Where have you been?

Evening gang,

Remember me? It's been 2 months since I last posted anything to this blog. Time flies when you're busy as a bloke who is busy.

First off, I notice that this blog has now attracted well over 14,000 views, visits, call it what you will. For that I'm grateful as I am prone to ramble and, lately, vanish.

Since my last post the new football season has begun and Liverpool are finding life difficult without Suarez. Meanwhile Man Utd seem to be winning while being awful. Still, early days yet. In Brendan we trust. For now.

So, what have I been up to all this time? Well, plenty, but equally I've been consciously trying less hard, putting less pressure on myself to deliver. I've ticked most of the boxes I needed to for the year so I've eased off. My job's sorted i.e. permanent. A lot less cash, but nothing I can't work with. Plus there are currently quite a few jobs out there like mine and they all pay well. I've just applied for one actually so we'll see. But I'm easy either way.

The wife is also in the job market as part of her ongoing reinvention. I'm not ashamed to say I tend to treat her as a long term investment. Had a few crap months but you stick with it and then... well, let's just say I'm starting to reap the rewards and that she's progressing nicely.

We've bought another couple of houses as part of our fledgling buy to let business and next year should see that start to deliver real profits which should be exciting. Been bloody hard work though which I'll remind people when I'm an idle millionaire and they think I fell into my cash.

We've also been on our first break since we bought our dog - 18 months ago. Only to York, but it was excellent. I went big on the hotel, as you'd expect from me, and we spent enough in 48 hours to cover a long weekend abroad. But it was superb. Hopefully, now we know we can safely leave the dog, we can get back to our old ways of trekking about all over the place.

So, where does that leave the writing then? Well, on the back burner a bit. FEAR is still ongoing and should still be out this year. But I'm not going to rush it and have tweaked it several times. But, I have entered it in the northern crime competition just to show I'm making the effort. Also, I've just finished a free giveaway for The Trust. It was downloaded 3900 times over the weekend which is no bad thing. I also made half decent royalties last month too.

Quick story. The thing that prompted the giveaway was a review I received for The 24 Hour Jazz Café while in York. It was a scathing 1 star review which basically said the book was nothing but an excuse for violent sex and murder. Now, if they'd said that about The Trust I could kind of get it. But the Jazz Café is primarily about two mates running a jazz club who accidentally get drawn into a murky world. There is one scene in the whole book where a prostitute is violently abused and left for dead. The scene is telegraphed very obviously and, because it's a book, you are free to skip past any bits you don't like. Either way, that 1 star review had a hefty impact on the overall rating of the book which, until then, had only received 4 and 5 star feedback. I hope the clown who dismissed the jazz café grabbed a free copy of The Trust. It gets nasty from page 4 and goes downhill from there.

Rant over.

In other news, my fantasy author chum Frion Farrell has her new book out at the end of this week. Her debut was a winner so keep your eyes peeled if fantasy is your bag.

Finally, we had the house decorated while we were in York. Ace to come home and find it done. We had a surveyor booked to come the same afternoon which didn't hurt. Long story short, they valued the house 40 grand over what we paid for it 5 years ago. Means nothing in terms of selling it, but means lots in terms of taking equity from it to buy houses. A very good day indeed and a wicked investment.

Right, that's it for now. I'll try to make more effort but there's lots going on. All my books still available, if you're classy buy the paperback.

Are you brave enough to jump off the treadmill?

Morning gang,

Bit grumpy this morning since the dog woke me up barking like he'd been stabbed at half 9. I get up early all week for bloody work so I value Saturday's to simply slump in bed, stewing until lunch when I get up and slump on the couch watching football until bed time. I know, I know, I'm 37 and I should get a grip. Bottom line is, I don't want to get a grip, I want to stay in bed.

An online friend of mine, Stuart Ayris, has recently made the decision to back himself as a writer, reducing his hours etc. He has also registered himself as self employed as a writer and is hoping to make a real go of it i.e. make money from books.

