Hi everyone. This is just a brief blog post to let you know that my debut novel The Inheritance will be FREE on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk for 5 days from this Thursday. (I will post the web address details on the day.)
The dates are: Thursday 31st October to Monday 4th November. If you haven’t yet purchased it, why not get it for free during this period?
And if you have bought The Inheritance and enjoyed it, please spread the word. I’d be really grateful!
Happy writing everyone. 🙂
Hi all. I have a confession to make. I haven’t done much work on Reunion lately. BUT I have an excuse – I’m applying to lots of free promo websites in preparation for The Inheritance being free on Amazon for 5 days.
It may not sound like it, but it’s actually quite a lot of work and time consuming. When I’m not doing that or blogging I’m working/doing housework/walking and looking after the dog and soon the hours are just gone. My husband’s got it right when he says there are simply not enough hours in the day! I do plan to get back to working on Reunion every day though, a.s.a.p.
The days of my free promotion are Thursday 31st October to Monday 4th November. I’m looking forward to it and actually enjoying working my way through the list of free promo websites, from my good friend and fellow author Kate Frost, which list those books that are free to download.
If you haven’t already bought The Inheritance, you may like to get yourself a free copy… Anyway enough of the shameless self promotion, back to the main topic in hand today which is the excerpt from Reunion I’m sharing.
Seeing as it’s 23rd October today and I’m feeling mean, I thought I’d share with you just 25 words from chapter 10. My maths goes like this: 23 (for the day) + 2 (from 2013) = 25. And to be extra mean I’m not telling you where in the story this excerpt comes from except to say that the viewpoint is, as usual, my main character Anna’s. Here you go:
For some reason in that moment she almost came out of herself, seeing her own life as a stranger might – a movie script playing out.
So there you have it. Aren’t I cruel??!! If you’d like to take part in WIPpet Wednesday all you have to do is post an excerpt of whatever you’re currently working on writing-wise on your blog. The only rule is that it has to relate in some way to the date. Then add your details to this linky. Thanks goes to K. L. Schwengel for hosting. 🙂
I’m annoyed. Why you might ask? Well it’s because I’m sure that in a previous WIPpet Wednesday post I shared an excerpt from Reunion where my MC Anna is telling her friends about her messy break up. But I can’t find it anywhere. I’ve searched on my blog about 3 times and it’s nowhere. Grrr.
Anyway the reason I wanted it was to have it to refer to today because I’ve amended the beginning of Reunion to make it more gripping from the very first line – I hope. Someone told me they’d read my novel The Inheritance, which I published a few weeks ago, and enjoyed it but said it took a while to get going and they thought it needed to grip the reader from the beginning.
It’s funny cos I’d read the same advice in a general post on a writer’s blog (can’t remember which one), that you need to grab the reader’s attention from the very beginning. Then I had a flash of inspiration as to how I could make the beginning of Reunion much more gripping.
So here’s my attempt. This is the new beginning of Reunion. Anna and her boyfriend Elliot are having a blazing row. She suspects him of cheating on her. If you recognise any of the dialogue, that’s because I’ve recycled it from a flashback Anna has later in the story and it was what I shared in the WIPpet Wednesday post I just can’t find.
As always, comments are welcome – though I guess getting feedback is the whole reason we do WIPpet Wednesday, isn’t it? Anyway here’s 13 paragraphs from chapter one as it’s 2013. Enjoy!
Anna glared at Elliot standing across the table from her, willing him to be struck down by a celestial power or something, anything to punish him for what he’d done.
‘I’ve had enough of your excuses,’ she yelled at him. ‘I know the truth and I don’t want to hear any more lies.’
‘Which idiot have you been listening to, Anna?’ he replied equally loudly as they fought it out in the kitchen, perilously close to the knives which Anna was tempted to throw at him.
‘Oh I don’t know, about a dozen? Maybe two dozen? Did you really think I’d never find out? Who is she anyway, this model? No wait; don’t tell me, she’s some bimbo who’s conveniently only in it for the sex!’
‘Look I told you, Anna, I’m not having an affair! You’ve got to trust me.’
