Guest Post & Giveaway - Naked Chance by Jackie Buxton - Chances Fortnight

When I was given the task of writing a blog post about taking a chance, my head went automatically to the chances I'd taken with writing. I'd abandoned a first draft to write something else, foregoing 100,000 words and years of my life spent in the study, on the whim of a single idea which had wedged itself tight in the, 'You are Powerless to Ignore This', part of my brain. The result was my first published novel, Glass Houses. Tea & Chemo was a lucky break, too. I'd carefully prepared my submission to the potential publisher of Glass Houses, Urbane Publications, taking a good week dotting my 'I's and crossing my 'T's, only to then decide moments before pressing 'send' that I would also respond to the tiny note at the bottom of the submissions guidelines mentioning non-fiction. 'Particularly interested in self-help and memoire,' it said. 'Ideas only at this stage please.' I couldn’t ignore the idea I'd had for a book expanding on my blog posts about dealing with cancer, an idea which had been scratching away, only to be quashed by those voices which tell you that nobody, anywhere, is going to be interested in paying for a hard copy of your words. But Urbane Publications were interested and Tea & Chemo was the result this time. But far from me taking a chance, I decided my two titles were much more about the publisher taking a chance on me, rather than the other way around.

So then I thought about the biggest chance I'd taken in life and had to smile at the memory of Ilse, the totally bonkers, strong (for strong read, slightly terrifying), fluent in five languages except the one I needed, single mother to Andreas, who hailed from a German speaking colony of Rumania: Siebenbürgen. Ilse is the reason I learnt to speak German with a Romanian accent.

I was panicking about studying German and French at university following a woeful couple of years of A-level German teaching, which made no reference to the course syllabus, in which we read none of the set texts for the literature element and in which my fellow students and I concluded that just because you were a native of the country, it didn’t mean that you could teach the language, or indeed, have a decent grasp of the mechanics of it. Eventually, our teacher disappeared without explanation (this was the eighties, nobody said and nobody asked) leaving us all seriously lacking in confidence, not to mention knowledge of the language. I decided that even if I miraculously fluked my way into university, which I did (thanks only to the wonderful replacement teacher who spent her holidays cramming with us in her own home) I should take a Gap Year because all the other students there would be super human and certainly possess a much higher (we're talking stratospheres) level of German than I did.

I'd be an Au-Pair. That was the answer.

And so I arrived in Cologne, ever thereafter known as Köln, because for the first month, Ilse spoke not a word of English to me, determined as she was that I should be fluent in German by the time I left almost a year later. I know enough about languages now to know that it doesn't matter how much you study, there is no substitute for living and breathing – and eventually dreaming – the language with the natives. And when your grasp of the language is basic at best when you arrive, those natives may as well be speaking Klingon.

Seven year old Andreas didn't speak a word to me for the first hour or two but then giggled his way through my renditions of Paddington in German with my awful English accent, and little clue (there were a few pictures, thankfully) of what I was reading. Andreas' ability in English, I have to say, rivalled my own.

Andreas tucked up in bed, I settled down to my first evening of chat, steeling myself to communicate through pointing and charades and over-zealous smiling, and trying to push away the cloak of gloom as I realised I hadn't appreciated quite how hard a new country was going to be, and wasn’t that my 19^th birthday winking at me from a week away, the very real prospect of exactly none, zilch, zero friends with whom to party.

Then I heard the word, 'Urlaub'.

Yes! A word I recognised! 'Majorca' I said. Ilse looked blank. So I fanned my face. She nodded and tilted her head upwards as it to catch the rays. And I jumped around a little, arms swaying in the air, to show 'Magalluf' (it was THAT holiday after leaving school) to which Ilse said, 'Ah, sexy Urlaub' and promptly left the room.

When she returned, she was carrying a pile of photo albums.

