It's been another busy week for me as I continue to promote my novels. On Thursday 7th, I was at the Romney Marsh Visitor Centre, which is always a lovely place to visit and the staff are so welcoming. I was there for a book signing/meet the author event. As always it was good to meet and chat with people. There was an extra bonus as the Goddard Family were displaying their art there (they are there throughout June) and after the book signing I went to meet Philippa and Terry. It was lovely to meet them and to look at all the art by different members of the family. Two days later I went back and bought a print by Emily, but have a feeling I might be back for more.
On Sunday I had a stall at Honeychild Manor for an open farm day. Again, I met some lovely people - the highlight being a man who thought he recognised me from being on The One Show! Not me, I admitted.
On Thursday 14th, it was my first author talk in Mary's Tearooms, Dymchurch. Huge thanks to Mary for inviting me. I had prepared bullet points and some props and spoke about my author journey. It went well and I think everyone enjoyed it. A really good evening in a gorgeous place.

Last summer I discovered that the Fifth Continent group were setting up projects to learn more about the history of Romney Marsh. One of these is a search for the port of Romney - and they are looking for volunteers! Really exciting for me as the port at New Romney was lost during the 1287 storm, which of course features in What the Monk Didn't See. Boats once moored stern to bow along the Rother, all the way past Hope and on to Old Romney (shown here), but by the time of the storm, the river had already silted up and the New Romney area had become the port. 
On Saturday there was a chance for potential volunteers to learn more about the project and training opportunities, so I went along to learn more. What a surprise to find another opportunity which I couldn't resist - next summer the team are hoping to discover the extent of St Martin's church in New Romney and to date it. I know nothing at all about this church, only where it was and that it was all gone by the 16th century, so I'd love to be involved in that too.
I'm working really hard and making good progress on my 20th century sequel to Secrets of the Shingle, but I am sure I'll be lured back to Medieval times for the next novel...

It's still all fun in my world of promoting But First Maintain the Wall. Last Saturday I was at Crafts 4 U at Lathe Barn (you can see my books on the shelf in the picture) for a 'meet the author' and book signing session. It was fantastic to meet people who had come especially to see me and to talk about a shared interest in Romney Marsh. I really appreciate all the support I am getting. All the money raised from book sales goes back into printing and other costs, so a huge THANK YOU to everyone who is buying my paperback and kindle books. 
Coming up is another 'meet the author' at the Romney Marsh Visitor centre on Thurs 7th June between 11 and 2pm.
Then on Thursday 14th June, I am at Mary's Tearooms in Dymchurch to give a talk about my writing and the process of publishing my novels. This starts at 7pm. Thanks to Mary for showing an interest in my work and giving me the opportunity to do this.
Then there are some other plans in the pipeline, including one very interesting proposition, more on that later...
In the meantime, I'm having fun writing the latest novel set at Dungeness.
I love to hear from anyone who has read my books or has an interest in local history, so please do get in touch. 

What a brilliant week I've had as I begin promoting But First Maintain the Wall. I've got some fantastic supporters locally and was thrilled to be able to deliver the first book from my stock to Caroline, who has been promoting my writing through facebook since we first met last December. May has been the best month for Kindle sales and readers who are discovering me for the first time are buying the other books as well.
I've been to chat with Liz at the Romney Marsh Visitor Centre about a book launch but I was feeling a little shy so we decided on a 'meet the author day' which will be on June 7th. Liz has been so supportive since I showed her Secrets of the Shingle back in 2016 and now I have half a shelf of books there!
But a day after telling Liz I couldn't possibly stand up and talk about my books in front of an audience, I found myself doing just that in front of a packed hall at the Dymchurch Heritage Group's meeting! The group had kindly allowed me to take my books along as their talk for the evening was about the authors of Romney Marsh, I hadn't expected to be standing up and giving my own short talk about the novel. I guess it was good to be thrown in at the deep end and it has given me the confidence to think that, with a few notes, I could manage a longer author talk. Nice to spot Oliver Tidy, another Dymchurch author in the audience. And afterwards - a chance of a book signing. Lovely to have such support from the members of the group.
More book signings and a talk coming up... more on this next time.