‘Not having an affair. Hmmm. That’s what you said three months ago when I first told you what people had been saying. And I stupidly chose to believe you. But since then more and more people, friends and acquaintances, have been telling me what you’ve been getting up to on those “research” trips to London.’
‘They’re wrong, Anna, they’re wrong. Why would I ever want sex with Petra… ’ Elliot trailed off realising his mistake.
‘Oh so that’s her name is it? I’ll take that as a confession, shall I? It’s obviously all I’m going to get after three years. Three years of my life wasted!’ The tears that had been threatening to pour began to run down Anna’s face. She sobbed a harsh strangulated sound and through the haze of tears saw Elliot coming towards her. ‘No!’ she yelled at him. ‘Don’t touch me! Just get out! I don’t need to hear any more excuses.’
He backed off and turned to leave the kitchen.
‘I want you out by tonight,’ Anna heard herself say in a shaky voice. ‘And all your stuff.’
‘Where am I supposed to go?’ he asked turning round. ‘You could at least give me a day to get my stuff out.’
‘I don’t care where you go. And as for giving you a day to sort your stuff out, why should I after the way you’ve treated me? Now get out!’
He scowled at her as he left the room, and for the first time Anna felt as though she were seeing the true Elliot. The person she thought she’d known had been almost like a figment of her imagination.
If you would like to take part in WIPpet Wednesday, simply share an excerpt from whatever you’re up to writing-wise and post on your blog. The only rule is it has to correlate to the date. Then add your name to this linky. Thanks to the lovely K. L. Schwengel for hosting.
I joined Twitter just over 18 months ago. I’ve found it to be incredibly helpful to my writing and I’ve made contact with other writers through it, some of whom I’ve even met and become good friends with.
But for quite a while I wasn’t engaging fully with other authors on Twitter. Although I had over 1000 followers and I was following over 1000 people, following people and gaining new followers was slowing to a trickle. I just wasn’t very active on it. Most of the time I would do a post on my blog, tweet about it once and expect people to respond.
If I’m honest with myself, I did realise that wasn’t enough. But I was busy doing lots of other things, writing and blogging to name two, and so I neglected Twitter.
A couple of weeks ago I was given some good advice by another writer, Terry Tyler. She was commenting on my guest post for Joanne Phillip‘s blog which I’d written as part of my blog tour to promote my debut novel The Inheritance. She suggested that to publicise myself more online, it would be a good idea to make sure I’m active on Twitter by retweeting about 20 people a day. That way I would likely get more people retweeting my tweets and therefore be seen by more people.
I decided to take Terry’s advice. I’ve been trying to retweet around 20 people a day as she suggested and I’m seeing the results. When you retweet other authors, they really appreciate it – as I do when people retweet my messages about my novel. It leads to more people following you, you have a greater presence online and it helps towards that vital marketing of your book. Your tweets end up being seen not just by your followers, but by their followers too and so on.
I’m going to continue to take a more proactive attitude to using Twitter and harnessing its power to promote my writing. So far it’s paying dividends.
It’s that time of the week again when we WIPpeteers come together to share some of the lovely stuff we’ve been working on writing-wise. And yes I know I’m posting this early yet again (it’s 8pm on Tuesday UK time!) but I find it easier this way.
For my contribution this week I’m sharing another excerpt from my WIP Reunion. I’ve been finding it quite hard to choose extracts that are interesting but which don’t give too much of the plot away! Anyway I thought I’d share with you 9 lines from chapter 10 as it’s the 9th October today. 🙂
At this point in the story my MC Anna is out for another meal with her new literary agent Peter. This time she’s come to London on her own to see him. Enjoy!
By now they’d finished their starters and were on to the main course. Her meal – salmon covered liberally with a creamy Hollandaise sauce – was delicious. As she ate Anna listened to Peter, engrossed by his tale of how he became a literary agent.
He told her that whilst at university he’d decided he wanted to be a literary agent, but he hadn’t realised that to do that he’d have to gain experience in the publishing industry first. She laughed at his tale of having to live off baked beans on toast and nothing else for a month whilst living in a poky bedsit in London as he applied everywhere for a job.
‘I was getting desperate,’ he admitted. ‘The guy who lived across the hall from me told me I’d be better off getting a job in Tesco.’ Anna snorted with laughter at this. ‘Yes, I can laugh about it too now,’ Peter said.
