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Making it up as I go along

Making it up as I go along

Tag Archives: Family

Don’t tell anyone – I have another book deal…

03 Sunday Mar 2019

Posted by Carol Lovekin in Uncategorized

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

Authors, Book 3, Family, Friends, Wild Spinning Girls, Writing

It was the best Solstice gift ever – an email from my editor confirming acceptance of my third book, Wild Spinning Girls. Protocols & paperwork meant I couldn’t immediately go public. I was able to tell my nearest & dearest which mitigated the frustration a little.

In all honesty, I quite liked having a bookish secret. It’s different from a debut, when you want to Tell Everyone In The Entire Universe Immediately! You can relax a bit. And if you’re fortunate enough to be published by a tiny press, you learn to be patient. Mine – Honno, the Welsh Women’s Press – consistently produces classy books to an exceptionally high standard & takes infinite care with its authors’ words. The book won’t be published until some time next year & that’s okay too. All good things & so forth.

In any case, there’s a great deal to be said for space between books. I’m not sure how I’d fare in a world that required a book (or even two) a year from me. How do people even do that? Okay, some stories write themselves (Snow Sisters did); others are far harder & need nurturing. Wild Spinning Girls is done, but still not finished. There’s more finessing to do & I’m glad. I know I haven’t yet reached the stage where I’m ready to relinquish it, because I know there’s editor-driven magic still waiting to be conjured.

All of that notwithstanding mind – get me! Who knew, back in March 2016, when I first held a copy of Ghostbird, my debut novel, in my hand, I’d do it not once more but twice?

Wild Spinning Girls is another story set in Wales. It has many of the elements of the previous two books, not least an old house. This time, a very remote one… There’s a ghost too & a secret…

MY CLOUD HOUSE 2 - Copy

It will be down to my reader to decide if a level of familiarity is a good thing.

I’ll be revealing small hints over the next however long it takes; small clues & visual images. My favourite fairytale, The Red Shoes plays a part. If you examine it closely, TRS is both a fascinating & horrible story. Hans Christian Andersen hated his sister Karen so much, he gave the beleaguered heroine of his grisly tale her name. As a child however, training to be a ballet dancer & loving fairytales, it was inevitable this one would fascinate me.

BALLET SHOES 3 - Copy

And because I don’t do even numbers, here’s another hint.

CROWS GIRL

Island life is still a thing, never more so than during the past eight weeks. Breaking my leg was a thing too. A massive shout out to everyone who wished me well, not least in the writer/reader community. As for my tribe, the sisters who came to my aid, day after day, you have my gratitude for ever.

Catching my breathe…

02 Monday Oct 2017

Posted by Carol Lovekin in Uncategorized

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Blog Tour Days 5 - 11, Book Launch, Family, Friends, Snow Sisters

This past week has been crazy. Thursday’s launch for SNOW SISTERS gate-crashed the blog tour & came with added family & friends. Factor in a low-level lurgy masquerading as some kind of sleeping sickness & frankly, it’s a wonder I managed any of it. That I did is largely down to my beloveds (& a bit to me as I am a weed & grow anywhere.)

In spite of the love-laced chaos I have managed to read the reviews for my new book. And oh my days, what reviews! I’m still taking them in – the generosity is overwhelming.

These then are the links to Days 5 – 11 of the blog tour.

Day 5 Off-the-shelf Books

Day 6 Rather Too Fond of Books

Day 7 Greenacre Writers (includes a Q & A)

Day 8 The BiblioManic

Day 9 Reflections of a Reader

Day 10 Linda’s Book Bag

Day 11 Portobello Book Blog

I am hugely indebted to each & every one of these wonderful, articulate, gorgeous women.

A few launch pictures:

venue
Old Hall (Lampeter uni) filling up.

ml 5
Obligatory ‘author reading from her book looking slightly mad‘ photograph.

launch 7
With my son, granddaughter & my daughter

22140959_1697366810337052_3376410858916134189_n (2)
With Caroline Oakley, my editor

 

Being

14 Sunday Aug 2016

Posted by Carol Lovekin in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

#NotTheBooker, Cornwall, Edna O'Brien, Family, Ghostbird

Island Life, Word Birds & Process #16

The part of Cornwall I visit is another kind of island. It’s close to the sea, on several sides. Secluded at the far end of a long track the timber-framed house built by my son and daughter-in-love sits in an oasis of calm. The family – which includes my two beautiful teenage granddaughters – inhabit the land, work it, respect it and by and large live off it. They make things, grow food and raise animals. There are goats and bees, vegetables galore, grapes, willow for baskets, apple trees, chickens, a dog and right now, kittens. It’s a perfect place to be and where I was last week, hence no blog post. With intermittent WiFi I was happy to take a break.

IMG-20160808-00207

In the meantime – goodness me!

We are twelve hours away from the NotTheBooker shortlist vote closing. To my genuine astonishment, I have over a dozen mentions and some lovely reviews. They’re creeping up on Amazon too and each one is a gift. I don’t do stats because I don’t understand how they work. I’m not uninterested – it’s just that me knowing where my book is on a graph makes no difference. It’s still there. I’m still here – being me and wondering if I can write another book. Because that’s also important to me.

I digress. Many of the voters are known to me purely because the online author/reader community is tight-knit and supportive. Some are not and that is particularly gratifying. Which is not to say the reviews from people who know me (either in real life or virtually) don’t matter. They do – they are pretty fantastic to be honest and I’m genuinely blown away.

The odd comment has been made about the thing being ‘rigged’ and that some reviews have been written by publicists (or author’s aunties!) This may be true in a few cases – I have no idea although I doubt it. And in any case I know the difference between a sycophant and a genuine admirer. I’m deeply touched that people have made the effort to write original and generous reviews for my little book. Ghostbird is still flying high and she’s having the time of her life!

book1 - Copy (2)

And I am still on a list with Edna O’Brien, content to be…

Onward and sideways, dear reader.

My novels

Wild Spinning Girls
Wild Spinning Girls
Snow Sisters
Snow Sisters
Ghostbird
Ghostbird
Only May
Only May
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