'Mein Urlaub,' she said, 'ist verschieden.' I could understand isolated vocab like this, from my tiny collection of abstract words which I'd learnt for use in essays about what we were going to do about Aids and whether communism was really dead - perfect for some light post-supper chat, even if I didn’t have the words to aptly express my gratitude for the meal.

Different. Yes, Ilse's holidays were a little different, certainly to what this 18 year old was used to, anyway. I realised this to my absolute horror with the very first turn of the page. This quirky, well-meaning, but fairly austere mother of a seven year old, who was older than my own mother, smiled at me from the photographs as she fried an egg on the rickety stove top, totally and utterly naked.

And as we flicked through pictures of Ilse and her friends playing tennis, sharing a bottle of wine, and - god forbid – dancing, all generally naked save for the odd mesh t-shirt barely skirting the belly button, a strange sense of calm came over me. I was to spend ten months living with this nudist camp enthusiast, who'd had this son, as I was told that first night through various waves of her hand and laborious leafing through the dictionary, with a soon-to-be-ex ('You're leaving?' I later learned was the conversation, 'then leave me with a baby.') She would also pay for me to take intensive German lessons, twenty hours a week – the best education I have ever had, bar none – and would eventually delight in my tales of all the other weird and generally wonderful friends I made in my time in Köln. I realised on that first evening that I had seen this woman with no clothes on and nothing could faze me now.

I took a chance taking a year out and it was the best decision I ever made. It's a cliché, but true. And much of that was thanks to Ilse. She is the most unusual woman I've ever met, before or since, but what an absolute treasure she turned out to be. 

Giveaway to Win 2 x Signed copies of Glass Houses (Open UK Only)
Jackie Buxton is very kindly giving my followers a chance to win 2 x signed copies of Glass Houses. 

Giveaway open to UK only, all options are voluntary, but please do what they ask, as I will be verifying the winner. Giveaway closes 23:59 26/06/2017. Winner will be announced on twitter and emailed, and they will need to reply within 7 days, or forfeit the prize, and I will re-draw for a new winner.  Good luck everyone.

Win 2 x Signed copies of Glass Houses (Open UK Only)

Bio:

Jackie Buxton is a writer, editor and teacher of creative writing, living in Yorkshire with her husband and two teenage daughters. Author of self-help memoire, Tea & Chemo (Urbane Publications, November 2015), Jackie's first novel, Glass Houses, was published in July 2016. It's about two women, their terrible mistakes, the repercussions and the silver linings. Jackie's short stories can also be found in three anthologies, as well as in Chase Magazine and on-line.

When not writing or reading, involved in domesticity or teenage taxi driving, Jackie can often be found running, cycling or tripping up though the beautiful Yorkshire countryside. Jackie's ambitions range from drinking more coffee with friends, to film deals and the big one: beating secondary breast cancer.  

Glass Houses (Amazon): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Glass-Houses-Jackie-Buxton/dp/1910692840

Glass Houses (Urbane): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Glass-Houses-gripping-emotional-turner-ebook/dp/B01HFIO1LI

Tea & Chemo (Amazon): https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/cka/Tea-Chemo-Fighting-Cancer-Living-Jackie-Buxton/1910692395

Tea & Chemo (Urbane): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tea-Chemo-Fighting-Cancer-Living-ebook/dp/B018G8OQRK

Blog: https://jackiebuxton.blogspot.co.uk

Web: www.jackiebuxton.com

Book Review - The Second Chance Cafe in Carlton Square by Lilly Bartlett - Chances Fortnight

And as my last review for Chances Fortnight, instead of reading an author that I was taking a chance on, I thought a book about Second Chances would be rather fitting instead! 

Amazon UK

Title: The Second Chance Cafe in Carlton Square

Author: Lilly Bartlett

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Author supplied review copy

Publisher: Harper Impulse

Publication Date: 23rd June 2017

Rating: 5 Stars

One chance isn't always enough…

Everyone expects great things from Emma Billings, but when her future gets derailed by an unexpected turn of events, she realizes that getting back on track means traveling in a different direction.

