Busy - so busy!

The new cover of the novel!

As the year, and my MA course draws to an end, I am busier than ever. I am in a frenzy of finishing my screenplay, writing an essay, tinkering with my novel and trying to get Dancing with the Ferryman published in paperback - all in time for Christmas.

The screenplay has been a really interesting and worthwhile exercise in learning how to tell a story in a different way. Just this relatively short experience of writing the script has changed the way I think about my plot when I am writing or editing a novel. As someone pointed out at a recent writers' group meeting, scriptwriting really brings home the "show not tell" element of writing.

I have designed a new cover for Dancing with the Ferryman and must give grateful thanks to Dave Wheeler from Fair Isle for allowing me to use his wonderful photograph of the Northern Lights. OK, so anyone from Shetland will know that this photo was taken on Fair Isle and not Whalsay, but I still thought it was the perfect picture to use on my new cover. I had to redesign the whole cover when I decided to launch the novel in paperback, as I needed something that would work for the back and spine of the book.

I am just waiting for Createspace to load up the novel and send me a proof copy. And then once that has been approved it will be available on Amazon. I cannot wait to see a real paperback book with my name on it. This will be the best Christmas ever!

Relative Success

One of the hardest things a writer has to do is to allow someone else to read their work. You are already your own worst critic, but even so you fear the reaction from other people, who might hate your creation. And if they do, how do you bounce back?

In the beginning though, it is normally only friends and relatives that you trust with your manuscript. As a result any criticisms will be softened with tact and diplomacy; if you're lucky.

However, when you launch your work onto the public, it is another matter altogether. You have no idea what people might say; that is if they even bother to buy it in the first place. And then you realise, that this is really the crux of the matter. Suppose it just sits there on the bookshelf (virtual or actual).

This week has been rather strange for me. After a fairly good start on Amazon I issued the novel on smashwords.com an independent e-publisher, and it is fairly flying off the virtual bookshelf. As I write, it is in fourth position in the bestsellers list. I know that the buyers are most likely to be in the US, due to the time of day when most of the sales take place. So I have now moved passed the situation where I am selling mainly to friends and family and casual acquaintances.

It is both scary and exhilarating at the same time. I wonder what an American audience make of the novel. But at least I am helping to put Shetland on the map.

Misplaced parental anxiety

I realise that publishing my novel via Amazon as a Kindle download is not the pinnacle of publishing success. It would be much better for my novel to have been picked up by a real publisher and produced as a paperback. However, this has not happened yet, and I felt as if time was running out for this book. I wrote it over three years ago, although I have been tinkering with it ever since trying to edit out as many errors and typos as I could find. It was time to let this baby go and start to concentrate on the next one. But no sooner had I, metaphorically, pushed it out of the nest than I wondered whether it was the right thing to do.

Now it is out there, floating in the great ether of the electronic publishing world waiting for someone to notice it.

Many people have already read the novel in its draft form. Mostly friends and family, and without exception they have loved it. But then again they would, wouldn’t they, or they would keep a diplomatic silence on the issue.
Now complete strangers are free to buy it and to make comment on it. I have read some of the comments on Amazon that people have written about other author’s novels. Some of them are not pretty.

Ever since I had two children I have spent every minute of every day worrying about them; hoping they are safe, well and happy. Now I almost feel as if I have another baby to worry about. Suppose nobody loves this one. Should I have kept it at home with me a little while longer?

I guess time will tell.

Launching my novel on St Patrick's Day

I have finally plucked up the courage to launch my first novel onto the unsuspecting public. Dancing with the Ferryman was dreamt up one sunny afternoon when I looked out of my kitchen window and saw an ordinary man. At the risk of people identifying him I don’t wish to go into too much detail, but suffice it to say he was a typical Shetland man. That is to say, he was family oriented, hardworking in his three different jobs, not to mention maintaining a croft, and living in the house he built himself.

I thought of all the handsome heroes I had read about in the numerous chick-lit books and realised that there was an untapped source of romantic heroes right here on my island. Now all the women in Shetland reading this would probably think this was hilarious, as Shetland men are not renowned for their romantic notions. But it occurred to me that with a little bit of poetic license I could create the first proto-type. His name is Magnus – a typical Shetland name. He does not have a glamorous career in the city, he does not wear designer suits, drive a flash sports car and he is not tall dark and handsome with a chiselled jaw and a six pack. He is quietly spoken, maybe even a little shy and just a tad old fashioned. Not quite the standard issue 21st century hero.

Turning to my heroine I decided to see how far away I could get from the norm here as well. Jo is a rather ordinary woman. A civil servant, not stunningly gorgeous, maybe even a little frumpy, and she is pregnant as well.

With the two characters fairly well formed in my head all I had to do was find a way to get Jo to Shetland. The resulting novel is a love story, but not just between the characters. It is in effect a love story about Shetland.

The story is entirely fictional, but it was inspired by my love of Shetland. I first visited Shetland on the 8th February 2003 for a weekend. It was grey and miserable when I landed but it was still love at first sight. I went back to work on Monday and resigned. I put my house on the market and moved up on 2nd June 2003; and never regretted it. Although I am now living in Ireland I do not think it will be too long before we move back home.

Dancing with the Ferryman can be downloaded from the Amazon website from 17 March 2010. It costs $2.99 or the sterling equivalent (about £2.15). If you do not own a Kindle you can download the Kindle software from Amazon onto you PC, Mac or as an Android application onto your smart phone.