Heels in Matera

Trying to put myself into gear again after the long summer escapade - finally I have brain time, silence, less chores. How can anything related to a house full of teenagers be called a holiday? I have written one story and a half, reviewed this novel around three times, kickstarted my cover ideas, and been interrupted about FIVE THOUSAND TIMES.

What about the beach? My tummy tanning? My freckle collection?

Not even a mountain hike, more like a hike with the watering can through my torn tomatoes.

Getting into gear means beginning to learn about book promotion and realising how hard other writers work (and are expected to work). I have just paid up for the Women's Fiction Festival in Matera and hope to catch a flight and cheap room. Can't wait to leave Veneto and set my eyes upon new sights. Quite scared by the idea of rubbing shoulders with a more published crowd, me being such a shy ting.

I wonder what heels to bring.

Harrowing! Trying to relearn photoshop to start work on the book cover but I've forgotten many basic tricks. It's coming back, but how tiresome! Plus I have misplaced my glasses and my piano-playing wrist is suffering terribly from all the mouse moves. But I mustn't give up. I have some great ideas and want to come up with three cover designs to see if they please. I do hope so!

Other than that school starts again soon and I am oh-so-glad. Free quiet mornings (apart from my university-bound son who hasn't yet left for Milan, nor even passed the entry exam yet) and slabs of concentration.

Now waiting to see when the novel will be launched. I am hoping April, when I will be free to move across to the UK and get peddling. In the meantime, I hope to get to the Women's Fiction Festival in Matera with a sheath of bookmarks to distribute and garner some interest. It will be my first literary festival and I haven't a clue what to expect. The englishwritersinitaly crowd seem very professional, slightly prim and very very published. Meanwhile this country bumpkin will just have to smile and sit tight. And will probably be crippled by shyness in any case!

the real thing

Finally finally finally I have sent it off! The polished manuscript! The last two weeks have involved endless revision - back to front, out loud, ruler and red pen, yet another ink cartridge and begging Monica to bind it on a Friday night - but it is over! Dawn seems pleased and I love the tone of her emails. I am looking forward to going to the next stage. Glad to have a slight rest, although now I feel like pulling the stories into shape and looking for publication there too.

It's cover time soon, so have been looking in Milan at Italian VS English cover jobs and what really pulls my eyes. Some lovely smallish books with good geometry, bold colour. I hope to relax a little and let the vision flow.

Here's hoping the nasty ex will go back to where he belongs and leave me to play the piano and clean the house.

Allelujah

Unbelievable! How many times have I read:

Sorry but I just don't love it enough
This is unsuitable for our list
We have kept your details for future reference
We wish you luck in placing your book elsewhere

But last week I checked my iPhone mail and read:
We would like to offer a contract of publication

Whaaat! I nearly fell off my iron chair into the gravel and dropped my Campari! It was written in English, too! I had to read it aloud to the mate next to me and she confirmed we were speaking the same language. Amazing Grace!

I have been bubbling for 10 days now, have posted off the contract and hope this will pan out to be a beautiful project. I can't wait to see Marilyn in her new printed life!

Well it's been quite a stretch. The revision is done and the manuscript wending its way toward a small UK publishing company, on angels' wings. Let's hope.
Plus the big summer party has come and gone, involving much garden and food preparation, and many many mojitos under the disco lights. Tremendous amount of foolish dancing until dawn, and the music cranking out the next day while the BBQ sizzled..

Now I am utterly ready for summer laziness. Hate this computer.

tendrils

Still revising chapters. Tis endless. I don't even laugh anymore. I have also diverged back to short stories where there is a harder punch and a more direct conduit to publication. Every chapter I finish with thedivorcedlady'scompaniontoitaly/Marilyn I know there are 18 more, or 15, or 12. And grammar slips and typos. Just can't afford those. So I am printing up chapters - again - to step back and feel the page.

Other than that have just put my story collection on authonomy and am amazed by how racy it is and what a volume of author trafficking! It is entirely belittling when your book is ranked 2222! I don't know that I can buy into the tit for tat thing either - you back me and I'll back you. Especially as there is so little writing that is alluring.

I would hate to be a publisher.

summer riffs

Summer out the window, already steaming hot. This divorcée needs to water her veggie plot and get into marmellata. But back to the book. Reviews are coming in on the youwriteon site but I am amazed when somebody who can't spell makes bland sweeping and idiotic criticism. I am unable to take it when somebody says I should give Marilyn more character, or refract Italy through some birds singing in the trees. Flabbergasted. But I want to reach the top of that chart. And will review and review until it sends me to sleep. So far none - dare I? should I say this? - of the excerpts have made me wild with envy or filled with the desire to plough on. Nothing shocking or overturning. And of course my silly bits are not going to shake anyone to the core, but I still stand by my woman. Marilyn is fit to be read, even though she has big Hungarian cheekbones and tits and no notion of where she will be drawn next. And her fellow characters - clairvoyant tattooed Pamela, the top model hunter Arnaud, the bi-sexual internet cruiser Brett who looks like a Hong Kong cop. Nothing unusual here. Just your usual meandering wimmin's ting, set to the swish of a Venetian canal.

Tell me you want more. The book is gooood.