She finds that new path in the closed-down pub on Carlton Square. Summoning every ounce of ingenuity, and with the help of her friends and family, she opens the Second Chance Café. The charity training business is meant to keep vulnerable kids off the streets and (hopefully) away from the Metropolitan Police, and her new employees are full of ideas, enthusiasm … and trouble. They'll need as much TLC as the customers they’re serving.

This ragtag group of chancers have to make a go of a business they know nothing about, and they do get some expert help from an Italian who's in love with the espresso machine and a professional sandwich whisperer who reads auras, but not everyone is happy to see the café open. Their milk keeps disappearing and someone is canceling the cake orders, but it's when someone commits bloomicide on all their window boxes that Emma realizes things are serious. Can the café survive when NIMBY neighbors and the rival café owner join forces to close them down? Or will Emma’s dreams fall as flat as the cakes they’re serving?

I think I may have enjoyed this second book in the Carlton Square series even more than the first one.  I loved the idea of the Second Chance Cafe, in that it gives vulnerable youths a chance to learn some skills and get valuable on the job training.   

This can easily be read as a standalone book, however if you have read the first one you are in for even more of a treat, as this is set 2 years later, Emma and Daniel are now married with toddler twins and are trying their hardest to cope, and that is before Emma's cafe is fully set up. 

Of course first Emma has to hire some trainees, and that is hilarious, given the selection of candidates on offer. I probably shouldn't laugh as its also incredibly realistic, but the interviews were amusing. 

I've always thought that Michele Gorman, aka Lilly Bartlett is brilliant at writing female friendships, mothers and realistic characters, and she really does herself justice in this book, as I loved the various characters, and cafe customers. 

I loved seeing more of Emma's family and her East End neighbours, its such a close community, and that really comes in handy during the story. The cafe has a real struggle on its hands, as its clear someone in the neighbourhood wants it closed, and the motivation behind it kept me guessing the whole way through.   There are many acts of sabotage to keep everyone on their toes. 

The two trainees that Emma hires at first a polar opposites, there is Joe who wants to be a CEO one day, but hasn't quite twigged he needs to work his way up and learn the smaller jobs first, and Lou, who at first is really hard to get to know, but by the end of the book was one of my favourite characters. 

Then there are the three rather distinct groups of people that frequent the cafe, there are those using it as an office space, plugging in everything from standard office equipment to nose hair trimmers. Then there are the teenagers, friends of Lou and Joe, that society would tend to misjudge just on appearances. The other group are mothers with their children. There is a play area set up, and the only problem with the mothers is that the pushchairs get in everyone's ways.  

The Second Chance Cafe is a story of young motherhood, a new business owner,  friendships, supporting your community, giving people second chances, a business rivalry and its incredibly well written and highly enjoyable to read. 

Thank you so much to Lilly Bartlett for this copy of the book which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily. 

Book Review - Summer at The Cosy Cottage Cafe by Rachel Griffiths - Chances Fortnight

I took a chance on a debut author, in this cosy tale! 

Amazon UK

Title: Summer at The Cosy Cottage Cafe

Author: Rachel Griffiths

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Author supplied review copy

Publisher: Self Published

Publication Date: 29th May 2017

Rating: 4 Stars

Allie Jones loves her cosy cottage café in the picturesque village of Heatherlea. She has her independence, two grown-up children and two cute cats. Life is settled and she thinks she's happy. 

Author Chris Monroe has it all. Critical success, a luxurious London apartment, and the kind of jet-set lifestyle most people dream of. But something's missing.

When a family bereavement throws these two old friends together, they begin to question the true meaning of happiness. 

Love is in the air, but do Allie and Chris have room in their hands-on lives for more than a summer fling?

Sweet little romance story, in an incredibly cosy setting, that although short packs in a fair bit of story.  

