Where has my voice gone?

 There is one thing I do remember when I was in hospital two years ago, and I thought I had put it in my memoir, but it is not there - I lost my voice. I remember maybe it was a couple of days after I had been transferred from ICU to the High Dependency Unit, I went to talk to a nurse and nothing came out but a whisper. Why couldn't I speak? Where was my voice? I briefly wondered why I couldn't talk. I remember thinking the only way to get my voice back was to practice talking, which is what I did. Whenever I was alone, I would whisper hello to myself. After a day or two of doing this, I got my voice back and I could ask for help properly. Now knowing what happened to me after the surgery, I know why I lost my voice. I had been in intensive care in an induced coma for three days on a ventilator helping me breathe. With having that in my throat, and not being able to talk for at least a week, my throat must have dried up. That is the only time that I recall ever having lost my voice. I might have got close to it with a bad cold at one time, but not like that. If you have read my memoir, then you will know that I made up for the time I couldn't talk after that. Lol.

Find out what happened to me two years ago in my memoir out now either via my website, Amazon or The Book Dragon (in store or online). It is called 'Endocarditis - My Journey'. One journey I don't want to go through again. You can find it here https://www.amazon.co.uk/Endocarditis-My-Journey-Julie-Day-ebook/dp/B0B8VT2X1H

Why writing is my saviour

In my current world of anxiety issues, writing is my saviour. Why? There are a couple of reasons, and here I outline them.

1. While writing, I am concentrating on the world of my characters. So I am not thinking about me and my anxiety problems. Unless I happen to write about a character with anxiety and/or Asperger's. My current adult wip has an Aspie lady in it as the main character, but I have made her different from me. She is younger and braver than me.

2. If I didn't write, I wouldn't have books to publish and then sell. Having books to sell, means I can go out and sell them at markets and libraries. Yes, I do have to go out and cross roads, even if my mum has to come with me to the place, but I am still getting out. I do not want to become stuck in my own home with anxiety. I want to go out and meet people, talking about books.

I currently have put The Racing Angel and One Good Turn back into paperback (available from Amazon), so will have more books to sell for both adults and children.

Social Media Part 2

Here is Part 2 of what Talli Roland told the RNA London chapter about social media.

Amazon - Complete your Author Central page, everywhere. Even the foreign ones, which you can do in English. You can stream videos through the page, and link your blog etc to it. It is good for readership.
Bookbub can be expensive, esp if you write women's fiction. So choose another genre.

Have a newsletter. You can put the link to it in your next book.

Goodreads - Be v careful as an author, esp with reviews. Talli mentioned there had been a well-known chick-lit author who had put a scathing review of another chick-lit author. Not good. Someone said, it might have been Eve Farr, if you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything.

There are other sites you can use; Google+, Instagram (just photos and for a younger demo), Tumblr (microblog, quotes and photos), PInterest (70% women), Klout, which you can put on your followers, what topics you write about and find out what influence you get.

Website. Talli uses Networked blogs.
Youtube - can record book excerpts and blurbs. Stream the video via your Author Central page.

You get out of it what you put in. Awareness = sales. Think global. Be genuine. Have fun.

Inspiration behind 'A friend in need'.

I have just published on Amazon my latest adult romance ebook in the Geraldine's Gems series. It is book 6 called 'A Friend in Need'. There are two inspirations behind the idea of the book and why I put bullying and counselling in the book.

The idea of the story was for Faith, who is bullied and suffers abuse from her boyfriend, to find someone else who was the opposite and she falls for him. The idea for a bullying boyfriend came from both agony aunt letters in newspapers and an article in a girl's magazine about someone being bullied by her partner and how she got out of it. Faith has a bit of help from her late Aunt Geraldine, and a colleague, Jenny. In the book, Faith is a teacher but with encouragement from Jenny and Ben, whom she falls for, she decides a change of career and wants to become a counsellor. There is a scene where a pupil is locked in the outdoor girls' toilet and Faith helps her out. This scene was inspired by a true experience of mine when I was at primary school. Two girls, whom I thought were my friends, did lock me in the toilets, but they let me out in the end.

So, that was what inspired me to write the story idea and that particular scene.

'A friend in need' is available from Amazon UK at http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00T3ET0OG
Amazon US at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T3ET0OG

'The Leaping Angels' is now out

The fourth ebook in my 'Guardian Angels' series called 'The Leaping Angels' is now out on Smashwords, Amazon and Apple. It's yet to reach Kobo. Here are the links:

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/448507

Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00L123QJ8?*Version*=1&*entries*=0

Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id890824994

I couldn't believe how easy it was to upload the book to both Smashwords etc. Thought it would be hard, but no. Someone has already bought it from Amazon. There is one more ebook to come in the series. I have already come up with an idea on a side series from it. The idea came to me last night when I watched a programme about benefit tenants and housing agencies.

Meantime, I am working on the second mermaid story called  'The Vanity Quest'. I finished the first draft of it this morning.

A publishing experiment - KDP Select

When I first started my indie publishing career with 'The Railway Angel' I told myself the best way to reach as many readers as I wanted was to publish it across all the digital platforms as possible. I have been doing this ever since, but this year, when I get to publish 'The Snakeskin Boots' I am going to experiment.  I have been hearing good and bad things about KDP Select. So I decided I shall give it a try myself to see what all the fuss is about and if it works for me. I have a while yet before 'Boot's is ready to go because I have just got the second edits back from my editor and have lots of thinking and editing to do. Then I shall send it to her again for a final edit. I plan now to publish it early August.

When I publish it on Amazon, I shall blog here. Then after say a month, I shall blog with results of what is happening. I seem to earn more from Smashwords, but it looks as though I get more downloads on Amazon. We shall see. The rest of my ebooks I will continue to publish everywhere.

Watch this space...

Let me know if you have used KDP Select, and what results you got. I will categorise Boots as urban fantasy I think.

Look forward to what others have to say about it.