I am now officially on holiday. I have achieved what I wanted to do - all five of my completed books are up and running on Amazon, after enormous difficulty with the third one, But a Dream - for some reason the formatting was a nightmare - I had to upload 19 versions before I was satisfied with the end result. But whatever, it is done and will be ready within a couple of days. (BTW three of my five books will be free on Kindle on Boxing Day - see www.amazon.com/author/jennygill ).
I don't know quite how Amazon works - my fifth book, Rock-a-Bye Baby, is up on Amazon.co.uk as either a paperback or an eBook but on Amazon.com only as an eBook thus far. But they did quote 5-7 days so I need to be patient before I contact their customer service department once again.
But now I am going to relax - and get ready for our holiday. It's a beautiful day so I am going to fit in a swim in the sea (managed yesterday and the day before in spite of a wind which has now dropped) in between wrapping and packing.
Book number six is going well - I am not allowing myself to write a lot and am not even planning to take my laptop on holiday with me but I might just put a few thing on a USB stick so that if I really need to I can write a little, but not to the point of being unsociable - a real danger when I write, though from all I hear that's very common with writers.
We are going to a Carols by Candlelight picnic in our church grounds this evening - we go to a beautiful little stone church set between the mountain and the sea in Kalk Bay, a popular resort with a working fishing harbour, so we should be able to look out over the sea while singing carols - it doesn't get much better than that!
This will almost certainly be my last post till I get back so I take this opportunity to wih you a Blessed Christmas and a successful and Happy 2013 (that is assuming we all survive 21st December but I read somewhere that the Mayan's accuracy with dates was questionable so it might be out by about 300 years so I'm not worrying too much).
My sister sent me this delightful clip which I must
share with you
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCFCeJTEzNU&feature=youtu.be
Till next time :)
Saturday 15 December 2012
Sunday 9 December 2012
Keeping busy over the silly season
Such a busy time of year! Presents to buy, parties to go to, so much going on. And the shops are so crowded and the parking is so bad that even the most mundane shopping takes twice as long.
Added to which we are going to Singapore next week and I have a lot to prepare before we go, including making batches of dehydrated biscuits, both sweet and savoury to take with us. Our daughter is afraid that, as raw vegans, we might otherwise starve.
Also, just to keep ourselves out of mischief, we have been painting (not actually me - my sinuses react very badly to paint - but Colin and a painter) and preparing a very small flat which we have bought to rent out. Timing is not great - but the sale only completed last week so everything is in a big rush.
And then I finished my fifth book, Rock-a-Bye Baby, and have been proofing it, and editing it over the weekend. I am hoping to get it up and running on Amazon before we leave. My internet was down last week for just over 48 hours which I found most frustrating but which actually removed the distraction eough for me to finish my book. Unfortunately book number six has jumped into my head. I am trying very hard not to spend time on that now but the temptation is there. I don't know why I get these ideas - I think it's in the order of 'nature abhors a vacuum' ( just looked that up - it was Aristotle - did you know that? I didn't). As soon as I finish, or almost finish one story another takes its place.
Retired? A lady who lunches? I should be so lucky!
Till next time :)
Added to which we are going to Singapore next week and I have a lot to prepare before we go, including making batches of dehydrated biscuits, both sweet and savoury to take with us. Our daughter is afraid that, as raw vegans, we might otherwise starve.
Also, just to keep ourselves out of mischief, we have been painting (not actually me - my sinuses react very badly to paint - but Colin and a painter) and preparing a very small flat which we have bought to rent out. Timing is not great - but the sale only completed last week so everything is in a big rush.
And then I finished my fifth book, Rock-a-Bye Baby, and have been proofing it, and editing it over the weekend. I am hoping to get it up and running on Amazon before we leave. My internet was down last week for just over 48 hours which I found most frustrating but which actually removed the distraction eough for me to finish my book. Unfortunately book number six has jumped into my head. I am trying very hard not to spend time on that now but the temptation is there. I don't know why I get these ideas - I think it's in the order of 'nature abhors a vacuum' ( just looked that up - it was Aristotle - did you know that? I didn't). As soon as I finish, or almost finish one story another takes its place.
Retired? A lady who lunches? I should be so lucky!
Till next time :)
Monday 3 December 2012
Kirstenbosch Sunset Concert
Hi
We had a great day yesterday. Went to church early - it was Advent Sunday so Christmas is just around the corner.
It was very hot so when we came home I fought with formatting my books for a few hours. Fortunately in the middle of my despair (tearing my hair out over the stupid things my computer does - nothing to do with me of course!) I got an email from Jan, the lovely computer teacher my friend recommended. She said she could see me on Monday afternoon. Made me feel much better knowing that if I couldn't sort it out at least she could.
