For those who don't follow my writing blog/journal (here or here), I have some very exciting news.

I'm going world wide with Shadows.

Okay, yes, technically I am already world wide with Shadows @ LuLu but I'm going to be even more accessible in a few weeks time. Why and how? I qualified for a free distribution package (it was always out of my price range), which means my book will soon be available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and will be listed in the Bibliographic Database. Because the book now has its own ISBN number.

This doesn't mean I'll sell more books but it does mean there's more chance of people stumbling across it. Heck, I don't care if I don't sell a single copy - the fact that I'll be on Amazon is exciting enough! The fact that there's a possibility of people seeing it and liking it and purchasing it is also extremely exciting, of course, but you know me: I write cos I have to and not for profit.

The book won't be available for about six-eight weeks so there's plenty of time to wait yet. But as soon as it's there I'm sure I'll post time and time again with giddy excitement.

Labels: books, self-publishing, shadows, writing

by Ys | COMMENTS? 5 | permalink |

This year the Christmas festivities have been really strange for me. Usually I adore Christmas - I'd even go so far as to say it is my favourite time of year. I love buying presents for people, figuring out what they'd like, finding lots of small gifts to surprise them with. I love the decorations, the chocoloate and the drink. I love, love, love Christmas Day Lunch. The Christmas of 2005 is still my most favourite Christmas in recent years. Not that very much happened, it was just a really nice family time.

This year I've been distracted. I was house-hunting at the beginning of the month, then I found the house and have spent the last however-long (it seems like months now!) arranging bills, furniture, moving dates, signing forms and paying the bond. And because we're moving the weekend after New Years I know that Christmas will just pass by in a blur of excitement and nerves as I await the date. Which is a shame. 'Cause I really enjoy Christmas.

I did get slightly festive when the Christmas tree went up:



And even Sweepie got into the spirit of things. Usually she hates me tying anything round her neck but she wore this all night:





I had my first commission cheque for Shadows on Monday. That was super exciting. So thank you to those who bought it, and boo-hiss to those who didn't ;) I think this makes me an official author now - payment for a published book! How very, very exciting. Could the end of this year get any more surreal for me? A published book and a house to call my own! So when do I wake up and realise it was all a dream?

I am going to be AWOL for the next couple of days cos I'm going up to Manchester to see... Take That. Sigh, Gary Barlow (right). Take That were the band that introduced me to homo-eroticism; I was nine years old at the time. I probably owe them some kind of commission for inspiring my love for boy-love and therefore writing novels about it... Anyway, I'm going to see them so I'll be whooping and hollering and trying to catch Gary's eye ;)

I hope you all have a great weekend too!

Labels: christmas, gary barlow, moving out, new years, photos, self-publishing, shadows, sweepie, take that

by Ys | COMMENTS? 1 | permalink |

The week's looking a bit better now. Not amazingly so, but at least I've got my energy levels nearly back to normal. Having a shower in the morning does pretty much wipe me out for about thirty minutes afterwards but that's much better than the two-hours it's been all week. I'm actually doing some washing now so I must be feeling a lot better - either that or I'm just running out of clean clothes ;)

I'm afraid to say my parents still aren't talking to me. To be honest, I want an apology for the lies told about me so I don't think I'm making the situation any easier. Soon enough I'll cave in, though, the way I always do. I absolutely hate arguing so I pretty much do anything to avoid it.

To cheer myself up, Ray and I have been making plans for New Years Eve. I did mention a while ago about a little something we were planning. Well, we have got something booked up now but cos it costs so much money we're at the moment trying to see if another place is available instead, which will be much cheaper. It would mean we weren't away for the actual New Years Eve but for the three nights before instead. I guess we can just wrap up warm New Years Eve and go and sit at the top of my hill and be alone up there, watching the fireworks, welcoming in the New Year. Nothing's confirmed yet so I'll just have to patiently wait another couple of weeks.

How can I not be happy, though, when I've got the babies here? Be Warned: this link contains serious squee. They make me melt every single time I see them. I wish I could keep Dolores... Sweepie would hate me for it, though; she doesn't share her mother with anyone ;)

By the way, I've dropped the price of my book "Shadows" - took me a while to figure out how to do it! It's now 9.99 in book form. It'd make a great Christmas present ;) Hehehehe.

I have absolutely no plans for the weekend so fingers crossed it might turn out to be quite a good one ;) So I hope you all have good ones too!

Labels: arguing, family, illness, new years, puppies, self-publishing, shadows, sweepie

by Ys | COMMENTS? 2 | permalink |

I got a bit mopey last night. I think it was a comedown from the weekend. Back to normal life is always a little depressing, isn't it? After a good whine to Ray I felt a lot better. Today I spent the morning cleaning - and I only ever clean when I'm happy. Even got the mop out as well!

