Sunday, May 24, 2015

Busy days

Ok I know I've been gone from here for a while, I've been getting the werewolf book and the prequel ready to publish. It's surprising how long the editing process takes when you can't just send the manuscript to someone else to do for you! I also had to write the prequel which I thought would be 20 000 words but which ended up being shorter at 10 000 words. But it said all I wanted it to say so I'm happy with that. The prequel was always going to be a short read, just some backstory to help the reader understand why Zora is the way she is.

Of course it didn't go smoothly, I've not yet uploaded to Amazon and had it go smoothly. This time it was my covers - which I had so carefully made the correct size - that were the problem. For reasons known only to the computer gremlins that make my life difficult my covers reverted back to a smaller size and I had to go in and re-size them and redo the titles. But it's done and the books are both uploaded to Amazon, just five minutes ago.

It still didn't go smoothly as I couldn't load the previewer (most likely because the internet speed here is painfully slow) so I don't know if they uploaded correctly or not and will have to wait until they are both live in the store - later on today - to do so. But I need to make changes anyway as I plan to add links to each book at the back and with Amazon you don't get a link until the book is live so I have to edit and re-publish. So hopefully tomorrow both books will be live and ready to sell sell sell!

In other news, I had an email from an agent about the Letters book, just to let me know that she hasn't yet looked at it but will do so in the near future.

I've also had two reviews on the Baby cat book - link here: The Cat on the Wrong Side of the Door

These are interesting reviews in that they have two differing views. The first review - with a sad total of two stars - was from the point of view of someone who believes cats should always be indoor and that I wrote a book condoning irresponsible cat owners who let their cats roam. The second review gave it five stars (yay!) and gave the view that I hadn't intended to write a book either for or against allowing cats to roam and suggesting that readers simply enjoy the story.

Of course I had simply written a story about a cat that I know which got himself into a sticky situation while he was outside. I wrote a story about his life from his point of view and I did not intend to make it a story about the perils of indoor/outdoor cats. In truth Baby is such an impulsive cat that the incident which occurred could just as easily have happened indoors.

It is interesting that viewpoints differ about whether cats should be entirely indoors or not depending on which part of the world in which you live. For me, as a child our cats always had the run of the outdoors - we didn't have screens or ceiling fans or air conditioners and if we tried to keep the cats indoors by keeping doors and windows closed we would have all died from heat exhaustion. We didn't lose many cats to outdoor hazards but we lived in a small town.

When I was older my cats still had access to the outdoors - for the above reasons. I did lose a couple, one was hit by a car (and I was living in the country and the road was very lightly traveled so it was a shock) and one bitten by a snake. However there was no way of keeping them indoors so it was accepted as the natural order of things. Dogs and cats sometimes died too young and from preventable accidents had they been indoors.

Flash forward several years and I was living in town and my cats were all indoor. Too many hazards outside from cars to snakes plus I valued the native wildlife. I also had Bengal cats for a time and they HATED staying inside.

However that was Australia and Baby lives in the UK, in a close that is protected from traffic. There are no snakes, few spiders and nothing in the way of natural hazards. He is pretty safe from everything except himself. It seems to be accepted there that cats live an indoor/outdoor life. In this area the only cats I know of have lived very long and safe lives.

It seems to depend on where you live as to your views on whether cats should be allowed access to the outside world. In this case, Baby goes outside as to all the other cats. In my case, my cats don't - not least because I live on the fifth floor but even if I didn't they still would not because it is just not safe for them here. I am sure if Baby's owner lived in a different area with heavy traffic he would not be allowed outside.

It all comes down to common sense I think, (and I'm talking about responsible pet owners here). If you live where it is safe, where your cat can't decimate the local wildlife, then by all means let it outside if it wishes to go. If you do not, keep your cat indoors. But, in the case of my book - I just wrote a little book about an impulsive cat!

It does go to show though that even a negative review can have a positive effect. I am guessing that the writer of the second review purchased the book out of curiosity due to the first review. And I once read that poor reviews also show that the reviewers are genuine buyers and not people that have been paid to write a positive review. As if! If I could afford to buy reviews I could afford an editor :)

I will post the links to the new books once they are live on Amazon. Go check the Baby book if you're curious - it's cheap :)

Reviews, we welcome them all, even the bad ones




Baby, the cat on the wrong side of the door

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