Where has this year gone? I can't believe it has almost been six months since I blogged. I swear someone has pressed fast forward on my life.
Millie and the American Wedding has been selling on Amazon, and selling well. I've been so pleased with it that I've stopped chasing the dream for now of getting a traditional publishing deal. I love getting reader feedback and tweeting with readers. So I'm going to publish my second book on Amazon 'Universally Challenged' pretty soon. It is just being line edited at the moment, so hopefully in the next couple of weeks I'll have a better idea of publication dates. I've just started to have the thumbs up from test readers so that is always great! I've also just finished the first draft of a novel I wrote in ten days. Which was intense but great. I'm blogging about that on Novelicious next week if you want to find out about that. The book is a bit different to my usual light hearted chick lit and is more romance focused. I'm going to send it for critique with the Romantic Novelists' Association to see what they think (as I'm a member of the new writer's scheme). And then I'm going to write the prequel for Millie and the American Wedding - which will be Millie and the American University. I can't wait I've missed Millie, Kristen and Rob and I'm going to start the story off where it all began. If you ever wanted the US college experience then you'll love it! So as you can see I'm a bit busy at the moment - but I'm loving every busy minute of it! x x
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Millie and the American Wedding is full of embarrassing things that happen to Millie whilst she’s a bridesmaid at Kristen’s wedding; accidental boob flashing, maxi dress malfunction and there’s an incident with melons.... So I thought what better way to mark the launch then share some embarrassing wedding stories.
My most embarrassing wedding moment involves me doing a walk of shame in my bridesmaid dress. Now before you get any ideas, the night itself had not been shameful. It was whilst I was a bridesmaid at an American Wedding. I’d gone out drinking after the wedding with some friends of the groom which had seemed like a great idea. That was until we got to the bar, full of normally dressed people, and then there is me in my long beautiful bridesmaid dress. The words stuck out like a sore thumb come to mind. When it came to the end of the night I was exhausted having been up since 5am the morning before, and I decided it was a better idea to crash at the house of one of the groomsmen – as it was close to the bar and my hotel was way across town. Now again, I know what you’re thinking an no – there were no notches added to my bed post. The next morning I realised I had to get back to my hotel, put back on my bridesmaid dress and cringed. How was I going to get back to my hotel room (where the rest of the wedding guests were staying) without being seen? The groomsmen looked at me at my bridesmaid dress and thought it an appropriate time to tell me that he didn’t have a car, and only had a motorbike. There was no way I was going to be able to get on a motorbike in my bridesmaid dress. Like a true gentlemen he then started phoning taxis. But for some reason no taxi firms were picking up the phone at 8am on a Sunday. He decided to phone the hotel to see what taxi company they suggested, and after they enquired how far away he was, they suggested they send the hotel shuttle to pick me up. Yes, the hotel shuttle usually used for airport guests etc. Twenty minutes later an old man arrives with an empty mini bus and he gives me one of those looks at me with the bridesmaid dress on, and then we share the next ten minutes in embarrassing conversation as I remark about the city’s architecture that I’d studied during a course at university. Some how I thought that might make up for him thinking I was a dirty little stop out. I don’t think it did. After what seemed like forever, the driver pulls up to my hotel and then I make a run for it across the lobby and in to the lift. And I thought I’d got away with it, until the lift doors opened and there on the other side was the groom’s parents and his ten year old sister and their friends. The two ten year old girls were excited to see me, the British accent had intrigued them all the previous day, they didn’t think anything odd about me being in the bridesmaid dress, after all they’d seen me dressed in nothing else. The look from the parents was a little different though as they hurried their children into the lift away from me. And I wanted the ground to open up and swallow me whole. And so that was it, my most shameful wedding incident. Well up until I did a reading at my friend’s wedding recently, after running late and having to change in an Iceland car park, left me with a very big pair of purple knickers on under the pale dress, but then that is another story.... So what is your embarrassing wedding story, come on everyone has got one! Wow, it has only been 2012 for 23 hours, but I can already feel that 2012 is going to be a great year for me! For starters, Millie and the American Wedding is about to be published as an ebook on Amazon. I have an amazing cover, thanks to Kirsty at Novelicious who designed it for me!
Take a look and tell me what you think. I'm currently in the final proof read edits and sorting out my marketing plan for the launch. I'll keep you posted on all the developments. Jane Fallon – The Ugly Sister – Blogger’s Drinks
Jane Fallon doesn’t do big book launches, shying away from big speeches she prefers to celebrate her books being published with a lunch with her publishing team. But luckily for us Jane and the team at Penguin decided to celebrate the publication of the Ugly Sister by inviting book bloggers who love chick lit to the very exclusive Club at the Ivy. Following the footsteps of the main characters who go to the Club in the book, we headed to the Loft Bar at the private members club for Champagne and Canapes. Jane was a brilliant hostess, taking the time to talk to all the bloggers. Despite probably not being a stranger to big glitzy parties having had a very successful career in television before coming an author and being the long term partner of Ricky Gervais, she was extremely down to earth and just really nice. Instead of being handbags at dawn with all the book bloggers in close proximity, it was a great opportunity to meet the virtual strangers that we tweet with on a regular basis. It was an amazing night, especially as everyone in the room had a massive common interest in chick lit– so thanks to Jane and the team at Penguin for organising it! Well you might have wondered if I'd fallen off the edge of the planet as it has been so long since I last blogged. But fear not I'm alive and well and still writing.
