Am I brave enough to write full time?

Evening folks,

Let me open by saying I am shattered. I've dragged myself through the last few days and the writing output has suffered a little. I didn't write anything yesterday. That was the first time in weeks, maybe even months that this has been the case and I was thoroughly frustrated by it. Today I'm more tired than yesterday but I have made myself write about 700 words and may do a little more. I am also writing this post.

There is light at the end of the tunnel however. For a start tomorrow is my last day at work before I have 2 weeks off on holiday and it cannot come soon enough. Hopefully I will finish the book while I am off.

This leads me to the question, am I brave enough to jack it all in and back myself to write books full time? If it were just me then the answer is probably yes. But I find myself in the position of having a superb wife, house and rather comfy lifestyle which I am not mad keen to lose. So what to do?

Well, I have just got another job which will, in theory, allow me more time to write. Also, it's only a 12 month contract so there is a possibilty I can work for another year, save as much as possible from the new job and then get a healthy redundancy package on top. This would allow me the freedom to do pretty much nothing but write for a year without worrying about the bills.

In other news Carole Blake of Blake Friedmann has accepted my friend request on Facebook. Good news. She still hasn't got round to rejecting my submission either so fingers crossed.

Also, The 24 Hour Jazz Cafe is selling really well this month in the UK and sales overall are great so far this month here. If my US chums could be persuaded to buy a few copies that would be marvellous.

Finally, a lady at the local hospice asked for a signed copy of the jazz cafe paperback this week which was nice. Also, the fund raising manager there has proposed a joint promotion where I donate some of my books, signed, and the hospice either raffle them off or something similar. Good for them, great for me. I'll let you know how it pans out.

Until next time...

Book Sales, Kindle Users and Painting

Morning gang,

I'll be brief as it's late/early and I'm tired from my neverending painting project.

The number 1 features heavily for me today. I have sold 1 copy of Playground Cool in paperback. Good times.

I have only had 1 vote for book of the month over at Kindle Users Forum. Bad times.

Aside from that my digital sales are steady despite the lack of promo. In terms of the day job there's talk that next week we might here something with regards to redundancy. So the dream of a period of full time writing might be back on.

When I know. You will. Night all...

Camilla has read my email

Afternoon folks,

Just a quick update today. I've sent an email to a site I found on the Amazon discussion boards which apparently promotes Indie authors like myself.

But the big news is that one of the agents I sent an email to earier in the week has read it (and quite possibly deleted it). So we shall see. And according to their Twitter feed, Bang Publishing are ploughing through manuscripts so fingers crossed.

Editing on The 24 Hour Jazz Cafe is finished so the next tasks are to send out more stuff to agents, finally sort out a Facebook page (though I might leave that until something happens with the new book) and begin editing a previous novel called All The Fun of The Fair.

It's all happening and hopefully a decent chunk of redundancy money from the NHS later in the year will allow me some free time to attack the writing full time, at least for a few months.