Hello world, here's my first blog!

Hi everyone!


This is my first blog here so here goes, eek...  :-)

I'm a: Welsh, self-published author on Amazon, left-handed, eccentric, down-to-earth, approachable and friendly, talkative, helpful, I loathe grapefruit and polystyrene but adore seafood. So that's a little about me lol.

I've learned a hell of a lot over the past two years and here are some thoughts. I hope anyone finds it helpful, as I did in the beginning:


How I feel regarding writing and what I believe in:

I don't believe in pushing my work onto readers; if they choose to read it they do, if they don't they don't, and I respect that. I believe in letting the reader get to know you as a writer - not you as the writer posting endless 'please buy my books' (in a nagging-type manner). Interact with readers about life and put a discreet link or picture of your work to the side. They will be far more inclined to want to buy and read your books if you're not nagging them to by posting only links or posts only about your books. Let the reader get to know you as a person (no personal details though obviously) but let them see that you enjoy chatting about day-to-day activities, subjects and topics about non-writing things too. I don't appreciate it when authors come across as nagging me to buy their work but what I do appreciate is when they bother to say 'hi, how are you today?' you know, they chat about other things too.

I believe in carrying out 80% writing and 20% marketing/promoting as a writer - writes!

I highly-recommend reading the brilliant Stephen King's On Writing book. I have, and my writing has improved as a result of it.

I write stories and publish them on Amazon on the wonderful KDP platform. I have no interest in going with a traditional publisher; Amazon provide all I need, and more. As far as I'm concerned, they're fantastic and they provide everything I require.

I let readers decide whether they want to download my work, or not, as the case may be, so I chose to enable the 'Look Inside' feature so that they can read a sample of each of my individual stories and, if readers enjoy the 'Look Inside' section and the blurb and then download one of my stories and enjoy it then great! But I'm not going to make/nag them. It's up to them and I respect their choice. So, I don't buy fake reviews, I don't ask friends and family to leave reviews, I personally prefer complete strangers to leave reviews and to be as honest as they possibly can, hopefully, so that if I've made a mistake, I can learn from it (as long as their criticism is truthful, constructive and helpful). If it's not, then I ignore it. Life's too short lol. Just get on with writing the next book. Some people love your work, some don't, and I respect that. I just wish people would bother to read the blurb and the 'look inside' section before downloading a book and then moaning later it wasn't what they were expecting (too shocking, too much cursing/sex etc) - read the blurb and 'look inside' section first! That's what they're there for; to give you an idea of what to expect!

Back to how I am as a person and writer: Basically, I think it's more important for fans to get to know you as an author, you the person; which means talking about other things - besides your books - (most people get fed up with that). Come across friendly and approachable, most readers like that, they will be more inclined to want to read your work if you're a nice approachable warm person rather than just putting up post after post about books only.

Basically, I believe in being yourself. Not arrogant, not conceited, not superior and not aloof. I don't believe an author should be like that (in my opinion). Just because we write books, that does not entitle us to view ourselves as superior to anyone. As far as I'm concerned, we are all equal as human beings. It's about respect at the end of the day.

What I do believe in is maintaining motivation in the face of not so kind reviews (if it's constructive criticism then I learn from that and my next book is better, but if it's an insult I ignore it), I believe in being highly-dedicated to the task at hand (being a perfectionist helps a lot I find) whether that's: editing and proof reading countless times, carrying out more than one spell check, deleting or adding thoughts crucial to the plot and story, being adaptable and flexible and altering an entire story before hitting the 'publish' button if I'm not happy with things.

I believe in devoting all day to writing (if an author can) and writing every day (even if it's a few words to thousands, as every day is different) working hard, and it's only by working hard - we achieve: success, make our fans happy, improve as a writer by honing our craft and many other admirable things.

Motivation opens doors. I am ultra-motivated lately and so, expect to see a lot of my new stories up this year. I have over two hundred brand-new ideas written down - and outlines and notes for them - and many more in the pipeline too. I wish I had a time machine as there are not enough hours in the day to get everything that I want to, done! So, an exciting new crime thriller novella is up on Amazon today and, as I've never written one before (in this genre, I have in other genres), I'm quite excited about this. I write in several different genres and am now writing in this one.

I compare the life of a writer as someone who runs a long but successful marathon. I've taken two years to improve my writing, to the degree that it shows a stark contrast nowadays to how it was in the beginning. No author knows it all, no author is perfect in what they do, no author is the best author in the world, we are all creative, we can all produce enjoyable stories for fans, we are all learning, and always will be so.

I have a lot to say. All in good time.

I'm outspoken and sometimes blunt (not intending to offend), down-to-earth, I have a warm approachable nature, I'm a little eccentric (most of us Sagittarians usually are lol) and I work damn hard to be the best writer that *I* can be. I don't compare myself to others - ever. I write my own ideas/thoughts/stories and I give it 100%.

It's a good day today as my new first-ever crime thriller is up on Amazon. There's always a deep sense of pride when a new story is completed and has been polished, refined, edited to within an inch of its life and edited some more and spell-checked God knows how many times. I've altered my style of writing to a degree; it's shorter and snappier sentence structure and more 'show' rather then 'tell'. Too much description ruins a story, so I've learned to describe scenarios differently. It's all learning and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

Well, I've just let Mila loose and am working on the sequel to this explosive, sexy crime thriller series (will write about ten to twenty in the series, I haven't' decided yet)...  
Mila is a sexy red-hot assassin: skilled in the use of weaponry, martial arts and so much more. She's bent on revenge against the corrupt politician and his daughter who almost ruined her life. Now it's her turn... http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00IOAP0NA
Enjoy!  :-)