Tuesday 5 June 2012

Pre-Publication






As the date for self-publication gets closer, I'm feeling nervous.  The novel is finished, the text is converted to the required e-book format.  Well at least I hope it is.  I won't upload until the cover is available for inclusion and that's due to be finished any day now.  I'm more excited about seeing that than I am about the book!

After three years of writing, re-reading, editing, re-writing .... well, at the moment I don't really want to read the book again :)  And it's that feeling which is the strongest - I don't want to read it again, but will anyone even want to read it.  And when they have, are they going to hammer me?  Just wanted to say that now, and if/when anyone has read it, I can revisit this post and see whether I was or not!

The book is fiction.  But of course I've known so many people and had so many memories over the years - of things said, told and imagined, that all that knowledge has added flavour to my writing.

 The picture above is an artist's impression of one of the places I drew upon for inspiration in the book.  It's a real place, still standing.  I spent many hours there with great aunts and uncles over the years when I was little, back in the sixties, and at that time, it probably hadn't changed much since the Channel Island Occupation in the Second World War.

I remember the big reddish brown door just centre right opened out onto my family's fruit garden, and the two windows to the left were the main living room where the family congregated for main meals in front of the old aga stove.  After dinner, we'd play ludo or cards in semi-darkness, as it was considered profligate to use electricity before nightfall!  There was no TV, only an old radio, but I'm pleased so say it wasn't missed.

I feel I had a fairly unique insight into their lifestyle - the hard times of the war made them frugal, right into their old age, but it never stopped them from enjoying life and appreciating nature and the simple things in life with such enthusiasm and good humour.


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