“WHATEVER YOU DO OR DREAM YOU CAN, BEGIN IT NOW, BOLDNESS HAS GENIUS POWER AND MAGIC IN IT. “ Goethe
Ho ho ho! It’s that time of year again. I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy Christmas and the very best for 2018.
My Mother was right. She said that as you get older the years go by more quickly. This year has flown by – one minute it was January and now it’s Christmas Eve. Whoosh! It seemed that something was happening every minute – for me it’s been a year of ups and downs. I’ll start with the ups.
“YOU’RE NEVER TO OLD TO HAVE A DREAM COME TRUE”
The big news is that finally after slogging it out down the coalmine for 10 years and sitting on my story for over 50, my book is just about to be published. In fact, if you are an electronic reader, it is now available on Kobo, Tolino, Apple, Barnes and Noble, OverDrive and Amazon. However, if you are like me and would prefer to read a “real” book, then your own autographed copy will be possible somewhere between the middle and the end of January. The publishing world, I have discovered, is hard to pin down.
My book has undergone a change of title. I think “A Spanish Love Affair” encapsulates the contents and story of my book better than the working title “Escape From Spain”. Numerous other titles were considered. Trust me.
I have already made my first speech about my book for a video for the Thomas Keneally Library. I felt honoured. It is the oldest lending library in Australia having opened in 1833 so it is exciting to think that my book will be on its shelves. Also, the other writers were impressive e.g. Thomas Keneally himself. Wonder if he’s related to Christine? You can look at the video below. It’s only 7 minutes long.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDZndXni-nM&t=475s
I’ve also been invited to speak at the Northern Beaches BookLovers’ Club at their March meeting. So that’s exciting. The date for my book launch has yet to be negotiated with my brother John Alexander, who will be the MC. Now that he has been re-elected to Bennelong it will have to fit in with the parliamentary calendar but I will let you know as soon as the date is set. I’m hoping it will be somewhere between my birthday on 23rd February and Mum’s on 19th March. So I’ll be celebrating my birthday as well as launching my book.
I’ve really spent the major part of the year working on my book and now that’s it’s published I’m working on the marketing side which many writers say is harder than writing the book. (Couldn’t possibly be) Marketing these days is mostly done via Social Media which is not easy for someone like me who suffers from technophobia and is a luddite. I have to be dragged kicking and screaming when it comes to technology. Just ask my husband, Markus. I think this condition emanated from the time when I managed to wipe off all of the 1,000 tenants at Roy Ross’s real estate office in Manly. Computers and I are just not on the same wave length. But I’m pressing on. As you can see above, I have a Website and a Facebook Page. But it’s been a struggle.
I’ve done various courses this year – how to build your own Website. Got nowhere with it but luckily was recommended to Zena Shapter who has done a great job. I also went to a course called Facebook For Business – in fact I’ve done this course twice – and the only thing I got out of it was a bad case of the flu, which I proceeded to give to my husband, Markus. As you can imagine I wasn’t popular.