If you have read it, but haven’t left a review, I would be very grateful if you could. It doesn’t have to be much (or even positive) but reviews do play a significant part in Amazon deciding which books it shows to potential readers. I’ve also entered it into the Amazon Storyteller competition, where reader reviews are the main factor in choosing the shortlist. (I know it’s a longshot, but I can, and like to dream..!) This link will take you directly to the right page to leave an Amazon review – thank you so much!
I promised an update when I last wrote, so here goes. I’m sure I’ve said before that my working set-up involves breaking for the summer in order to look after our two children, Alba and Rafa, and this year has been no different. What has been different this year is that I’ve actively enjoyed it, probably for the first time. I don’t mean I’ve not enjoyed previous summers, but until this year I have felt either guilty or perhaps resentful that I haven’t been able to keep working, and I’ve made unrealistic promises to myself that I’d both work and look after the kids – for example promising I’d get up at five every morning and write for two hours before they got up, which I then completely failed to do because I was exhausted.
Somehow this year I’ve managed to genuinely relax into it, and consequently I’ve really enjoyed a summer of camping, surfing, paddleboarding and canoe trips, bike rides, a trip to France, a quick few days in Spain, and positively indecent amounts of sandcastle building. The children went back to school yesterday and it was enlightening speaking to the other parents at the gate, many of whom seemed to have been anticipating the arrival of September as the light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel (and for all the reasons I’ve felt in previous years).
Obviously there is a downside to all this – now I’ve got to sit down and get back to work. Yesterday was the first day of trying to do this, and let’s just say it was quite a struggle. I can make the excuse of being distracted – we have builders fixing our roof right now, banging and sawing away, and the conclusion to season five of Brexit is quite compelling (or it might not be the conclusion – who knows what plot twist may come next). But I’ve decided to write this newsletter and then gently sink away from the real world so that I start focussing once again on the stories in my head.
As for what stories, I finished a first draft of the sequel to Rockpools just before the summer, and I’m going to restart with that. I did also write a screenplay version of Rockpools, which will have to wait a bit, and I came up with a very tempting idea about a mysterious derelict house in France, but that will also have to sit and stew and wait its turn.
As for when you might be able to read the continuing adventures of Billy Wheatley, now aged 14, I’m not yet sure. It’s altogether possible that I’ll have it out well in advance of Christmas, but it’s also quite possible I won’t. It really depends upon what I think of the first draft as I get back into it. Rest assured I’ll keep you updated, and I’m sure I’ll think of something else to say before then too.
So that’s me. I hope you’ve enjoyed your summer, whether working or not, and if you’re in that part of the globe where everything is upside down, I hope you’ve had a lovely winter too – we have that to look forward too next.
Here’s that link again to leave a review for The Glass Tower
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