With the proof copy of First Maintain the Wall looking good, it has been time to order from the printers. One of the issues was when could I be at home for delivery. I was ordering 200 books (100 of What the Monk Didn't See as well). It was hardly fair to expect a neighbour to take them if I couldn't be at home. While pondering on delivery, it came to me that perhaps I could collect them myself as I was due to go to Devon. A quick search on the map showed me Imprint Digital were only ten miles from the family I was visiting in Tiverton, Devon. On Tuesday, I called David at Imprint and asked if my books could be ready by late Thursday afternoon. He seemed sure they would be and so it was agreed I would confirm on the day, subject to traffic.
With delays on the M25 it wasn't a great journey, but an hour after arriving in Tiverton, I set off down winding country lanes to collect my books. It was fantastic to meet David and the team, and to have a tour of the printing works.
With eight boxes in the boot of the car, I headed off and the books are now back in Kent awaiting delivery to local shops.

Finally my proof copy of But First Maintain the Wall came through the post from the fantastic printers, Imprint Digital. How amazing to see the completed book which I started writing last June. 
My local historical group, Dymchurch Heritage Group,  had an open afternoon with lots of items on display and I was planning to go along, but hadn't expected to be able to take the novel with me. There was a lot of interest and support for me as a local author. In their next meeting they have a guest speaker who is talking about writers from Romney Marsh, so they suggested I take my books along. What a great opportunity for me!
So now I move onto a new stage in my author journey, as I follow up the invitations I have for book signings and author talks. The book has just been put on Kindle and I am hoping to have stock of the paperbacks within a week.

I set myself a target to start writing again in earnest on May 1st, rather than just dabbling with the new novel. The reason I've held back is that I am limited on writing time and wanted to give But First Maintain the Wall all my attention and not to rush through the final stages. The novel has been read by the professional proof reader, and I've made all the amendments. I have changed the document to a book sized file and set everything out as I want it to be when it goes to print. This includes acknowledgements, an introduction and the copyright page.
The next job is to re-format again, in order that the novel can be read as an e-book. For this the document is  put back to A4 size and I have to choose from a limited range of fonts. The fancy chapter headings have been changed back to Arial. With electronic books being read on various devices of different sizes, I can't see exactly how my words will look on a screen and so now each chapter has a page break so they will always start on a new page. I've added a contents list and hyperlinked it. What is hyper-linking? It means that if the reader wants to go to a particular chapter they can click on that chapter in the contents and go directly to it.
So, what is stopping me from publishing my fourth novel? I am waiting on the cover designer who had some other work to complete first. She's working on my cover now and I've seen the background, so hoping the figure will be added very soon and then it's just the words to go on. I can't wait to see the finished sample.
I'm hoping that within the next week the files will be sent to the printer and proof copies of But First Maintain the Wall will be on their way...

This weekend I did my first craft fair for the year. I've been sharing a stall with author friend, C.S Clifford (Steve), at these events since last summer. Our books are so different that we are not in competition with each other, we get to share the costs and keep each other company. This time we were at the lovely Silcocks Farm, near Tenterden. It was a great day and I enjoyed meeting lots of friendly people. Silcocks Farm is a wonderful setting with some gorgeous old buildings. 

At the same time, my books were selling at my rented shelf space at Lathe Barn, Burmarsh, Romney Marsh. This is a new venture for me. Crafts 4 You have opened up a shop at this popular children's farm and cafe. Rather than take commission on sales, they rent the shelf space. It's a lovely space, with some great things for sale. They also have some space for crafters to run workshops, so there's an idea for the future...

But First Maintain the Wall has now come back from the proof reader. All good feedback about the research and content.
The next stage with But First Maintain the Wall is to write the blurb, an introduction and change the pages to book size, then make sure it's all looking tidy. No pages with one line on them.
I've been putting off dealing with the front cover as I want to go with a professional cover designer but am nervous of spending the money and moving into this new area. It's got to be done though and I want stormy sky with the sun coming through, along with seawall, and preferably a rough sea. The weather conditions haven't been right so I asked for help from a Facebook page, Romney Marsh Sunrises and More. I saw another author, James Collins,  do this recently, and love the finished cover. I didn't get the rough sea but found a picture with dunes (they can be flattened to look like seawall) and a fantastic sky. It's gone to the same designer that James used and I'm hoping she'll be happy with it. And that she can add a figure in 1750s clothes.
But what about the new novel? Errr, I'm just doing a little every now and then. I must concentrate on this one first and not abandon it at this stage.