The Cosy Cottage Cafe really is just that, its a cafe, that is in a cottage, and it is cosy. It's small and sweet, and seems as though it does great business in the small village of Heatherlea. I loved the descriptions of the cottage cafe, and could really imagine it. 

I really enjoyed the writing in this book, and can imagine that over the course of the series, I will get a better feel for Allie and her three friends.  I liked the interactions between Chris and Allie, and also enjoyed the small bit of story that Allie's son Jordan had. 

It really is just a cute little story that won't take long to read, and that already makes me interested in the rest of the series. 

Thank you to Rachel Griffiths for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily. 

Guest Post & Giveaway - The Many Colours of Chance by Rachel Burton - Chances Fortnight

I don't know how many of you have seen the Foo Fighters documentary "Back and Forth". There's a scene in that film where Dave Grohl describes making the big decision that led to the forming of the Foo Fighters (and, arguably, musical history). 

After Kurt Cobain died and Nirvana were no more, Grohl was offered a job as Tom Petty's touring drummer. In the documentary, he describes how he felt after he turned down that job - he said that, to this day, he can still see his hand on the telephone when he put the receiver down after that conversation. 

I can still see my hand closing the door of my boss's office on the day I told him I was leaving my lucrative City job to teach yoga for a living. 

It was a change that had been coming for a while. I was tired and jaded from the long hours, the thankless work and the seemingly endless commuting that a job in a large London law firm entailed. I'd been practicing yoga for years - getting up at the crack of dawn every day to go to class before work - and in 2006 I had qualified as a yoga teacher. 

I started off by just teaching one class a week, but that turned into two and three and eventually, without the use of Hermione Granger's Time Turner, I could no longer manage to teach my classes and work full time - I wasn't giving either job the attention it deserved. It was time to take a risk, time to make a change. 

It was hard at first, change always is. I had to find a part-time job to supplement my yoga income and some days it all felt like harder work than the job in the City had been. But every time somebody enjoyed a class, or told me how yoga was helping them, or brought a friend along, always made it worth it. And as time went on, my classes got busier and I was finally able to teach full-time and, eventually, open my own studio. 

By not being run off my feet constantly, by spending more time in the present moment, my brain was able to work more creatively and I found myself starting to write again – hadn’t done for years. At first it was posts on a yoga blog but slowly I started to write a story about a young woman who was reluctant to change but who suddenly found change thrust upon her. That story became The Many Colours of Us. 

Change is inevitable, it happens around us all the time - the changing of the seasons, the waxing and waning of the moon. It's impossible to resist (although only human to want to), and it certainly doesn't always work out. For every change I've tried to make in my life that has worked, I've got ten stories about changes that haven't - but sometimes it's worth the risk. 

Thank you so much Rachel for this great look at your huge change in your life.

Giveaway to Win a bound Proof of The Many Colours of Us & a Letter Writing Set (Open Internationally)

Rachel Burton has come up with a fab prize for you all to take a chance on to try and win, a bound proof copy of The Many Colours of Us and a Letter Writing Set. 

Giveaway open internationally, all options are voluntary, but please do what they ask, as I will be verifying the winner. Giveaway closes 23:59 25/06/2017. Winner will be announced on twitter and emailed, and they will need to reply within 7 days, or forfeit the prize, and I will re-draw for a new winner.  Good luck everyone.

Win a bound Proof of The Many Colours of Us & a Letter Writing Set (Open Internationally)
RACHEL BURTON

Rachel Burton has been making up stories since she first learned to talk. After many false starts she finally made one up that was worth writing down.

She has a BA in Classics and an MA in English and has never really known what to do when she grew up. She has worked as a waitress, a legal secretary and a yoga teacher.

She has spent most of her life between Cambridge and London but is currently on a sabbatical in the North with her boyfriend and three cats. The main loves of her life are The Beatles and very tall romantic heroes.

