Hey, thanks for reading my first blog. The first blog I’ve written as a ‘pending’ author no less… The news is, I’m about to publish my first novel. Yay for me!!! An actual novel! A real, live, writerly one with words in and all sorts.
Now, I’d like to say it’s only taken me a few months but, the truth is, it’s far longer than that. I’ve been wanting to write a novel since I was at school – yes, just a few years ago (ahem…) And, I’ve talked about being a writer for years but have complained continuously that I don’t have the time/there’s too many demands on me/it’s impossible to be a writer when you work full time and have a family, etc etc … all of that stuff. And, each New Year, I’ve been depressed that I haven’t met my annual goal of being published in some way when, in actual fact, I haven’t even written anything that could have been published.
A while ago, whilst wallowing in my ‘I’m never going to be a writer’ mood, I asked an author ( a lovely one, who will appear on my links page when my website is up and running) for some sort of miracle potion which would help me write when I’m so, so busy… and she basically said ‘get off your butt and write, and stop moaning about it, as your book is not going to write itself’… I’ll always be grateful to her for the straight talking, she was absolutely right.
I found my own method of getting the words onto the page, something quite new that I hadn’t tried before, but that worked really well. And, to cut a long story short, it’s almost ready to be born. Yes, I’m in the final stages of labour… The book is written, edited, edited again (in fact, edited 10 times but possibly still contains typos and things I’d re-write again and again), and is about to published as an ebook through Kindle.
It’s a weird feeling. I’m not the most confident of people, not when it comes to my ability in doing anything at all, but I’ve had the most brilliant support and encouragement from so many people. And now, the last piece of the jigsaw is almost there. The book cover is being created by a wonderful illustrator who is also my best friend of over 40 years, and it’s very exciting. Once it’s ready, I’ll be publishing it. But, before then, I need to get my website up and running and prepare myself for the launch, something I’ve dreamt of for so many years.
The book is written in my maiden name, and the website will therefore be the same – www.pennycanvin.com – I’ll let you know when it’s up and running. And the title is just about decided on, which I’ll put in a separate blog.
So, thank you to all that are reading this – you’re with me right at the start of this journey and it’s nice to know I’m not alone. I’ll be posting when the website is launched, and also when the book becomes available on Kindle.
Have a great weekend everyone, wherever you are!