What I am publishing this year

 Happy new year. It is a new year so there will be new books to publish this year. Here is what I have planned.

I was planning to publish the fourth Sammi picture book early this year but due to financial reasons I am going to have to wait until I build up funds from writing profits to be able to do so. It might be later this year or even next year. I do want to publish this last picture book. The rest of the Sammi stories I have in mind will be put into a collection of stories with a working title of 'Sammi and Best Friends'. I already have written and typed up the first one.

The first definite publication will be Fran's story called 'Fran and the Canine Chase'. This is book 4 in The Pet Rescuers series and is a bit different to the others. Fran is non speaking autistic and communicates with her hands and her device, which she needs to use when her assistance dog is stolen. It has been edited. All I need to do now is put in the ISBN and send it to my cover designer next month when she is free.

The other book I do plan to publish later this year is the first cozy mystery in the Anna Travers Mysteries. It is called 'The Blackmail Bombshell' where Anna discovers a letter blackmailing her late mother when she starts unpacking from inheriting her mum's house. Not only does she discover the letter but the spirit of her late mother, who goes on to help her solve the mystery. This story will only be available as an ebook to start with due to financial reasons.

If you have seen or read any of my other adult ebooks then you know that I like writing stories with helpful ghosts in. If you haven't seen them, then the first series was Geraldine's Gems and featured Geraldine who went to heaven but had to earn her place there. That book is called One Good Turn and is available here https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0090HBZ62

I have also renamed my writing workshop and it is called Story Magic. I have been pitching it to libraries and schools so far. If you know any budding storytellers, then this is for them. It involves creating a story or first chapter of a book using a story prompt that comes from one of my books plus two picture prompts including a magical one.

If you are an author, what are you planning to publish this year?

Do I believe in angels or the afterlife?

Do I believe in ghosts and/or the afterlife? I don't know, to be honest. I would have said no before, but there must be something inside me that does sort of belief in some thing because I have written YA ebooks about teenage guardian angel (The Guardian Angels series), the Geraldine's Gems series about a lady who returns to help her living relatives and there are ghosts that appear in the Singleton series. And now there is this new series of short stories about ghosts helping families in crisis. 'The Family Helpers' due to be out soon. So, I will leave you to work that one out.

I have also written and had published a short story in the magazine Spirit & Destiny about a robin who is clumsy and could be an animal protector. I had read the magazine for a while to see what they like to publish and what their readers are interested in. It is all about angels, afterlife and crystals etc.

So, maybe there is an inkling of the idea that I do believe in some way of angels and the afterlife. 

2017 goals and how they went

I can't believe it's been two months since I wrote here. Probably because come November things went awry at home again when my mum had another bad fall and ended up with sciatica. Anyway, I am back to talk about how my writing goals went this year.

I published the last of my Geraldine's Gems ebooks called 'Birds Flock Together'. It is available on all digital platforms.

I published Charlie in print. It is available here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Charlie-Captivating-Cap-Rainbow-School/dp/1548727415/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1514640587&sr=8-1&keywords=Charlie+and+the+captivating+cap

I did hope to publish Susie but I got feedback from an editor in May which I had to work on, and at that time I was writing Qessa's story.

I wrote Qessa and Alistair's stories.

My other main goal was to have a short story accepted and published by a women's magazine. I did, by You (SA). It is based in South Africa so I haven't got to see it in print.

I did have a couple of letters published in magazines, which made up for it, esp the last one which gave me a prize of a natural beauty set worth £120.

Next year's goals will be slightly different. I will explain why next week.

Birds Flock Together is now available

A quick post to let everyone know, I have finally got round to publishing 'Birds Flock Together' the final ebook in the Geraldine's Gems series. It is adult magical realism about a woman who has died and gets the chance to go back to Earth to help her family get their lives back on track. Will she succeed in her last mission and earn her rightful place in Heaven? You can find out as it is available at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Birds-Flock-Together-Geraldines-Gems-ebook/dp/B072BDK557/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493640995&sr=8-1&keywords=Birds+Flock+Together

I had fun writing this series, and hope readers have enjoyed it too.

My writing priorities have changed

Over the last month or so my writing priorities have changed. How? Well, I had wanted to write both adult and children's fiction, but I now want to mainly concentrate on writing for children. I still am going to write short stories for womags; that is my second priority, but as for adult fiction? I will continue and complete the 2 ebook series' I have been writing ie Geraldine's Gems and Singleton. I will also write pocket novels, but probably only once a year. I will write them in between the children's books I have planned, and they are many. So, how has it changed for me? I have been helping a new author edit and write his own picture books for children, and have been enjoying it immensely, coming up with ideas for him to work on. Helping him has made me realise that I enjoy writing for children more than adults. He has found this too. I think we both find writing for children much easier than writing adult fiction.

So, here is my current writing plan.

1. Finish the pocket novel I am revising. Near the end. It is now 48K. 2K to go. When I finish that, I shall send it to my editor.
2. Whilst that it being edited, I shall start plotting the third and final mermaid story. I am looking forward to that.
3. When I have written and published that, I shall start reading and revising 'Boring Billy'. Get that edited and publish it myself.
4. Then I shall write and publish the last of Geraldine's Gems.
5. Back to writing for children. Read through Charlie, get it edited and published.
6. During the retreat in May I plan to start writing the next Asperkids ebook which will be about Susie who has a heart problem but can work wonders with her fingers and making tapestries. (Based on me).

I think that is enough for getting on with for now, don't you? Now that I want to specialise in writing for children, that is where my niche lays and I want to help new children's authors feel the way I do about writing that genre. So, my author service has changed too.