‘Gorgeous, touching story, wonderful heroine, and I'm totally smitten with the hero.’ - Cressida McLaughlin, bestselling author of The Canal Boat Cafe

Fall in love with Rachel Burton’s stunning debut novel, perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell, Adele Parks and Sheila O’Flanagan

What if your life was built on lies?

Julia Simmonds had never been bothered about not knowing who her father was. Having temperamental supermodel, Philadelphia Simmonds, as a mother was more than enough. Until she discovers she’s the secret love-child of the late, great artist Bruce Baldwin, and her life changes forever.

Uncovering the secrets of a man she never knew, Julia discovers that Bruce had written her one letter, every year until her eighteenth birthday, urging his daughter to learn from his mistakes.

Julia begins to dig deeper into the mysterious past of her parents, opening up a history she’d never have imagined, but as she discovers the truth she needs to decide if she is willing to forgive and forget…

Twitter @bookish_yogi

Instagram @bookish_yogi

Facebook Rachel Burton Author

Book link is here www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06XQ2M6BG

Guest Post - Taking A Chance by Grace Lowrie - Chances Fortnight - Blog Tour

When I was nineteen I completed a one-year Art Foundation course with distinction, and then completely failed to get a place at university. This sudden rejection came as an almighty shock since I’d always been rather sensible, studious and academically successful up until that point. Looking back on it I was not an exciting prospective student – I was unhappy and lacking both confidence and drive; something the interviewers presumably picked up on, but which I couldn’t admit at the time. Despite this unexpected knock-back I was determined that I would re-apply for the same art degree course, at the same institution, the following year (I’d done my research and that was where I wanted to be) but what to do in the meantime? I was left wondering ‘What now…?’

Sitting in my bank account were the funds I’d saved up from working Sundays in Debenhams, most of my friends were caught up in their new student lives and I now had several empty months stretching ahead of me. Rather than wallow in misery, I decided to take a chance and do something different; something crazy, impulsive and unlike me – so I bought a one-way ticket to Australia.

It wasn’t quite as dramatic as it sounds – I delayed my departure long enough to obtain a working tourist visa, a guidebook and an arm full of jabs, and I had an ex-boyfriend willing to meet me at Sydney airport and show me the sights – but for me at nineteen, flying off to the other side of the world on my own was uncharacteristically brave and terrifying.

The trip was a disaster at first. While I was keen to see as much of the vast continent as possible, my ex had already been travelling for months, run out of money and needed to stay in Sydney to work. Relations between us, as you might imagine, were not ideal to start with and became increasingly strained as the days passed. Trapped in a foreign city, so far from friends and family, I’d never felt more alone and more than once I considered jumping straight back on a plane home, my tail between my legs.

But one of the best things about Australia is just how well they cater for travellers. Chatting to the multitude of friendly, easy-going people I shared a hostel with, gave me the courage I needed to stay and give my adventure a proper chance. This time the one-way ticket I bought was for an Oz Experience bus to take me all the way up the east coast as far as Cairns. I can’t begin to tell you how perfect this mode of transport was for a lone introvert like me. The drivers doubled as tour hosts; commencing each day with ice-breaker games and turning a bus full of strangers into friends for the day. I was usually the youngest, the ‘baby of the bus’, a title that encouraged my fellow travellers to look out for me – which in turn reassured my poor, worried mum back home. The buses stopped at a different dwelling each night – everything from a sheep station to a beach lodge to a cattle ranch – but with the flexibility that you could stay at each place as many days as you wished, simply catching another bus when you were ready to move on up the coast.

This isn’t a travel blog so I won’t go in to all the amazing adventures I had; all the friends I made and all the incredible things I saw and did. Suffice to say that from Cairns I carried right on to Alice Springs in the centre of the continent, working my way down through several other places before arriving back in Sydney. It was the best six months of my life – even allowing for my allergic reaction to mosquito bites!

