After the Party

In case you wonder, yes, the Lisa Jewell reference is quite deliberate. She's not only one of my favourite authors, she's also a role model and an inspiration, with her books and her personal story to writing success.

So it was more than flattering being compared to her today...

But I'm getting ahead of myself, let me start from the beginning.

As you might have read, we had a party last Friday, for the launch of my novel Playing on Cotton Clouds. 

The day whizzed by, with people dropping by here and on Facebook, to wish me and the book good luck, and a good few downloading it, giving me the thrill of seeing my work moving up the Amazon chart for the first time.

Launch Day is always that bit special and exciting, but then the party ends and you're left with the empty glasses and left over food to tidy up, while every day life takes over again.

My book, my baby was now out there and people will (hopefully!) read it and draw their own conclusions about it and the characters I so loved, good or bad. The hope is that a few folks will like it enough to recommend it to their friends so that the word keeps going round and growing.

The work is only just beginning. Writing the novel has been the easiest part, getting it known it's the tricky bit.

Like the great Ian Brown once said (yeah, I had to fit him in somewhere... more about him and his friends to come, as The Stone Roses are one of my number one obsessions!): "It takes time for people to fall in love with you". He proceeded to add that it's inevitable, the arrogant self-confident sod that he is,  and though I'm not sure that  applies to little me, the first part of his statement certainly rings true, now that the novel is available to the public. 

It takes time.

So I was very surprised to find out that just one day later someone had already read the book and left a 5* review on Amazon!

The surprises kept coming and today Judging Covers has posted their review of the novel... and it's fab!!!

The highlights for me were being compared to two of my favourite authors: 

The thing I loved about this book was the writing style – modern, fresh, funny, contemporary – bordering on chick lit but leaning more towards the style of Lisa Jewell or David Nicholls [...]  
I loved this book and devoured it in a couple of days. I also shed a tear on a few occasions – it is heart-warming and emotional.  It will be a novel I will re-read just to soak up the writing style again.

Lisa Jewell! Wow! I've been compared to my role model! That's high praise indeed! :D

I'm really made up and overwhelmed by it all and I hope the journey will continue to spin some pleasant surprises along the way.

After the hard work and the persistence, after the party and the celebrations, the adventure has begun.