Writing a blurb

How can writing a blurb be so hard...?

The book's written, the illustrations formatted, even the cover is finished, but then there's the blurb to write - to distill the essence of the book down into just a short piece of text that will fit onto the back cover - this is the point when you wonder why you didn't make the book bigger, if only to fit a bigger blurb on - but no, that's defeatism, time to be brutal - extreme editing required, every word has to count.

And so watch this space - the blurb will be here soon, once I've bashed it into shape a little bit more...

Lost in a Book, knitted sheep and book signings...

Well on Friday I got totally lost in a book, and all mundane jobs and worries went out of my head, in favour of editing ready to  get a print quote for my next book. There are a lot of photos despite my best efforts to edit some out, so I think I'll be taking a deep breath before opening the quote, and hope I don't have to edit out any more.

Meanwhile... sheep production is back in full swing to promote But I'm Not Sleepy at my Christmas book signings - the next one is in the beautiful Tithe Barn in Nether Poppleton near York on Saturday 7th Dec 10am - 4.30pm There'll be one free knitted sheep with every purchase of But I'm Not Sleepy, while stocks last.

Multi tasking

So... what have I done today?

Well...

I've knitted a sheep - this is becoming quite a habit... the flock is now 8 strong and growing.

I've done some editing for my new book - just a few more corrections to do and then I think I'm done :)

I've received an email to say that my reprint of Lost in the Christmas Post will be ready in time for my Christmas fairs - this is great news as my stocks were getting very low.

Editing... it should be a quiet activity... but not with a house full of furry hooligans...

I had a quiet morning planned, sat on the sofa editing my manuscript... but the stars of my story - a house full of cats had other ideas. They say never work with children or animals - well what about when your animal has children...?

So, there I was reading through my story about the antics of a litter of kittens, while the cats they grew into start a running battle around the house. I blame the weather, not just because it's a very British thing to do, but because if the weather hadn't been cold, wet and windy, then the cats would have run all their energies off in the garden, and not around the house.

In the end several doors were closed, thus separating cats who just wanted a nap, from the ones who wanted to pick a fight. The situation was defused, and I managed to get some work done, shut in the sitting room with Bumble who just wanted a nap.  zzz

Writing, editing and following dreams

True to my plan I did make a start on editing my manuscript, OK so it was in the afternoon and not the morning, but I did make good use of my morning too... I had a play on adobe and managed to trick it into doing what I wanted! Here is the result:

 Check out Lost in a Book on facebook and share if you're following your dreams and putting your product out there.

Trying to fit some writing into my writer's day...

Well I made it to a computer by 10am this morning, this is progress...

The cars seem to be behaving themselves, well one of them went away for a min break at the local garage this week, so it should be rested up and ready for some trouble free driving...

The cats have all gone to sleep - how many cats I here you saying, well that's all going to be revealed in my new book if I ever stop thinking of more things I simply can't miss out, and declare it finished. But only this morning I found a chapter that just had to have some more detail added about how one of the cats got involved in some home decorating...

But when is a book finished...? and when should the promotion start? it's enough to make my head spin...