Then off to Kirstenbosch for one of the first of the new season's sunset concerts. The world renowned Kirstenbosch with the back of Table Mountain as a backdrop, and about 30 000 people picnicking, drinking local wines, and dancing to the music of Mango Groove, who have been one of South Africa's top groups since their first smash hit in 1989. And a well deserved reputation too - their music is a mixture of rock, jazz and local rhythms - just fantastic. Such an amazing atmosphere too!
When we got home I found we had to turn the TV up - literally deafened by the music. But a great evening.
This morning, inspired by the thought that Jan was coming, I managed to sort out one of my formatting problems myself. The pagination had gone wrong - page numbers went from 228 to 230 which meant the odd and even page headers were also in the wrong places. So I deleted a page break and reinserted it and it worked! Rather like turning the computer off at the wall. In fact Jan did something similar on another manuscript where the margins had gone wrong - she deleted a blank page then reinserted it. So I am learning - but slowly.
I should be able to do everything myself for book number five - unfortunately I have been so busy with formatting issues I have had no time to write but all over soon, fingers crossed :)
Till next time :)
We had a great day yesterday. Went to church early - it was Advent Sunday so Christmas is just around the corner.
It was very hot so when we came home I fought with formatting my books for a few hours. Fortunately in the middle of my despair (tearing my hair out over the stupid things my computer does - nothing to do with me of course!) I got an email from Jan, the lovely computer teacher my friend recommended. She said she could see me on Monday afternoon. Made me feel much better knowing that if I couldn't sort it out at least she could.
Then off to Kirstenbosch for one of the first of the new season's sunset concerts. The world renowned Kirstenbosch with the back of Table Mountain as a backdrop, and about 30 000 people picnicking, drinking local wines, and dancing to the music of Mango Groove, who have been one of South Africa's top groups since their first smash hit in 1989. And a well deserved reputation too - their music is a mixture of rock, jazz and local rhythms - just fantastic. Such an amazing atmosphere too!
When we got home I found we had to turn the TV up - literally deafened by the music. But a great evening.
This morning, inspired by the thought that Jan was coming, I managed to sort out one of my formatting problems myself. The pagination had gone wrong - page numbers went from 228 to 230 which meant the odd and even page headers were also in the wrong places. So I deleted a page break and reinserted it and it worked! Rather like turning the computer off at the wall. In fact Jan did something similar on another manuscript where the margins had gone wrong - she deleted a blank page then reinserted it. So I am learning - but slowly.
I should be able to do everything myself for book number five - unfortunately I have been so busy with formatting issues I have had no time to write but all over soon, fingers crossed :)
Till next time :)
Saturday 1 December 2012
baby boomer writer!
I have just discovered that I am a baby boomer writer! I didn't know that. I have started a new blog www.babyboomerfictionwriter.blogspot.com
So I might not post to this one so much.
I have my first novel, Pieces of a Puzzle on a free kindle promotion this weekend. I paid someone to advertise it on a varierty of websites and facebook pages, but very small response so far. I realsied that almost everyone else is promoting YA fantasy and horror - they aren't interested in my type of writing. So looking around I found I was a BB writer. Sounds like a song: I want to be a BB writer, no I actually think that was the Beatles and it was paperback writer. So I am now looking for ways to promote my books on websites for and by others who are also labelled baby boomers. Whatever happened to fiction or non fiction? Much simpler!
We have had gale force winds the last couple of days. My sister phoned yesterday and told me that she had heard on the radio that the SPCA were advising owners of dogs under 10kg (ours is about 4 and a half) not to take them out as they could get blown away! Fortunately for Phoebe she had already had two wlalks and was still around to tell the tale.
Till next time :)
www.amazon.com/author/jennygill
So I might not post to this one so much.
I have my first novel, Pieces of a Puzzle on a free kindle promotion this weekend. I paid someone to advertise it on a varierty of websites and facebook pages, but very small response so far. I realsied that almost everyone else is promoting YA fantasy and horror - they aren't interested in my type of writing. So looking around I found I was a BB writer. Sounds like a song: I want to be a BB writer, no I actually think that was the Beatles and it was paperback writer. So I am now looking for ways to promote my books on websites for and by others who are also labelled baby boomers. Whatever happened to fiction or non fiction? Much simpler!
We have had gale force winds the last couple of days. My sister phoned yesterday and told me that she had heard on the radio that the SPCA were advising owners of dogs under 10kg (ours is about 4 and a half) not to take them out as they could get blown away! Fortunately for Phoebe she had already had two wlalks and was still around to tell the tale.
Till next time :)
www.amazon.com/author/jennygill
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)