But the most important and enduring effects of this impulsive journey were nothing to do with Australia as a country at all. Firstly, the fact I’d even made the trip gave my confidence a huge, much-needed boost, and secondly; time and distance away from my day-to-day life gave me an invaluable sense of perspective. Exploring the coasts, mountains, rainforests and deserts of a country ten thousand miles away, somehow made me painfully aware that my relationship with my dad back in the UK, was falling apart.

As a child of divorced parents, one of the hardest things for me was reconciling my emotions. In a nutshell: I felt hurt, anger and resentment towards the very people I loved most and didn’t know what to do about it. Consequently, over the years, I had unconsciously closed myself off and completely stopped talking to my dad. With the fresh clarity of oceans betweens us, I realised that with my continued silence, I risked destroying our relationship altogether.

It was on a far-flung mountain top that I finally sat down and hand-wrote Dad a letter; explaining how I felt and how I wanted things to be good between us again. Forgiveness, like most things worth achieving, is not easy, but I think if you can open up the lines of communication you are already half way there. That letter, the power of the written word being what it is, prompted my dad to call me and we had a great, long, tearful conversation that I believe was healing on both sides.

A few months later, back in the UK, when I woke to find myself delirious with flu on the very day of my ‘second chance’ university interview, it was my dad – my biggest fan – who insisted I go. Without him driving me there, plying me with paracetamol and marching me up and down Brighton seafront to make sure I was awake, I would never have made it. I have no recollection of what I said in that interview, but whatever it was it must have made an impression. A week later I was granted a place on the BA Hons Fine Art Sculpture course, and spent the next three years enjoying every moment! Turns out some of life’s knock-backs can be made into opportunities, if you are prepared to take a chance.

Wow what a magnificent chance you took. Thank you so much Grace for sharing that with us. 

Safe With Me (due to be published 22^nd June 2017) blurb:

An emotional and evocative story about the deepest bonds of friendship.

Abandoned as children, Kat and Jamie were inseparable growing up in foster care. But their bond couldn’t protect them forever.

From a troubled upbringing to working in a London greasy spoon, Kat’s life has never been easy. On the surface Jamie’s living the high-life, but appearances can be deceiving.

When they unexpectedly reunite, the bond they share becomes too intense to ignore. But as secrets come back to haunt them, are they destined to be separated once more?

Perfect for fans of Hilary Boyd and Nicholas Sparks.

Buy links:

Amazon UK

Amazon.com

Author Biography and links:

Having worked as a collage artist, sculptor, prop maker and garden designer, Grace has always been creative, but she is a romantic introvert at heart and writing was, and is, her first love.

Safe With Me, the first women’s fiction novel in The Wildham Series, is published by Accent Press, who also released her debut contemporary romance novel, Kindred Hearts, in 2015. A lover of rock music, art nouveau design, blue cheese and grumpy ginger tomcats, Grace is also an avid reader of fiction – generally preferring coffee and a sinister undercurrent, over tea and chick lit. When not making prop costumes or hanging out with her nephews, she continues to write stories from her Hertfordshire home.

http://www.gracelowrie.com/blog

http://www.facebook.com/GraceLowrieWriter

http://www.twitter.com/gracelowrie1

http://www.pinterest.com/grace_lowrie

https://www.instagram.com/grace_lowrie/

https://www.goodreads.com/Grace_Lowrie

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Grace-Lowrie/e/B00UNCPYCY

Follow along with the rest of the blog tour. 

Book Review - My DisOrganised Life by Nina Whyle - Chances Fortnight

I took a chance on this book as it was my oldest Netgalley title and given I kept not reading it, I had to wonder and be nervous as to whether my subconscious knew something that I didnt! 

