On with the next book

OK so thinking that a 1,000 word short story was going to take a month was a little overly self-indulgent. I made lots of notes (some of which will be used at a future date), made two false starts on the computer; then decided enough was enough. I took my notes and sent myself to the computer, where I spent the morning writing from the heart, after which I had my story. I printed it off and made corrections (which were strangely invisible on the screen, but obvious on paper). Yesterday I printed off my final entry, as well as a new entry form - (one of my cats had kindly signed the first one with a muddy pawprint), and posted it.

Now I'm working on my second doodle book, the story is written, but needs a little tweaking, and the illustrations need doing.

January

With Christmas over along with the pressure of trying to sell books at as many fairs and outlets as possible, it's been quite nice to get back to writing something new, with pen and paper. I've been working on a short story for a competition. It's a cat story, and my only problem is where to start. So I've made lots of notes about the antics of my feline friends, and now have to start funnelling some of it into a 1000 word story.

My deadline is the end of January, which will give me a month out on something completely different, before I get on with illustrating and preparing my next book for publication.

A target reached

I heard from one of my outlets yesterday, they'd sold 2 more Doodle books and helped me to reach my target of selling 100 Doodle Mayhem books before Christmas. I also sold 41 Moster books in the same three and a half month period.

December sales:
Doodle Mayhem 25
The Monster Under the Bed 18

The Barley Hall Experience

Barley Hall is a beautiful historic house hidden away off Stonegate in the centre of York, and I had hoped for a busy weekend at their Christmas event, however trade was very slow, and I think they must have been relying on people numbers to raise the temperature in the building, as I have never been so cold in my life whilst indoors as I was on Saturday. By lunchtime we were brought an unconvincing ‘heater’ which took about 3 hours to raise the temperature to the point that we could no longer see peoples’ breath!

It was a shame the event wasn’t better attended, as there were some very talented and interesting craft people there, selling textiles, pottery, leather goods, and even Christmas decorations made from dried chilli peppers, to name but a few. Some were doing demonstrations, and all were happy to explain to people the processes involved in making their product.

I was signing copies of my 2 children’s books: Doodle Mayhem and The Monster Under The Bed. The thing that struck me throughout the weekend was that everyone who looked at the two titles said “Ah …The Monster Under The Bed.” Which led me to wonder why they all said that title out loud rather than the much shorter, snappier title of Doodle Mayhem? I came to the conclusion that it was because everyone can relate to the idea of a monster under the bed, either from their own childhood memories, or from their children’s.

Some people shared their stories with me, and one young lady called her sister over and said: “You’ve got to read this… it’s about us.” Some parents view the title with slight suspicion and fear it might scare their child, but most are won over if they read to the end, and find the funny twist that shows the monster’s identity – and if you want to know what that is, you’ll have to buy the book, or find me at an event for a sneak preview.

So to sum up: It was a quiet event and very cold, but I did manage a small profit, and met some very interesting people, both customers and fellow traders. Some more of my books will now find their way into Christmas stockings and under Christmas trees, and hopefully I’ll have hooked a few more readers who will look out for my next book, a follow up to Doodle Mayhem which I hope to publish next summer/autumn.

Please feel free to leave comments on my blog so that I know I’m not talking into an abyss.