Ladies and gentleman...the Rolling Stones!

Evening gang,

For fifty years the world's greatest rock and roll band has been announced using the title of this post. I was watching a bit of their latest effort, the concerts they did in Hyde Park in the summer, following their triumph at Glastonbury, and after all the build up, the music, the lights, everything stops. And then...Ladies and gentleman...

Then Keith Richards appears, batters a riff and away they go.

In essence what I'm talking about here is legacy. Theirs is set. Millions of albums sold, some of the most famous songs ever written, still touring even though they should be well past being able. People will know their name a lifetime from now. People will still listen to their songs. As they will with The Beatles, Elvis etc. Just as people will still read Shakespeare, Bronte and, maybe, JK Rowling.

I'd quite like that to happen to me. That's one of the reasons I write books. I want to leave evidence that I existed. When I'm dead I like the idea that around the world people (the number yet to be determined) will have read my books and my name will be on their book shelf whether that be digital or wooden.

With that in mind I've become somewhat energised these last couple of days. I think rationalising my job issues has helped. I get paid a lot at the moment, it allows me freedom to do certain things. I even quite enjoy the job. But it's a false position, and it won't last. I've been thinking too much about what might happen afterwards and it's been getting in the way of the important stuff. Writing!

As such, with 11 short weeks to go on my contract I've decided it simply doesn't matter. My wife is in a similar position. A job has come up which, if she applies, she will likely get. The pay is pretty vast. I would only need to work part time at best and we'd still be well off. But she's not applying. Doesn't fancy the job, or the hassle and we don't need the money. So sod it! I'd rather be happy than fretting. If a job comes up in the next 11 weeks, great. If not, I'll go back to my old job, take a pay cut and spend my days writing books while keeping half an eye on the staff to make sure nothing's on fire.

So, editing on the final draft of the Jazz Café sequel is progressing well. But slowly. However, and here's the exciting bit, I have also started - last night in fact - reworking my third ever novel. I wrote it back in 2003. It's called Fear and was very, very nearly published by Transworld. Regular readers will know this because I've talked about my flirtations with big time publication before on this blog.

How did this happen? I started reading Doctor Sleep, the new Stephen King novel. On the first page he refers to FEAR in the following terms - Fuck Everything and Run. That made me think of my 2003 novel because every chapter was an acronym of the word fear, which was a challenge in itself.

So, I made a few notes last night (it may have been 3AM) and tonight I started to read the book. I've already added my notes from last night to the book and it's looking good. The plan is to edit a few pages then publish them right here on the blog, as well as to my Wattpad account which is sorely underused. Then, once complete, I'll publish the finished book in the usual way for purchase.

It's wildly exciting, to the point where I really could stay up all night doing this and happily not go to work tomorrow. Chances are I'll stay up anyway and drag myself through tomorrow. Ho hum.

In other news I've submitted my tax info to Amazon so they don't remove all my books from sale next week. I have also, finally, submitted my entry to the Telegraph Crime Competition. The website is crap so I've emailed it to them and asked them to confirm they've got it. Closing date is next month some time if you fancy it. I've submitted 5000 words of the Jazz Café. Each entry has to have an international element of some sort. Mine is the global Jazz music which forms the soundtrack to the book. Will I win? Unlikely. But one has to at least try.

The big, non work, non book news is that I transferred the money for my house fees tonight, in excess of 8 grand in the click of a button. The proposed date for completion is this Wednesday which means I will be an official property investor/speculator. Plans are already afoot for Easter when we are aiming to buy another. Surprising how motivated I become when there's the chance to make money without going to work every day.

And that's it. Dog's huge, Liverpool are doing well and I'm already planning the wife's Christmas presents. Right, I'm off, I've got books to write.

How do you measure success?

Evening folks,

It's been a week since my last post which isn't like me. That's how busy I've been this week.

The day job has been a bit lively this week which is always frustrating but I should finally be leaving to begin my new role within the next two-three weeks. It can't come soon enough.

On the plus side I finished the read through of the manuscript and have done initial edits of more than sixty pages. The weekend plan is to plough on with it. Certainly the plot is good, better than I realised at the time and still very, very topical given that one of the main plot lines was featured on the news just this week. I'm being a bit cryptic but I'll start telling you all about it when it's ready to publish.

I've done less than expected, partly because of work but also because I went to see Crossfire Hurricane, the new Rolling Stones film, on Thursday evening. To be honest I didn't learn anything I didn't already know but the music was great. I also managed to get tickets for one of their upcoming shows at the O2 in London. Very expensive but we're very excited. The wife has never seen the Stones before so she has no idea what to expect.

I've just seen tonight that there was trouble at the Leeds - Sheffield Weds match. Fans chanting, fans on the pitch, goalkeeper punched. On the back of the Olympics the nation came together. It's taken football mere weeks to undo a lot of that with the racism rows and now this latest mess. In the 80's British clubs were banned from European competition for years because of fan trouble. So why not hit offenders, anywhere in the world, where is hurts? Fines don't work with the very rich. Stopping then participating hurts a lot.