The reason for my radio silence, is just that I write my weekly blog on Novelicious and then occassionally on Love a Happy Ending - and I don't want to keep repeating myself - or you will all get sick of me. But I'm still no further forward with being published. I'm working on what I think is a great idea for a novel, slightly different tack to my other novels - so keep your fingers crossed. I'm also about to get married, so a lot of my writing time has been stolen away making table centres and seating plans etc, but I'm so excited about the day, and I know I'll have plenty of time to write on those dark, cold winter evenings. I'm getting really excited as I'm about to come to the end of my podcast novel 'An American Wedding'. I've been writing it every other week since April, and I can't wait to finish it.
It will be nice as I'll get some time to properly do some new writing as it is so disruptive to keep having to write a few thousand words of my WIP then have to shelve it for a week while I write and record my podcast. I've had some good feedback on it so far. It's been funny when friends of friends have come up to me and told me they're following the podcast. I try not to think about who listens to it when I'm doing it as I'd get too nervous. I've also written my first ramblings of a sporting widow for ages. I'm going to get back into that now that I have time as I when I won't have American Wedding sucking up my time. So a few weeks ago for my Novelicious post, I talked about short story competitions, and how I was forcing myself to write more.
I've started trying, you can read one of my extra short stories over at Chick Lit Shorties and even vote for me if you want, mine is no 28! There are also two short story competitions that I have entered whose results get published in the next week or two. It is really nerve wracking as I have no idea how I would measure up against other short stories. What was a really good read was a blog post by Rowan Coleman, whose short story competition I entered. She talked about what it was like being the judge of a competiton, rather than an entrant. I'm not expecting to win the first competitions I've entered, but I'm actually really intrigued to read the winning stories. And in other news apart from short stories, I'm back onto writing my new novel, and I'm 20,000 words in whoop, whoop, which is a 1/4 of the way through my rough draft. I've also updated my website with a bit of a fresher look, let me know whether you like it or not! Anyway, must get back to the writing, and if be some pure fluke i got somewhere with the competitions, I'm sure you'd be the first to know! x Novelicious is taking a 6 week break over the summer, so whilst my 'Secret Dreamworld of an Aspiring Author' is on a break, I thought I'd update my blog.
Well this week has been a busy one. I read on twitter or on a blog recently that in order to be a good writer you need to read, read and read more. I'm a real believer in that, so I make sure that when I'm not writing, or podcasting, I'm reading. I'm quite lucky as I get to review books for the Chicklitclub, which is another great chick lit website. This week I've managed to read and file reviews for two books, My Soviet Kitchen by Amy Spurling and Greek: Double Date by Marsha Warner. This week I'm reading Turning the Tide by Christine Stovell, and it is fab so far. I also decided that I needed to focus on my new writing projects as well as American Wedding. I started a novel which I have been thinking about for about 4 months, without any time to devote to it. I managed to write just shy of 10,000. I'm not saying they're the best 10,000 words, but they're a starting point. I'm planning to have a draft out in 16 weeks time. I'm hoping to write 10,000 words, which is about 3 chapters every two weeks. This means I'm putting myself a bit more under pressure with American Wedding. I used write a chapter (around 3.5k words) one week, then record and edit the next week. Now I'm going to write, record and edit American Wedding in one week, to give me time for my new project the next week. Hmm - how long it will last I don't know. But wish me luck, and who knows in 4 months time, I could have another novel under my belt. Well I officially am busier than ever. If I’m not writing or podcasting, then I’m twittering, writing columns or reading books for review. For those of you that haven’t seen, I now have a weekly column on the chick lit website Novelicious. I’m ridiculously excited about it. I used to read their previous columnist Emily Tootsweet every week and enjoyed reading it. I thought it was a brilliant view point on the website as it was nice to hear what other writers go through. Hopefully people will enjoy reading the column as much as I used to enjoy reading Emily’s.
I’m also reviewing books for the chick lit club, which I’ve been doing for about 4 months now. It’s great as it keeps me reading. I read some top tips from Gemma Burgess earlier in the week which said how much as a writer you needed to read. It seems to be really true. Analysing what works and what doesn’t is really useful when writing your own stuff. My biggest problem with the site is that I read other peoples reviews and then end up reading the books they’ve recommended which means more reading. Good job I love, love, love chick lit! And in other news I’ve also planned most of my wedding. I’m quite an annoying super organised person. So venue and church are booked. Wedding dress and invitations purchased. All I need to do now is wait for 13 months for the wedding to come round. Seems like ages away, but let’s hope it flies by. The funny thing is, is that 13 months ago I wasn’t writing. I hadn’t even thought about writing a book at all. It’s amazing how far things have come in the last year. Fingers crossed lots more continues to happen in the next one x I can't believe I haven't blogged for a couple of months as everything seems to have been a bit hectic.
I have to admit writing and podcasting An American Wedding is pretty time consuming. I've set myself deadlines of writing, podcasting and posting every two weeks. Which would be fine if I didn't work full time and have quite a busy social life. Although I have cut back on trips to the pub and my wine consumption has gone down dramatically. I have got 125 subscribers to An American Wedding so far, which having been up for a month I think is pretty good going. Don't forget to tell your friends all about it too. It did take 3 weeks for me to post the last episode though as my fiance and I went to Barbados to watch the cricket which was totally fab. Which takes me to the subject of another blog I'm writing, ramblings of a sports widow. Other than that nothing exciting to write. I haven't subbed Thailand Fling for a while. I need to do some more editing, then I'll try again in June. |
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