If you would like to take part in WIPpet Wednesday, simply post an excerpt of whatever you’ve been working on writing-wise recently on your blog. The only rule is that it has to relate in some way to the date.
Then add your name to this linky. Thanks goes to K. L. Schwengel for hosting. Until next time!
I know I know, I’ve been absent from WIPpet Wednesday for about 3 weeks, possibly longer – I’ve lost track. And I also know that I’m posting this a day early – on Tuesday UK time. How shocking! 😉 Anyway I’ve had good reason to be absent. One of the weeks I missed I was busy with my launch of my debut novel The Inheritance (which if you haven’t read it and would like to is available in the US and UK). That was two weeks ago.
Then last week my mum came to stay the night and what with sorting out the house for her coming, and her actually being here on the Wednesday, I didn’t have much chance to prepare/post anything.
But I’m back now and in honour of it being the 2nd October today, I thought I’d post 2 paragraphs from chapter 5. My maths goes like this: 2 + 1 (the month minus the 0) + 2 (the year minus the 013) = 5! OK, OK I know I’m using the number 2 for the paragraphs and the chapter but that’s cos I can!
BTW I should say the photo in this post doesn’t have a lot to do with my contribution to this week’s WIPpet Wednesday, but I really like it (and I couldn’t find anything else suitable!). It’s very calming, which is actually what my main character Anna – in my current WIP Reunion – needs right now.
So without further ado I will introduce you to my excerpt which is from Reunion again. It’s going back a bit in the story from what I last shared with you. Anna and Melissa have just arrived at the hotel in London on their trip to meet Anna’s agent. Enjoy!
Melissa shrugged and rolled her eyes but said nothing. Their trip in the taxi was thankfully short after their tiring train journey. It wasn’t long before the two friends were at the hotel and were settling in to their twin bedroom. The hotel was a budget one, so fairly basic. Their room was long and narrow with a small, slightly dusty window at the far end.
The air smelled fustily of cigarettes, even though smoking was banned. Anna wrinkled her nose at the odour. She was enjoying herself none the less. Their room didn’t have much of a view but that didn’t matter to her. She had a vivid imagination and since she’d been a child had loved picturing imaginary places in her mind, so could always picture a view just by closing her eyes. Nowadays she enjoyed transforming hazy visions in her head into a more concrete idea of a place that could be a location in a story.
If you would like to take part in WIPpet Wednesday just post an excerpt on your blog of whatever you’re currently working on writing-wise. The only rule is that it has to relate in some way to today’s date. Then once you’ve done that add your name to this linky. Thanks to K. L. Schwengel for hosting. 🙂
A few weeks ago as some of you may recall me mentioning on my blog, I had a nasty stomach bug which put me out of action for a week. I did not feel good to say the least!
Today I’m suffering from something else – not a stomach bug thankfully, but some kind of virus which is making me constantly feel like I’ve just woken up, as well as achy and zapping my energy. Not great. I stayed home from my exercise class today which is physically demanding. I might have managed it – just – but I wasn’t prepared to take the risk of making myself feel even worse.
It gets me thinking though of how illness can inspire us. I don’t mean common colds or even nasty bugs. But many people who have been ill have written books about their experiences. Often they’re books about breakdowns or the authors’ experience of some kind of illness which has affected them a great deal. The books may not be autobiographies but they’re often semi-autobiographical and are reactions to the authors’ experiences.
Well known authors who’ve experienced some form of mental illness include J. K. Rowling, Jeannette Winterson, Marian Keyes, Patricia Cornwell, Stephen Fry, Paulo Coelho and there are many more. Many of these writers have spoken about their experiences publicly and the affect it’s had on their work.
I myself have experienced 3 severe breakdowns since the age of 15. I’ve written about my experiences in an earlier blog post which you can read here. When you’ve experienced something like that you’re never the same again. But it can have a positive effect on your writing. I’ve got an unfinished story tucked away on my laptop which is about a young girl who has a breakdown. I intend to finish it one day.
Have you had some sort of illness, physical or mental, which you feel has influenced your writing?
