Books aren’t like buses… they are sometimes red (not read of course – that would be a terrible pun), but they aren’t that big or noisy.
Yet….
Like buses, you can wait ages for one, and then two will come at once.
Not only that, they may also cause you to stop unexpectedly in your tracks, or start running towards an open door.
That’s a pretty good description of how things have been for me this past couple of weeks.
Last week, Christmas at Coorah Creek was released. It’s always lovely to see your baby head out into the big wide world. There are those heart-stopping moments when a review pops up, and how wonderful those moments are when reviews say things like ‘Janet’s ending is a stroke of genius!’
This week, The Wild One. is released in paperback. It seems such a long time since I wrote Dan and Quinn’s story – but I walked into a WH Smith books at Heathrow Airport the other day and suddenly there it was! Dan and Quinn were waiting to tell their story to some passing traveller.
It’s always a thrill to see my books on a bookshop shelf – that’s never going to get old.
This week also saw The Wild One shortlisted for not one – but two awards.
The AusRom Today website has it shortlisted for Book of the Year and Cover of the Year. I take no credit for the cover, that was the work of Choc Lit’s designer Berni Stevens. However, I still have the excitement of seeing it on the shortlist. It’s a public vote – so please go here and vote for Book of The Year by liking the image … or go here and like that image to vote for cover of the year.
And any day now, I will have a new short story out in My Weekly magazine. It’s part of a competition to win some free books – so keep your eye open for this one. It’s a sweet story and the magazine has done a lovely job of presenting it.
Of course, every writer spends far too much time obsessively checking their books’ rankings on Amazon. That can be depressing – but sometimes it can be uplifting.
It’s also amazing when sitting at my computer, suddenly the scene I am trying to write comes alive. I can see and hear it in my head and a couple of thousand works later I blink and look back at what I’ve written and see that it’s not half bad!
I guess what I’m trying the say here is that I love being a writer. It’s hard work – and there are times when it seems like forever between books. And there are times all the hard work can get me down.
But then I have a day – or even a week when I realise how much I love what I do. Then all I want is to get working on the next book… and speaking of the next book, I have got to go now, I hear my new hero calling me.