It's something I think about each and every day and I'm in a better position than most to do it. Wife has a great job, my family has a few quid should I fail, we've no kids etc. Yet I've got to 37 and still work full time, quietly moaning away that I'd rather be writing. Not sure what's stopping me. Fear of failure most likely. Fear that I won't get a decent job, or any job, if I have to go back to work later. Fear that my books aren't actually good enough when I remove the excuse of working full time as a reason for why I can't spend more time polishing them.

So, for now, nothing changes. What will make the decision easier is to consistently make money. I reckon if I could make a minimum of £1000/month from book sales I could work part time. I'd have to adapt the lifestyle a little but I could manage on about £2000/month as long as the wife was working. Last month I made £350 from book sales. Not bad? But clearly not enough. In real terms that £350 covered my half of the mortgagee for the house we live in. Which still left bills, taxes, car payments, groceries, mortgagee on second property etc etc etc. So I'm as far away as Arsenal are from winning the league! Ha.

So instead of moping I'm going to try a bit harder. Right now, RIGHT THIS MINUTE by new book Ballroom, Bars and Seawater Baths is free on Kindle. So stop reading this and get to Amazon and grab a copy. Read it, review it, buy more of my books. It's time to build momentum.

Also, MORE PROMO OFFERS, the first book in the series The 24 Hour Jazz Café, is just $0.99/77p this weekend and will be listed via Book Gorilla today. So if you subscribe to them, grab your copy of my book today!!!

In other news, the dog's ear is fine. Cone is off, stitches still to dissolve but essentially he's okay. New cars are lovely. Wife is thrilled with hers. I'm well pleased with mine, really like the interior and the wealth of features. No handbrake is hard to get used to, as is the adaptive cruise control. I'm used to driving the car myself, not trusting the vehicle to do everything itself. Still, it's got a cracking stereo so I can always sit back and listen to music while it drives me about.

And finally to Liverpool. I've thought about little else all week. Another must win game tomorrow at West Ham and we stay top. 24 years folks. It's big stuff and if it happens I'm man enough to admit there might well be tears shed. Brendan has made us all believe. Now he just has to drag all of us, the team, the city, the global fanbase, over the finish line all by himself. If he does it, I suspect they'll talk about him like they talk about Shankly.

Are you big in Germany?

Evening,

Another quick phone based update. My free giveaway for The Trust is almost over. I'll post a final tally later but it looks like the book will have been downloaded close to 4000 times since Monday. Not bad.

It peaked at number 3 in America. It's been number 1 here in the UK since yesterday and, surprisingly, it is also number 1 in Germany!

Obviously I'm pleased. It has already led to a kick in sales but what I'm after is reviews. If just 1% make the effort that 40 reviews of the book. Fingers crossed and thanks to everyone who grabbed a copy.

Finally, the new paperback version of Ballroom, Bars and Seawater Baths is out now and looks superb. It's about 7 quid to buy in the UK but we'll worth it if you don't do digital.

Night.

Do you want one of my books for free?

Good, well now you can.

While my Jazz Café promo is ongoing, I have also decided to do a separate free promo for one of my other books. The Trust is a crime thriller set in the UK around the National Health Service. The good bit is that it's based on real events. The serial killer was a particularly nasty American fellow. The asylum scenes are taken from news reports, as are the bits about government testing and the bodies they found later. All I did was create characters to tell that story.

Worth a look for free? I think so. If you do get a copy a review would be great as they're hard to come by. Just dash over to Amazon before Wednesday 17th. So far today over 500 people already have a copy. People from all over the globe including Germany, France, Canada and Australia, as well as the UK and US. Silly to miss out, go grab a copy.

So far The Trust is hovering nicely near the top of the most downloaded books charts on amazon.com and amazon.co.uk as you can see from these screenshots. Be nice if they hovered a little higher.