Determination

I am more than ever now determined to get Allie published mainstream and conventional. Why? The way I got Rosie published wasn't, and it has come back to haunt me time and again, and most recently this week. I had been guest blogging on the Scattered Authors' Society blog once a month and recently they decided to take a look at my publisher, I think because my blogs weren't deemed professional enough to go out to the wide reading public which incs libraries etc. They had a look and felt that the publisher was a vanity publisher. I replied saying they weren't, not quite. Because of this they feel that it isn't fair for the readers to have me on the schedule as I am not mainstream. It is such a disappointment but it is not the first time I have been said no to because of this. I do understand that they have standards. Now I am more than ever to be get Allie and all my other big book ideas published conventionally and mainstream. All I have to do is find an agent who likes my work. So far no luck. Had another rejection this week. Will be sending it out to a publisher whom I met at the retreat in May, which I will mention in the letter. There are other agents out there, and I have been looking in the Yearbook to see who might like my work and have published authros who have had books out similar to what I write. There are a few so will write to them. When I do get published mainstream, and I will, I will be back with all those who have said no to me. So watch this space...

June news

So what happened in June? Lots. At the start of the month I was in the latest issue of Writers' News (in the middle of Writing Magazine) all about my children's story success. Then I had a talk to a library coffee group in Pett's Wood about writing what you know and interests. The same day I picked up a copy of Best of British mag and saw that I had a letter in there so bought it and took it to show the coffee ladies. The talk went very well and they said it was interesting and I sold 2 copies of Rosie. Then a week or so later I got an email from the editor of magazine Your Healthy Living, a free mag from local health stores, to say that I had won prize 2. So my mum went shopping, popped into our local health store and got the magazine, and there was my letter. I got my prize a couple of weeks later of a set of Weleda natural toiletries. More added to my collection. I look forward to using them as this set is for sensitive skin.

This coming week is the 3rd birthday of the Scattered Author's Society blog - awfullybigblogadventure and they are holding an online literature festival for it and I am taking part. It starts on Saturday with different authors doing things every half hour be it blogging, contests, giveaways, videos. My blog appears at 7pm on Sunday so come and join us celebrate.

Mental Health appointment

Yesterday I had an appointment with a Mental Health team, in fact it was a social worker who assessed me, although she didn't introduce herself until a few minutes in to the interview and my mum had to ask her who she was. Anyway, I wasn't sure what it was going to be about and the social worker said that they only deal with mental health issues not Asperger's. She was going to talk about my generalised anxiety disorder which is a mental health issue. GAD is associated with Asperger's I have read. She talked about whether I wanted to go on medication for it and I said no, I wasn't that bad with it and I didn't want to become dependent on them. She then mentioned cognitive behavourial therapy (CBT) where you have a counsellor and over a number of sessions you explore how you feel and why you feel that way. Both my mum and I believe that this could be beneficial to me and we wait and see what happens about it. They said that either they can offer it to me or they can refer me back to Maudsley where I was diagnosed with Asperger's. It was also mentioned about whether I would get a social worker and the answer was probably not because I think it was down to how serious my problems were, and we also brought up benefits, again the answer was no, because of the amount of savings I have got. The social worker said that because of that they wouldn't even consider me. So unfair. One thing we did learn about this interview was that my GP referred me to them originally last year, they had a meeting and decided that because it was all about Asperger's then they weren't the right people for me so wrote back to my GP to refer me to Maudsley. We didn't know this and had thought at the time that nothing was happening because we hadn't heard anything.

On to Asperger's, the social worker phoned the Autistic Society for me to find out about their services and what Asperger's is classed as. She came back after a while and said that they are only a phone service but have walk-in advisory centre local to us and was going to put it in her report to me next week. She had found out though that Asperger's is a Pervasive Development Disorder, so now my mum tells people I have a PDD. It sounds more serious that way.

Now it is back to more waiting. We feel that the Mental Health team we saw won't be seeing me again and it will be all down to going to the Autistic Society for help and support. Financially there is another avenue that might be happening soon. Watch this space...