Railway Angel download results

Do you remember back in December that I mentioned I'd put Railway Angel as free on Smashwords and I said I'd be back to let you know the results. Well, they have been fantastic. I announced it on social media sites and on eforums. The number of downloads went double in 24 hours. They were slowly growing until yesterday. I have tried not to check them daily but can't resist. On Monday when I checked it had gone up to 36. Not a bad result, I thought. Then I checked them yesterday and my eyes goggled. 172. Where had that come from? I wasn't complaining just totally astounded. I had emailed free ebook sites asking to advertise it there, and I had put a free ad on an efiction magazine site. By the end of yesterday it had gone up even more to 196. Now today. It has gone up even more. Wow. It is now up to 282. Even going up 5 more within an hour. I am so amazed at this. Never thought this would happen. I just hope that all those who read it now, will like it enough to want to read more of my angels, and be willing to pay a price when the next one comes out. I am currently working on it, and hope to get edits and rewrites done by next week when I aim to send it off for its second edit.

Well, this free way experiment seems to be definitely working for me. I shall still check, prob daily, the figures on it. I checked the stats as well. They spiked on Monday and today. It feels so good to have people want to read your work. Makes it all worthwhile doing. I shall continue...

It's signed

In my last post I mentioned that I was due to get a contract for a series of 6 romances estories. Well, that came last week, I have signed it and sent it back to the epublisher. I am so excited. I have been working really hard on the first story the last 2 weeks. I think maybe too hard, as I started to get a sharp twinge up my right arm, my working arm, each time I wrote. And then just a while ago, after writing for half an hour, my wrist began hurting. So I decided to have a break and come on here. I am nearly at the end of the story now, and will write more of it tomorrow. I had a break yesterday from writing cos I wasn't well. I was tired and then after lunch, I got stomach pains. I had some French goat's cheese, which I've not had before, and I won't be having again. Anyway, I have an idea how the story is going to end, as I have written a sentence explaining what will happen to get Geraldine's ex lover back with her and his more happy self. This past week, after mentioning the contract on all social media sites, I have been glowing in congratulations from everyone I know that have messaged me. And a few I might not know, and are following this blog. Yay. I am getting a following. I think it's all down to being on WG2E.

Meantime, I got my first edits back today for Racing Angel. Oh dear. Have a lot of thinking and a lot more rewriting to do on it. I need to think about my paranormal world of heaven, and who is there and who isn't. I think I might change what the girl rides and add more teenangels to make it more plausible. I will get back to it once I have finished the first draft of Geraldine. Should be next week.

My goals for 2012

I have not got resolutions this year but goals. Short and long-term ones. The short-term ones are weekly and monthly, and long term is for the year. I have taken advice from the WG2E site again and have got a pad and put in two columns. One for goals and the other for done. When I have completed one goal then I tick it. Short-term goals are something like 'do 2-3 chapters of Georgina', and long-term goals are concentrate more on my indie career and attract more readers. I'm coming up to the end of week 1 of short-term goals and have done one so far - the chapters on Georgina. I did have to do next week writing about garden birds for Creature Features, but that has now changed to 'first draft of Geraldine story'. I think the monthly goal will be to finish it and try to get it sent to the editor of the publisher, my friend Eve.
My other main goals are to increase my output and write in different genres. I am currently writing for teens (my angel stories), and have plans for two romance series (one of which is with Eve). The other one I hope to start work on later, maybe next month, to enhance my indie career and attract more readers, esp adults, whom I know are the main people with Kindles and other ereaders. Eve likes the outline of the series I have sent her and is currently writing up a contract for me for these. I hope to get this sometime next week. Hurrah. So excited. 2012 is going to be the year my writing, and hopefully, my indie career will take off properly. Watch this space...

My 2011

So what happened to me writing and health wise in 2011? Here is my story.

Writing: I had published several letters in magazines. I sold 3 copies in all of Rosie (one at Save Library Day and 2 at another library event). I did a book reading at the Save Library Day. I did another event talking about writing what you know for magazines. I discovered Writers' Guide to Epublishing website and made lots of online friends, and put my name down to be involved in writing stories for their anthologies in 2013. After reading their site and columns by the Grumpy Bookman in Writing Magazine, I decided to start self-epubbing my own works. This turned out be The Railway Angel, the first in a series of teen angels. I am currently working on the second one. I have had a romance story accepted by a new digital publisher run by a friend and fellow romance author. The first in a series to start this spring. And lastly I made a connection with a local man who organises storytelling for a local library and its events, and might be involved with that this year. So will be shortly working on little ones, middle-grade, teen, and adult msss.

Health: 2011 was the year for being diagnosed. In the March I was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, which came as a relief to both my mum and me. Mum cos she had thought there was something not quite right with me and me cos it explained how I was at work with people, esp the students. Then in August I was also diagnosed with Mayer-Rokitansky syndrome. It is something that happens with a gene within 5 weeks of being conceived and the gene causes organs and tissues not develop properly if at all. It amazed us as it explains all the major health issues that I have, and we didn't realise they could be connected. Now we know. With all this knowledge I then decided to stop looking for a job as I felt that no one would understand me and my problems. I decided to apply for early retirement due to ill health. This is still ongoing (begun in September 2011) and causing me great anxiety. We shall see what happens but I am not giving up without a fight. My writing is giving me strength as I build up my indie author writing.