But the title of this post is about success. Footballers are paid fortunes. Are they successful whether they win or lose? Does a higher salary make you more successful? I used to think so. What about having a happy marriage and healthy kids?

Hard to say. But lately I've come to believe that if you can wake up each day and do the thing you love then that must make you pretty successful. My goal, as you all know, is to be a successful writer. So how do I define that? Well, I used to want the massive advance, to be Stephen King etc.

Now that's changed. I want to sell enough books to make a living, so that I can get up each day and write more stories. Easy thing to say and write down, very hard to make it happen. But that's where ambition comes in. Success comes from drive, talent, ambition etc. You don't get anything in any field without trying and trying. Whether it's sport, music, writing. So I keep going, keep writing, squeezing in a bit of promo where I can and I'm grateful for every sale and every review. Each sale is a success. The trick now is to increase the success to achieve the goal.

Right, I'm going to have a late Friday night ale, a pizza and who knows what else.

Until next time, thanks for reading this blog, the traffic is pretty impressive. Hopefully I'll have more books for you enjoy very soon.

Jessica Ennis, Mo Farah, the long jump & crumpets

Evening all,

So then, Team GB won a few epic gold medals today. Jessica Ennis will get all the headlines and rightly so, she's the best at what she does and looks stunning. But hands up how many folk had heard of Greg Rutherford before tonight? And now he's the Long Jump Olympic champion. As for Mo Farah, he's been good enough for ages, he just needed the Olympics to come round so he could prove it.

The thing is, it was all so exciting before this. I spent all day glued to the 100m qualifying, Serena winning the tennis, the rowing, the cycling. Utterly immense. Then I realised it was almost tea time and all I'd eaten all day was two toasted crumpets and a cup of tea. That's what the Olympics does, it draws you in and takes over your life.

In an attempt to link this excitement to books in some round about way, I suppose Jess Ennis is the bestseller, the Peter James, the Stephen King, Dan Brown, the EL James. Meanwhile Greg Rutherford is...me, and all the other Indie Authors who quietly go about their business, waiting for their moment to shine and hit the big time.

Of course it's all about talent, but even more important is the support to get there. In which case go and buy my books so I can be Jessica Ennis. Failing that stick yourself in front of the tele and enjoy the greatest show on earth courtesy of Great Britain.

Latest Kindle Sales Report

Evening/Morning folks,

Since I'm off work I've reverted to type and am existing in the small hours of the morning. It suits me and I'm getting loads done and am far happier. I feel a tiny bit sorry for my colleagues as they will have to tolerate me failing to tolerate them when I go back to work next week following about two hours sleep.

Still, in more interesting news I have some sales reports to report!

Overall, in the 3 months I've been an indie publisher I have had 1800 copies of my books downloaded of which about 160 were paid sales (the rest being free promo copies). These figures don't take into account books which have been lent to people via Kindle but a quick glance at the report tells me that almost a 100 folk have borrowed my books off someone else who has a copy.

This means that about 1900 people have a copy of something I've written and that this has happened in about 90 days. Given that my promotional efforts have been sporadic at best and non-existent since the 21st of January, I'm pretty happy.

Of course this doesn't translate into much in terms of royalties (an Xbox game, 3 cases of lager, one third of a Hugo Boss shirt, a month's water bill) but that's not the point at this early stage. To all those people who have made the effort to download, and more importantly, actually bothered to read, something I have written, many thanks. There is much, much, more to come! In years to come you will be the annoying, but cool, people, who will be able to say, "I read his debut novel, it wasn't very good as I recall. I never imagined he'd be as big as Stephen King!"

Until next time.

Update on the progress of the novel

Ah there you are.

I've been fiddling around with the various settings within the blogger pages and have changed the layout a bit because it looked rubbish on the computers at work. I've also opted to allow adverts because I think it livens the page up and it seems I'm just that shallow. I've also added some links at the bottom of the page which, like the rest of this blog, will change and grow over time. The link to You Write On is worth a click for anyone with a desire to read the work of others and to post their own work. Essentially it's a peer review site and I've found it useful in shaping my work. The only downside is that you can only really post the opening chunk of a novel because if someone stumbles across an extract from the middle of your book it won't mean a thing to them. Still, if you fancy a search there's five chapters of my latest novel on there from earlier this year. The reviews were pretty good though I do say so myself.

The editing of the first draft of The 24 Hour Jazz Cafe is coming along at pace but in the mean time I'm aiming to add a new page to this blog over the weekend and include an extract of my first novel Playground Cool. It will be the same version that was so nearly published ten years ago so it will doubtless seem a bit dated and, from memory, it was a bit chick lit, but of course it was all the rage at the time. Still, it was good enough for an MA and the good people at the Sheil Land Agency loved it. According to their website Vivien Green still works there. She was my first - and only - agent and I will always appreciate her efforts. Anyway, if I figure out how to upload the pages I will.

Just as an aside I'm currently reading Entombed by Linda Fairstein and it's pretty good. Reminds me of Harlan Coben which is no bad thing. I need to crack on with it though because Ian Rankin and Stephen King both have new books out in the next few weeks. Needless to say, you can read all about these by following the handy links at the bottom of the page.

Until next time dear reader...