I use Grammarly for proofreading because… the grammar police can be vicious, especially where “errorists” are concerned;) …

Now I’ve posted that, of course, there will be oodles of grammatical errors in this post!

So, my Castle of Dreams series has had an impromptu hiatus of late, partly due to lack of willing victims, er…, sorry volunteers, but also down to my own lack of time.

You see, I’ve been in a bit of a dream-like state myself recently.

Those (few) of you that have read it will know that my book features one of my own favourite castles, which is just a few short miles from our family home.  The book features dreams, nightmares, magic, and a young girl on the brink of adulthood facing a reality that no-one would ever expect.  Kenilworth is a stunning castle, one of the best of the era that are left, but again I digress.

As any author will tell you, we write stories from our dreams, waking or sleeping, from wherever our minds wander to.  It’s a long journey, and the writing is the easy part.  Once that is done, and you’re at a stage where you’re prepared to admit to it, then you face the arduous, never ending journey of submissions, rejections, picking yourself up again to resubmit, until eventually you are fortunate enough to be accepted for publication, or you decide to self-publish.  The journey doesn’t stop there though, once it is published you have to do the most difficult part – market your work, and by doing so, making yourself a commodity as well, as readers want to know who you are..

Since the last post I’ve been doing just that – posting on various forums, and even giving my first talk at a library, as well as trying to focus on writing Book Two (no spoilers here though!).

But, as I think many of my fellow authors would admit, the thing we desire most from this journey is the feedback that someone, other than friends and family, has bought, read and most importantly, enjoyed, our book. After all, as J K Rowling said in 2012, “no story lives unless someone is prepared to listen”.

Then, in August, I got some incredible news.  “Leah” had been selected to be part of the autumn showcase for The People’s Book Prize.  Now this is just the first step for this prize, and being selected for Fiction in a quarter that also features the prize’s patron, Frederick Forsythe, is a tough group.  The winner of each category for each quarter goes through to become a finalist for the annual People’s Book Prize – and the votes are purely down to members of the public that vote for the books online.

But, to have been selected as part of the showcase of new and undiscovered works is, for me, huge.  Just the concept that someone thinks it is worthy of being featured sends goose-bumps down my arms, and having read the comments from votes I’ve already received, well that really is the stuff dreams are made of.

People have read, and enjoyed my book – if that doesn’t motivate me to write more, then nothing will!

To see the other wonderful books in this quarter’s showcase, and vote, please follow this link