for that Kath, it’s much appreciated!!!

I received my marked Writers Bureau radio assignment back with some really positive comments – only three more assignments to go and I’m done. Hooray! Assignment 18 is a radio drama. Not sure when I’ll have it completed by – I seem to be crazy busy with all things Slippery Souls related at the moment, but hopefully my coursework won’t lapse again for months on end.

Last Thursday at the Easington Writers gathering, we had our first workshop with Stevie Ronnie. He’s guiding us through the Brass Book project that we’ve been asked to be involved in as part of the Durham Brass Festival. The actual book is meant to marry together the Brass Festival and the Book Festival – and it will incorporate written work to the front of the book, with some form of digital technology to the back of the book. It’s shaping up to be a very exciting project already!

The interview on my Writer Showcase this week is with L M Weaver. Her book The Cello Swing is about a circus performer who’s trying to run away from her past. Set in the back streets and alleyways of London, this edgy book is told in diary style. Check out the details here: http://rachaelhdixon.webs.com/writershowcase.htm

I probably have got other news to share, but right now I can’t think of anything else. So I’ll be off then. So much to do, so little time!

Day 442

Hooray, my author copy of Slippery Souls is ordered and should be on its way to me very soon. Hopefully it’ll be a case of giving it a quick flick through and then placing a bulk order for the launch day. I’m not nit-picking for typos or anything at this stage, it’s too late for that now – it’s just to make sure that the book is visually acceptable.

Anyway, here are the launch day details:

Saturday 18^th February at The Hazelwell Centre, Haswell, Durham, DH6 2DY from 2pm – 4pm. There will be tea, coffee and biscuits (and for those who aren’t driving, the bar will be open).  Paperback versions of Slippery Souls will be on sale for £6.99 – which I will be only too happy to sign. So feel free to pop along and join in the celebration!

With only 26 days to go, it feels as though I have a list as long as my arm of things to organise and sort – decorations (you know, table confetti, tablecloths, centre pieces and all that malarkey), reading and introduction (ask somebody to introduce me and then decide whether to do a reading from the book, and, if so, how long for) helpers (to give me a hand selling books, and to fetch me drinks on request, haha), background music, and lots of other little fiddly things. Oh and I may even have a bash at creating a book trailer to put on You Tube!

Chapter one of The Forgotten Ones has been drafted and I’d like to complete chapter two this week. My seventeenth assignment for the Writers Bureau has been submitted – only three more to go!!! And I’m still chipping away at the second draft of Monday – would love to get that out by the end of summer. I don’t believe I’ve given much away about it yet – so here’s the proposed book jacket blurb:

Not many people like Mondays, do they? It’s a given. So imagine what it’s like being me – my name is Monday Harris, and it just so happened to be a Monday when Sully left me; the day before my thirtieth birthday…

Pet portrait artist Monday suddenly finds that her life sucks to high heaven. And, as she struggles to come to terms with her husband running off with another woman, she tries to rediscover who she actually is – which requires some dredging up of the past.

Can she ever be happy again, or was she always destined to be let down by those closest to her?

This week’s interview on my Writer Showcase is with writer William E Belanger. He’s the author of Ice Cats, which is a fictional story about a women’s ice hockey team. He describes the team as being a particularly wild bunch of girls – so if that sounds like your sort of thing, check out his interview here: http://rachaelhdixon.webs.com/writershowcase.htm (he assures me that you don’t necessarily have to be a woman or an ice hockey fan to enjoy it).

Oh and the Static Movement anthology Sowing the Seeds of Horror (which my short story Dempsey’s Demons is in) is now available to buy here: http://www.pillhillpress.com/shoppe-static-movement.html.

Ok, I believe that’s all of my news for this week – so I guess I’ll go and work through my ever expanding list of ‘things to do’!

Day 435

Boo! It’s cold and white outside. I hate wintry weather post-Christmas – it should be against the law. And to add to my feelings of grouchiness, I haven’t heard back from the printer still! I’ve sent the publisher an email this morning to make sure everything is alright – which I’m sure it will be. Any day now my book will be ready to order *she says nervously*

I’m going to book the launch venue tomorrow night – so it better be!!!

