The strange unreality of being an author ...

Book News:

NB THIS SECTION HAS BEEN REMOVED DUE TO LEGAL NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE PUBLISHER CONCERNED, AT THEIR REQUEST.

Speaking of difficult literary organisations, I've been deeply saddened, not to mention frustrated, by the attitude of the Society of Authors to authors with ebooks to their name. They tell me that I can't be a full member because I haven't sold enough paperbacks and "at this time, we do separate e-publishing and physical publishing, because of the lack of costs involved in online publication." So, being a "real" author has nothing to do with the fact that a commercial e-publisher has agreed to publish your book or how well your ebooks perform, but it's all to do with how much your publisher is prepared to spend on their production. Looks like the costs of editing, creating cover art, marketing, staff time, conference attendance etc etc, which are just as much associated with ebooks as paper books, are meaningless to the SOA then. Naturally I've asked for my membership to be refunded and, at the same time, I told them I assumed the admin charges would be minimal as of course all our correspondence has been via email which according to them costs nothing, even in terms of people's time ... They have at least therefore had the grace to refund me in full. But I certainly won't be bothering to contact them again, at least not until they've caught up with the authorial world they're supposed to represent. Harrumph indeed.

I'm very pleased to say that The Gifting has received a positive comment from one of the people at the book launch last week. She's already read it (thank you, Claire!), thought it was a page-turning read, and wants to know when the next one is out. Gosh! I'd best get to grips once more with the final read-through of Hallsfoot's Battle then - which has rather ground to a halt due to this week's ongoing illness (see below).

Anyway, here's The Gifting's next line: His sister Isabella Montfort's tone is bitter, but he doesn't question it.

Ah, but you should, Johan, you should ... It would have saved so much trauma if you'd been paying more attention at the time, you know ...

And The Art of The Delaneys has gained a 4-star review at Goodreads - thanks, Clover. That's cheered me greatly.

At Vulpes Libris, you can read my review of The Pink Hotel by Anna Stothard, which is a seriously classy and well-written novel and I thoroughly recommend it. Meanwhile, I'm also trying to do some major renovation on my website but, in the manner of all modern women everywhere, I need my husband to come home and press all the right buttons to make it work (um, as it were). Watch this space, possibly ...

Life News:

I've continued to be as sick as the proverbial this week. All nasty cold/catarrh stuff and, no, you really don't want to hear more. Suffice it to say I left work early on Tuesday and haven't been out from the flat since. Another sleepless night in the living room on Tuesday (with some seriously dodgy moments), but I did manage to get some real rest last night, thank the Lord. I think I may have broken the back of it now, but I'm sorry to have missed (a) seeing Jane & Ang on Tuesday night, (b) going to the Wisley roses event tonight, and (c) golf tomorrow. I'm attempting to get seriously well for another opera at Glyndebourne on Saturday. No more relapses please!

What with all this coughing and snorting and ... err ... stuff, I must have got confused today as the Virgin Media connection man turned up this morning, instead of this afternoon when I was expecting him. The poor chap - he found me unwashed, undressed and with absolutely no make-up on which, bearing in mind the kind of week I've had, was even more not a pretty sight than usual. And, yes, before you say it, I did have to open the door in my dressing gown (why has my dressing-gown got a door? Boom, boom!), sigh. Anyway, even though he was only about twelve, he was totally unperturbed by this vision of horror before him (perhaps he gets it all the time?...) and managed to fix me up in no time (again, as it were). Mind you, he was probably desperate to escape, the poor dear ...

More positive news this week has been the fact that we harvested another two of the garden strawberries at the weekend and thoroughly enjoyed them. Perhaps we should buy a couple more with the PD royalty cheque, eh? Oh, and my rose pot plant has a second bud on it so it looks like we might be getting two flowers this year, hurrah!

Anne Brooke