Amazon UK

Title: My DisOrganised Life

Author: Nina Whyle

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: So Vain Books

Publication Date: 28th January 2016

Rating: 4 Stars

A viral video of drunkenness and vomiting over a policeman is the stuff of nightmares, and so is living back home with your religious, nutty parents. Fed up with life not going her way and turning quietly insane, Eve Poots comes up with a plan. Well more of a list of “things to do while she's still twenty-something”.
Six months later, and the list is working its power: she is now living with her new boyfriend, junior doctor Adam, and working as an assistant to TV producer Alastair on a reality show – life really is on the up.
But then it all starts to crumble and she soon realises that what the list should have really said was:
1. An awful colleague hell-bent in making her life agonising – check
2. An unplanned engagement – check
3. Lusting for dashing TV director when she has a perfectly decent boyfriend at home - check
4. Seeking help from a sex therapist – check
5. Growing a back-bone - pending

Has her life suddenly turned into a TV melodrama of its own?

Light hearted, a bit zany and chaotic and definitely fun. 

Eve is a huge fan of to-do-lists, in fact you should see the big list she has made of things she wants to do while in her twenties. She has grown up with religious parents, and finds all talk about sex incredibly awkward. She has a boyfriend, Adam, who seems perfect on paper, and is in a new job where people don't know about her video on youtube that accidentally went a bit viral! 

For me the best things that happen in this book are while Eve and her colleagues are filming a pilot for a few reality tv gameshow, that sounds as though it would be compelling viewing. The four couples that are taking part are so different that they almost sound like exaggerated caricatures.   You have the upper class man who seems unaware of the cameras, the woman with incredibly yappy dogs, the fitness freak, the couple who have been heavily influenced by 50 Shades of Grey and are at it, every spare second they can find, and a few slightly more normal people. 

This is in addition to a crew full of great people, one incredibly horrible cast member, an amusing TV presenter and one man that Eve is suddenly hyper aware of. 

Despite all of this, there was something about Eve that I just wasn't keen on, I really didn't mesh that well with her, perhaps it was her haphazard approach to things, or just that she was young. Regardless I enjoyed the book overall, and there are plenty of moments to have you laughing your socks off! 

My DisOrganised Life is a fun look at how reality TV shows are put together, in combination with one woman's sexual awakening. It is fairly quick book to read, depending on how much your concentration slips, and its certainly enjoyable. 

Thank you to So Vain Books and Netgalley for this copy of the book which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily. 

Guest Post & Giveaway - An author’s life – taking a chance on myself by Michelle Somers - Chances Fortnight

To be indie or to be traditional? That is the question …

So many budding authors have struggled with this dilemma, and over time I’ve discovered there is no solid, straight-down-the-middle answer. The path toward publication is a personal one, and each author will follow a different journey toward that wonderful endgame – readers reading our story.

In my minds-eye, I’d always viewed traditional publication as the way to go for me. I was so green when I started writing, had no idea about any part of the writing process – how and where to begin, plotting, story arc, author brand, promotion, publication, etc – that the thought of going out on my own was pretty damn scary. Plus, how would I know if my story was ‘good enough’ without a publisher’s word to tell me so?

I ended up being one of the lucky ones. In 2013, I pitched my story to an editor at Penguin Random House, and not only did I gain a request, but I gained a contract. Lethal in Love came out in all its glory a year later. 

Wow! What an amazing feeling. An I-want-to-do-cartwheels-until-I’m-dizzy-and-floating feeling. Every time I think about publication and my story my heart leaps pogo-style in my chest.

Yet, through it all – the giddy, scintillating heights of having my book out there, being read and being enjoyed – something was missing. I couldn’t pin-point it back then, but retrospect has provided insight where sitting in the thick of the situation doesn’t.

The production, release and promotion of my story wasn’t solely mine. I lacked choices. Control. My own creative slant.

I’d achieved what I wanted, but it wasn’t quite enough. In short, I wanted more. 

Don’t get me wrong. Being chosen by one of the top publishers is a buzz I’ll never forget. I had an amazing editor, an amazing response from the readers about my story. Lethal in Love even won awards.

More buzz.