I will be honest with you that the title of this blog post isn’t entirely true of my writing right now, although it has been in the past.
But I have been finding that the flow of my WIP is slowing at the moment. Before I began writing I made a comprehensive plan of the plot and in which direction I wanted my story to head.
Of course in actually coming to write it things change and I’ve found that the characters I’d planned have evolved and taken new paths. That’s all well and good. But sometimes you get to a stage in writing a story where things just go a bit stale.
As I said I know where I want to take my story ultimately but I want it to flow seamlessly, with one scene merging into the next so that the narrative doesn’t feel forced.
Right now I’m feeling my writing’s a bit barren. I’ve had a lot of things to focus on apart from this WIP because among other things,as you may have seen from other posts, I’ve been promoting the publication of my debut novel The Inheritance. So I’ve had plenty of distractions.
That’s not the real reason for this dryness in my writing though, I don’t think. I just need to somehow regain a bit of momentum with it, to really tell the story and focus on the general plan I originally came up with and not get too bogged down in dialogue between characters which doesn’t go anywhere.
When I’ve got past this difficult stage of trying to sew the story together seamlessly somehow and I eventually finish the first draft, I’m actually looking forward to sending it out to beta readers and getting their opinions on what’s working and not working, particularly in this part of the story.
Ultimately I want to be able to finish and publish this story by the end of next year but I’m not sure I’ll manage it. Especially seeing as writing a new post for my blog feels a lot easier than moving the action in my WIP along with no visible seams!
What do you do when you’re finding it hard to find the right words to carry a plot forward?
Well my blog tour to promote my debut novel The Inheritance is over. I’ve learned a lot from it, the main thing being to keep persevering in promoting my novel.
I’ve had some great advice recently on how to do just that. I feel that my blog isn’t being seen by that many people, and therefore my book is not as well known as it could be. Yes it’s true that blogging is not the only way to promote a novel – far from it.
But I realise that if I’m to gain support from other writers, which I believe is one of the key ways of promoting my book, I need to have a greater presence on Twitter for one thing. I have to confess to being a little lazy when it comes to Twitter. I’m often following new people, following them after they follow me or finding their details then choosing to follow them.
However I don’t engage that much with other Twitter users. Recently I’ve taken to retweeting people, but that only goes so far. I do thank fellow Twitter users for following me which seems to go down well. But I feel I need to devote a bit more time to Twitter, to cultivate my ‘relationships’ with my followers and those I’m following.
Of course if you’re tweeting regularly you have a little less time for blogging and writing. I guess it’s all about prioritising – being able to balance everything so that you spend the right about of time on each thing. Obviously the writing should come first – after all that’s what we’re here for isn’t it?
I do think, though, that our relationships with other writers are so important. They can offer us invaluable support and advice because they’ve gone through, and are going through, exactly the same process as us in their quest to write books and market them.
So having blogged pretty much every day for the last week, I think I’m going to blog a little less this week, tweet a little more and DEFINITELY write much more.
How do you cope with juggling all the different aspects to your writing life?
After over a week of interviews and guest posts on my fellow writers’ blogs, I’ve got to the end of my blog tour to promote my debut novel The Inheritance.
And to finish up today I’m back where I started – on my friend Kate Frost’s blog being interviewed by her. Kate is a good friend of mine. We live fairly close together and she’s the first person I’ve followed on Twitter who I’ve met face to face!
Kate has been a real support and help to me over the past year or so on my quest to publish The Inheritance. So take a look at her interview with me. She asks me some great questions which I hope you’ll find interesting. You can even find out which of my characters are like me and which of them I’d like to meet.
I’ve really enjoyed my blog tour, especially answering your questions about how I came to publish The Inheritance. I’ve also enjoyed the preparation for it, contacting my fellow writers and arranging it all as well as answering the questions for my interviews and writing my guest posts.
If you missed any of my blog tour dates and would like to take a look you can find the details here. Thanks again to Kate, Joanne, Jade, Briana, Martin and Laurey for helping me with my promotion. I really appreciate it guys!
If you would like to buy The Inheritance it’s available on Amazon UK and Amazon.com. I’m also on Goodreads and you can contact me on Twitter via @ElaineJeremiah.
Elaine Jeremiah 