Goodbye Writing, Hello Promotion

I'm back in New Zealand, adjusting to working around house renovations. They'll be good when they're finished. Meanwhile, I'm in one room with a fridge, a bed and my laptop. What more could I need?

I received my manuscript back from my editor and spent a weekend fixing a few things up before sending it back and then getting the final stamp of approval. Yay.

So now it's onto promotion while I wait for the publisher to do his thing. He'll format it, organise the new covers and put it out on various platforms. I will still use Amazon, but there will be more choice from now on. Watch this space.

My audiobook "Of Greenstone and Violins" was finally finished, so it will be available on your favourite platform soon. Some of you may recognise my narrator, Arlo, from "Shortland Street" many moons ago. He did a good job, considering he had to get his head around quite a few accents, including Scouse, from Liverpool. Not an easy feat!

Also coming up is my talk at the Greerton Library about the dos and don'ts of self-publishing. Hopefully some of my experiences will help others there just starting out.

In August I'm attending the "Books in Paradise Literary Festival" up in Port Douglas, a mere 20 hours from Brisbane. A good excuse to take the motorhome for a spin. Flying is out of the question when you have piles of books (hopefully none to bring back) and a table. So I've been preparing publicity stuff now, as well as completing an author's note for the promotion of "The Spirit Remains" by Lighthouse PR here in New Zealand, starting this month.

Below are two photos of characters in my books. The first one is apparently Miriama, although I'm not totally convinced. It's a lovely photo though.

The second is my cousin 3 times removed, whatever that means, Wiri (Billy) Taka, whom I discovered by chance and have since made into a character in this book. He went to Gallipoli with the First Māori Contingent. The photo is of him at school at Awhitu. He would have been Miriama's nephew, son of Wiremu.

Well that's it folks. Time to smell the roses. Below are some random pics from out and about here over the past two weeks.

Arohanui for now.