When One Scheme of Happiness, my debut novel, was published at the end of February there was time for two launches – one in my daughter’s cafe The English Rose in Victoria, then a second one in Ealing where I live at a lovely independent bookshop The Pitshanger Bookshop. I was planning so much more… then of course everything changed.
I’ve read lots of novels – The Motion of the Body through Space by Lionel Shriver is hilarious – but writing in lockdown has been difficult. You’d think it would be easy for a writer, wouldn’t you? I’m used to working from home with few distractions, but usually there’s not an invisible enemy waiting on every gatepost and shopping trolley, lurking in friends and strangers. A very discombobulating time.
Zoom has been great, in moderation. As an author I’ve attended two virtual bookgroups and taken part in a day-long New Writers Festival and a podcast. I’ve also written a couple of short guest pieces for other blogs. So it’s not all gloom and doom, if you’ve got Zoom!
I’ve finally gone back to editing my WIP, The River Brings the Sea. It was placed third in the First Novel Award last year but still needs work. Very slow as it’s so hard to focus for long, but I’m making progress. At last!
The Society of Authors has hosted free online events – usually profiling an author or offering advice. Sam Missingham’s workshop on marketing your novel in lockdown was packed full of excellent ideas. Hence the new look website. Thanks to Phil Sobell for all his hard work making this website look so great. He’s available for website content/design work, blogging, graphics/logo design or video editing, as well as highly skilled at Microsoft Excel.
Contact Phil on Twitter @PhilipSobell
Ali Thurm 