Around the Pool in Kefalonia – and More Fifty Shades of Grey!

Flying into Newcastle in the early hours of the morning, one could be forgiven for thinking the world was made in grey. A wet bank holiday Monday did little to dispel the dismal outlook. The cloudless skies of Kefalonia seem light years away.

I don’t want to make you jealous (honest!) but Greece was just wall to wall sunshine and blue water. We spent a lot of our week at the poolside, but then it was a lush and delicious spot – planted with willow and surrounded by mountains, judge for yourself…….we just felt we’d been very lucky..

There was good news for e-published authors round the pool where Kindles were much in evidence, as was – yes you’ve guessed it – ‘Fifty Shades of Grey.’ One couple happily ensconced under a brolly were both reading it! And with its distinctive cover – a real design triumph – everyone knew everyone was reading it!  And so everyone was talking about it too, including William, a lorry driver who delivers books, in particular at the moment lorry loads of FSOG! Whatever we think of the novel (see my verdict here) I believe the FSOG phenomenon is a good thing for books and we should not begrudge E. L. James her success, but we should celebrate it. As e -authors we should remember that we all benefit from it when our books are borrowed -‘ in the month of August, KDP Select-enrolled authors earned $2.04 each time their books were borrowed.’

There was also great company to be had around the pool. I met the lovely Tricia, who works with women with metal health problems, and her partner Mark. Tricia told me she’d always wanted to write, so we talked about getting started as a writer and I loaned her Dorothea Brande’s classic Becoming A Writer which I’d been re-reading on the plane. Before she left Tricia said the first thing she was going to do when she got home was buy a notebook! Brilliant!  I’m really looking forward to hearing from her when she gets started.

A guy called Steve, also joined our writing conversations – titles, covers, agents, e-publishing etc etc, mostly at the pool bar and aided by an ice cold Mythos beer or two – and told us he was writing  a book about his work. When I asked him what he did he said he recovered abducted children. It stopped us all in our tracks. He had some chilling tales to tell. Steve wants to set up a foundation to help stop the trafficking of children. His book is a part of this and I hope in the future to be able to help him in some way.

In between the talking and reading and the just plain chilling, I started work on a new book which was very exciting for me. It’s a celebratory book about writing – on becoming a writer, loving what you do, celebrating your work and finding new, independent pathways to success... I’m intending to have the book ready by Chistmas.

If you’d like to share my journey in writing the new book, read small extracts and get some writing tips and competition news along the way, then I hope very soon to be offering all of these in a FREE weekly newsletter … so do watch this space!