good news and bad news

The good news: I’ve just finished Taranor, my first novel!  It’s a Faerie fantasy story cowritten with my good friend John Raybould.  When we’ve edited and polished it until it’s shiny and perfect, we’ll send it to a publisher.

We’re trying to decide whether paper publishing or e- publishing is best for us.  More research is needed.  As far as I understand it, a paper publisher will do a lot of the marketing for you but you get a smaller percentage, with e- publishing you have to do all the work but you get around 70% of the price of the book. 

I think my preferred choice would be a paper publisher who also does e-publishing.  I’ve got no marketing experience, and my limited physical abilities mean that I can't do talks at libraries, travel the country telling people how wonderful this book is and spend hours on the internet, running websites and multiple blogs.

Taranor 

for YA to adult

Bryony, an insecure teenage Faerie girl with anger management problems, sets out on a quest to rescue her childhood friend, Sheean, a nice but dim Faerie lad, who is being held captive in the human realm by witchcraft and thick castle walls. Once he reaches the age of eighteen an evil King hopes to drink the boy’s blood to obtain immortality.  Bryony goes to live among mortals, aging as fast as they do, while keeping her true identity hidden. She is ill equipped for the job. She is young, high maintenance, has no fear of risk and her temper threatens her safety at every turn.

The bad news: three weeks ago I was travelling home with friends from a writing group when an idiot in a car undercut us on the left (illegal in England) and forced us into an emergency stop.  There was something on the news a little while ago about people doing this.  The idea is to irritate the driver, to create a scene, and then to stop suddenly, making the innocent party slam into the back of the perpetrator who then claims insurance.

I'm still in a really bad way. Some days I feel as though I'm recovering, but then other days I can hardly move and even lifting a cup of tea is painful.  I just wish people would think about the consequences of their actions.  For some, a mild bumper dent gives them neck ache for a day.  For me, simply braking hard creates pain for weeks, if not months… if not years.  I was beginning to improve from my last setback three years ago, but now I feel right back to square one.

I'm trying to stay positive about this, but of course my meditation experiment is hardly relevant right now.  Or then again, maybe it still is.  Every day I lie down for 30 to 45 minutes and practise staying in the present moment, simply breathing. Even though my thoughts intrude a lot, I still find it very relaxing. 

Ignorant people and pain will not be enough to stop me achieving my goal.

One day I will go into a bookshop and see my own words in print. Or on someone’s kindle : )

Peace…