I’ve started the sequel to Slippery Souls, The Forgotten Ones, and should have the first draft of Chapter 1 finished by the end of today. Despite having done a little planning first, I was actually quite surprised where the story took me when I started typing – but it’s a good thing I suppose, because it means my characters are ‘talking’ to me J Work on my other two novels-in-progress is slow – but steady. And I’m finally making headway with my Writers Bureau coursework – hallelujah! I had to write a short story which was suitable for radio – so I wrote a story of around 2000 words, which would run at about 13 minutes. I then had to turn it into a 20 minute radio play (which would equate to 20 pages) – but so far I’m coming in at about 12 pages, so I’m fairly under! More work on that this week though, and I hope to get it submitted by Wednesday.

This Thursday the other Easington Writers and I will be having our first workshop in conjunction with the new Durham Brass Festival project we’ll be involved in, which is called Brass Book. At the moment we don’t know a great deal about what this will entail exactly, but we know it’ll combine traditional books with digital books somehow, and that it’ll be directed by artist and writer Stevie Ronnie.

There’s a new Writer Showcase interview on my website. This week it’s Australian epic fantasy writer Rosemary Fryth talking about her books in the Riothamus trilogy. Check it out here: http://rachaelhdixon.webs.com/writershowcase.htm - and, of course, if you know of anybody who’s a fan of fantasy and is looking for something new to read, then please pass on the link J

Hopefully next week I’ll be telling you that my books are on order and I’ll be letting you know the times and venue for the launch – keep your fingers crossed for me!!

Anyway, I’ll leave you with a couple of pictures I took yesterday while out walking the dog at Finchale Abbey – just in case they might inspire you, I dunno, to write a spooky story or something J

Day 428

Slippery Souls book launch is now officially set to Saturday 18^th February! I’m excited that a date has been set – though slightly disappointed it’s postponed. The tight schedule for the previous ‘hoped for’ launch date was getting much too close for comfort – especially since I haven’t heard back from the printers yet. How awkward and embarrassing would that have been – a launch with no books! Anyway, at least mid-February gives me plenty of time to be organising some marketing bits and pieces, invites and party things. I will be booking the venue this week – so all the details for that will be given with next week’s update.

I decided to create a new section of my website to showcase other writers, aiming to put a new writer interview on there every Thursday. So far I have some varying treats in store (the schedule is booked up now until the end of March with writers from all over the world – and I also have a possible freebie giveaway coming up too). The first interview is with fellow northeast writer Chris Robinson – a freelance writer, who has a particular passion for performance poetry. Performance poetry wasn’t something I was familiar with until Chris spoke to me about it – and if you aren’t familiar with it either then I urge you to check it out. It’s both clever and entertaining. See Chris’ interview here:  http://rachaelhdixon.webs.com/writershowcase.htm

And, of course, if you’re a writer and would like to feature on my website then please drop me a line at rachaelhdixon @ gmail.com (obviously omitting the spaces – oh and remember the second ‘a’ in Rachael, it can be a pesky little thing at times!)

Today I’m officially ‘back to work’ after the Christmas break, and I have a pretty busy schedule. Work on The Forgotten Ones (sequel to Slippery Souls) begins, the second draft of Monday (my women’s fiction novel) needs to get underway, I’ve taken on board a challenge set by Easington Writers to write a ‘long’ story (which, for me, is actually going to be another novel – a chiller called Little Blue Eyes), and I aim to have my Writers Bureau course finished by the end of April. I’m not sure when I’m going to fit sleep into this schedule – but I’m a woman on a mission!

Day 421

Happy New Year! Let’s live 2012 like there’s no tomorrow – because, unless the Mayans couldn’t be bothered to draft up any more calendar years, this could be our last! (I suspect 21st December will come and go and we’ll still all be here – but I do love a good conspiracy theory nonetheless).

I’m still waiting for the go-ahead from Feed A Read to print another author copy of Slippery Souls to verify – so no news on that front. But some of my marketing bits and bobs arrived in the post this week, and I’m going to see about booking a venue for my launch party within the next week or so – it’s all starting to feel very real.

Apart from over-indulging on merlot and Christmas chocolates I haven’t been up to much as far as writing’s concerned – though I have decided to run a new section on my website to showcase other writers. Check out the link below, (and if you’re a writer who fancies being interviewed then please drop me a line at rachaelhdixon@gmail.com – don’t forget the second ‘a’ in Rachael though, it’s a pesky little thing at times) J

http://rachaelhdixon.webs.com/writershowcase.htm

Ok, I have nothing else to report – so I’m going to go and drink more, eat more and carry on being merry. Well, I may as well, I’m not officially back at ‘work’ until next week J