Welcome to my new subscribers and followers. How are you getting on with Lockdown where you are?
I’ll be honest, like many writers, I found it extremely difficult to get my head into writing fiction while the world appeared to be going to hell in a handcart (don’t you just love that old saying) around me. It seems like a frivolous thing to do, inventing characters and situations that are light-hearted and funny, when reality is anything but. The thing is, once I started, I realised how much I preferred my fiction world to the real one! It’s amazing what you can get done when you turn off your notifications and social media.
The Ellie Johnstone books
I was also working on the second year of my English degree, which I’m happy to say I passed. One more to go now! Since then, I’ve been determined not to let what’s going on around me stop me from creating my own little world, and so with a little help I managed to get Confidently Curvy edited in April, after sending it out to my lovely advanced reader group for feedback. I now have not one, but TWO Ellie Johnstone books available on Amazon. If you’re not familiar with the backstory; I wrote Viva Voluptuous in 2012 and it was published the traditional way in 2014. Sadly, it didn’t go well…I found out later that the marketing department of the publishing company had sent the press release about the novel to its academic reader list and not followed it up. Unsurprisingly, none of the academics were interested in a review copy. I did manage to get featured on local radio, and the book was on sale in Waterstones for a while, but it didn’t set the publishing world on fire and I thought that was probably it for my foray into publishing.
I still had stories in me, though, and it was when I met someone who read the book and told me I should self-publish it that I started to think about writing again. A few years on, I’d managed to buy the rights back to Viva Voluptuous, and sourced a new cover. I wrote the first draft of Confidently Curvy in January 2020, before you-know-what started, and I’d planned to work on getting the trilogy completed this summer. Events conspired to both get in the way and spur me on, and here I am.
Fabulously Forty
I’m now almost 10,000 words into the last book of the series, which will be another full sized novel. I’d always planned to make the series span ten years, so Confidently Curvy starts in 2010, Viva Voluptuous 2012 and now Fabulously Forty starts a year before Ellie hits 40, which would be towards the end of 2019. Then a rather large plot twist appeared – how would I write about 2020? Nobody is doing ANYTHING! You’ll have to wait and see, but hopefully it will make you laugh, and cry and identify with everything Ellie goes through. I’ll keep you updated about when the book is going to be published here, and on my Facebook page. If you love reading and want to be part of my advanced reader group, you can help me by getting an advance copy of the novel, before it’s edited, and giving me feedback. To say thank you, I’ll be running competitions for things like signed copies and maybe even naming a character in the book after you! Join by clicking here: Advance Reader Group
Reader Reviews
If you’ve read either (or both) of the books and want to leave me a review, I would be really, really grateful. Self publishing is really hard work – indie writers don’t have the financial clout that traditional publishers have so we can’t afford to spend massive amounts on Amazon adverts. Amazon does help by showing books to readers who’ve bought similar titles, but only if your book has some reviews. An honest review or two makes so much difference and is very much appreciated.
Right, I had better get back to work. I have situations to think up for Ellie and her friends! Stay safe and well and I’ll be in touch again soon.
Love
Sarah xx