This afternoon I worked on my writing site and have now got a very pretty layout. It's very similar to how it was but I've just tweaked a few things here and there and, in my opinion anyway, I think it's looking much better.

CHECK IT OUT HERE

I've added a Buy My Book banner on the left << but it's too big for the page so I've had to shrink it. It doesn't look as good as it did so I think this may be the excuse I need to make a new layout for the blog. I've had this one for ages now - probably the longest blog layout to stick around! I haven't got a clue what I want the new layout to look like so I wouldn't be expecting anything to appear any time this week.

I don't think I mentioned but... I'm going to see The Used on Thursday so will be awol for the day. It's part of the Taste of Chaos Tour. So far the venue has been changed and the door times so I'm a little concerned that the gig might suddenly get cancelled. Should be a good night if it does go ahead. Although, to be honest, I either don't like or don't know the other bands on the bill. So I may become a fan or else be really bored until The Used come on stage.

Labels: gigs, layout, life, ray, self-publishing, the used, websites, writing

by Ys | COMMENTS? 2 | permalink |

Thanks so much for all the comments I got about my book - on here and in person. You all make me feel very loved, and I am feeling more positive about it all. To be honest, I wasn't feeling overly confident about it all when I first put the book up for purchase. So thank you :)

The weekend was great. Just what it needed to be. Just me and Ray and no one else. I think we only left the house once, and that was to pick up a huge pizza we'd ordered. Mmm, pizza. I ate too much this weekend and have irritated my stomach-lining a bit but, hey, it was all worth it so I'm not complaining. We had one interruption. Saturday night Ray's uncle suddenly rang the house and said he was coming over - even though he'd been told not to by Ray's gran cos she'd wanted me and him to have some time on our own for once. If that wasn't bad enough, he was also bringing his girlfriend (the woman who rudely asked me if I saw Ray every day when I'd only just met her - what business was it of hers?), her sister and niece. Ray got quite pissed off, the uncle knew it, but he still came over. They didn't really bother with us much, just sat in the other room laughing at us. These people (niece excluded of course) are all in their forties, so you'd have thought they'd have better things to talk about than me and Ray. When it looked as though they were going to be a permanent arrangement in the house, Ray and I decided we'd go upstairs and start having noisy sex. But someone (we don't know who) walked in on us kissing and five minutes later they all left. Ha! Apart from that the weekend was perfect. We stayed up late Friday night talking about all kinds of crap, just making sure we were both thinking the same thing relationship-wise - no, neither of us want to get married yet, we don't even want to get engaged, although the feeling that we might does come and go for us over the months; we both just want to enjoy the next couple of years on our own, without thinking about the future or where we might be heading or any of that stuff. So that was a relief to hear everything I felt coming out of Ray's mouth. We then spent Sunday watching all the archaeology programmes about the Ancients, which we both love. So we got to be alone, to talk, to have lots of sex, watch films (the Fantastic Four actually had me laughing out loud at times), and be geeky.

So I basically spent the weekend in hibernation. It was great :D

I did miss Sweepie and the pups a lot, though. I was glad to come home to them but, to be honest, the weekend just wasn't long enough for my liking. I guess they never are, are they?

Labels: life, puppies, ray, self-publishing, sex, sweepie

by Ys | COMMENTS? 2 | permalink |

I stumbled across a pretty cool website that seemed professional and affordable. So I went for it. I am now a self-published author.

I started with Shadows, because it's a book I think has a very strong story-line, plus it's got some totally fucked up characters in it. If you want to read my work - in a spanking professional book-bound way - then please, please, please click on the link below:



Expect some shameless self-promotion over the coming weeks hehe.

Edit to add: It was as if God was having a little chuckle to himself, because this morning I got a rather hilarious rejection letter from a publisher I'd sent Soul Mates to. Nothing about whether the book was well written or that they didn't have the space on their books for me, nope just a quickly written note saying, I'm afraid that it is not really our sort of thing. Hehe. Why not just say what you're really thinking Kate Hordern Publishers? You wouldn't touch a gay character-based book cos underneath it all you're homophobic. Ahh, you wouldn't think it would still exist in this day and age, would you? This is just the perfect example of why I've gone down the self-publishing route - no one gives stories based around a gay character a second glance.

Thanks Jem for being my first purchaser - you are officially my first fan, first supporter, and first person to turn me into an official author :)

I'm away at Ray's for the weekend so I'll probably be awol until Monday, so enjoy your weekends :)

Labels: self-publishing, shadows, writing

by Ys | COMMENTS? 4 | permalink |