But when it came time for choosing a path for book two, I chose to drag in two very deep breaths, step outside my comfort zone and take a chance. With my sequel, Murder Most Unusual, I became both author and publisher. And while the idea scared the crap out of me, the reality has been an eye-opening rollercoaster of learning, blind stumbles and heady success. Yet, I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Murder Most Unusual made its appearance in February this year and I couldn’t be happier with the response. 

The learning curve has been huge. So many lessons. So many things I’d do different second time around. 

I was so excited about getting my book out there. So much so that I skimped on the lead-time for release. This left me with little time for pre-release promotion. I wanted to get reviews – both reader and author – before my book went live. Yet, I wasn’t able to give the reviewers the time they’d need to read my story. 

One thing I’ve discovered about self-publishing is that your commitment should be no less than 110% - not only to the process, but to producing a quality product that people will both respect and enjoy. That means money, lots of it, leaving your pocket way before you get to see a return. It means not skimping on the important stuff: quality copy-editing, formatting, cover design, content. 

Be prepared to pay quality money for a quality product. Anything less is a huge disservice to your story.

Saying that, don’t be afraid to try something new. Self-publishing doesn’t mean you won’t ever publish traditionally too. Much as I’ve loved this experience with Murder Most Unusual, and I know I will definitely do it again, I plan to do everything in my power to find an agent and traditional publisher for my next series. Why not dip my toes into a little of both?

All I can say is I’ve loved both experiences – both have had their good and their bad, their rewards and their challenges. And they’re both worth taking the chance. 

Some things to consider as you sit at that crossroads, pondering the question, to be indie or not to be indie …

How much control do you want over the publishing process? How much time and money do have at your disposal? Are you a take charge, roll your sleeves up and get your hands dirty kind of person, or do you prefer to leave all the hard stuff to someone else? 

Do you want to choose one path or are you happy to split your time and energies across two?

Whatever you decide, I wish you the best of luck. And may your journey be as enjoyable and rewarding as mine  J

Thank you so much Michelle for sharing your chance with us.

Giveaway to Win an e-copy of Murder Most Unusual (Open Internationally)

Michelle Somers is very kindly giving my followers a chance to win an e-copy of Murder Most Unusual. 

Giveaway open internationally, all options are voluntary, but please do what they ask, as I will be verifying the winner. Giveaway closes 23:59 24/06/2017. Winner will be announced on twitter and emailed, and they will need to reply within 7 days, or forfeit the prize, and I will re-draw for a new winner.  Good luck everyone.

Giveaway to Win an e-copy of Murder Most Wanted (Open Internationally)

ABOUT MICHELLE SOMERS:

Michelle Somers is a bookworm from way back. An ex-Kiwi who now calls Australia home, she’s a professional killer and matchmaker, a storyteller and a romantic. Words are her power and her passion. Her heroes and heroines always get their happy ever after, but she’ll put them through one hell of a journey to get there.

Michelle lives in Melbourne, Australia, with her real life hero and three little heroes in the making. And her writing companion, a black furry feline named Emerald. Her debut novel, Lethal in Love won the Romance Writers of Australia’s 2016 Romantic Book of the Year (RuBY) and the 2013 Valerie Parv Award.

You can find Michelle at www.michelle-somers.com where you can sign up for her newsletter, keep up-to-date with any news and read her blogroll (She doesn’t have a blog right now, but she’s a real blog-hopper – yep, she gets around). Her site is currently under construction – soon to be awesome! – so if you want to sign up now, email her at michelle-somers@bigpond.com

Or find her on social media:

Facebook:        https://www.facebook.com/MichelleSomersAuthor

Twitter:           https://twitter.com/msomerswriter

Pinterest:         https://www.pinterest.com/michelles3268/

Instagram:       https://www.instagram.com/michellesomers00/

Don’t be shy! Make sure you say ‘hi’ and tell me where you heard about me J

ABOUT MURDER MOST UNUSUAL: