Draft done! Now onto editing

Yup - Out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Draft is done! However I’m now having to go back and rip things apart. I don’t enjoy that!

My current goals:

• Finish editing (Major reconstructions)

• Put more plants/lore/witchcraft in there. Make sure plants that are being used in potions are actually the right kind of plants. Thank you witches! You guys are amazing.

• Come up with different endearments and salutations for each letter

• One more editing - reading out loud, putting it to text to speech to make sure flow is okay

• Add Potion illustrations

• Send it to beta readers. (If you’re keen, let me know!)

• Back from beta readers, edit - and send it to a story editor

• Once done - give it to proof reader.

• Give to Arc Readers while I make the Book cover.

• DONE!

Marketing Goals:

This is gonna be hard because I didn’t do ANY marketing with the first book - due to a certain sassy child being born. But oh well.

• Join Tik-Tok, Insta, Twitter, Facebook and start promoting!

• Create newsletter!

• Once Arc Readers are finished - send it to reviewers!

• Do Pre-orders!

• Gonna make my own book marks and give to the first 100 books :)

• Maybe… write a spin off where newsletter people get it…? WHO KNOWS AHAHAHAHA I AM CRAZY AMBITIOUS WOMENNN

Personal Goals:

What personal goals. Don’t die doing above.

Good luck me!

Hello again

I should really update news!

Having instagram and facebook really stretches me thin on reporting side of things.

I’ll try to update things here as well.

Current news:

I’m still working on A Dash of Belladonna 2!

More information is likely to come out when I’m at 3rd reading. Right now I’m on draft 1… about 80% done.

The temptation is there to rip out the whole plot thread when I realize it’s either: Cliche, doesn’t make sense… Example: I had Lottie go into a bad situation… all by herself? There’s no way a 15 year old kid would walk in there by herself without any preparation nor adults to help her.

Sure, I can drop her into that situation… but I’m against characters who just ‘happens’ upon danger. Once or twice is fine… but not all the time.

I’m doing lots of book covers!

I take little longer than usual due to making sure it’s close to the author’s ideals… but wow that takes time! (IT TOOK ME 4 HOURS TO PUT TATTOOS ON THE MODEL)

I don’t put them up unless the book is out, so there’s a lot of them in the back.

Commissions:

I haven’t been actively advertising but I made a rule of not turning people away unless I’m just flat booked. So I’m just finishing some commissions! As cheesy as it is, it makes me so happy when I see families wanting something to celebrate their family. And weirder the better!

I hate covid.

I’m still playing catch ups from lockdown that ended in early December!!! Ahhhhhh!! Lockdown = my kid can’t go to daycare = I cannot draw/write. So playing catch ups… I just want a week where I don’t have any work…. I’m thinking once I’m done with my current commissions and book covers, I’m going to just sleep.

TAKE CARE OF TEETH.

Don’t be like me. Take advice from a regretful, upset person. Floss those teeth. Get your teeth checked at least once a year. Don’t wait like me and then suffer the consequences. Luckily my dentist didn’t laugh and say “I told you so” so that was nice I guess. But yes. I’m now booked for multiple expensive as hell operations on my teeth.

That’s it from me! Hope you guys are safe :)

See you at NZ Book Festival!

Hey everyone!

I honestly haven’t been able to write with the new addition to the family, and I’ve been feeling like I’ve neglected my other baby! (My first novel!)
To be honest I have been feeling sad that I missed going to the Sir Julius Vogel awards night and missed promoting the book… so when a fellow author Grace Bridges (Who writes amazing sci fi/fantasy books btw) invited me to share the stall with her and the rest of the SPECFIC group, I wanted to go!
It wasn’t without hesitation as it means I have to leave my 8 months old with the husband all day and how will I feed her? where can I go to pump? Will the two of the burn down the house???

In the end I decided A Dash of Belladonna needed to have some light.

I am scared as it’s my first festival, I only have one book compared to all these other authors with multiple books… and what if no one buys the books? Would I have sat there the entire day away from my baby for nothing???
I’ll try to push those fears aside…

I’ll have to draw up a poster, make some bookmarks and hey, I just happen to have ten limited editions (Those sticker versions!) available!

I’ll look towards the good stuff :)

Hope to see you guys there, and wish me luck!

Book launch for A Dash of Belladonna

I'm not sure what a successful book launch is: is it the number of books you've sold? The connections you've made? Or how many people turned up? 

I guess it depends on the author and the person who is organizing it. 

My book launch was a bit... different. More of an indie author doing it herself than relying on a publisher, due to our unique circumstances where our manager quit 2 weeks before my book launch... and no one could step up. It was either cancel the book launch, or organize it myself. (I was 36 weeks pregnant!) 
So this would be a good guide for authors who doesn't have a publisher, because I had to do this on my own! 

Well - I'd like to think it was a success! I was terrified no one would show up - but I had such wonderful supporters and friends show up! 

They even brought friends to buy my books! (ah what will you do without them) 

Most of the people who came already had their copies of the book, so sale wasn't the main priority... I aimed for this gathering for me to say 'thank you' to all my friends and readers, and hope they had a good time!

I was terrified no one would eat the food we prepared!
 

Those galaxy lemonades from Pinterest were amazing. 

We had some formal things like speeches, how A Dash of Belladonna got made and the journey of the book, but rest of it was hanging out with friends, talking and trying to get the quill to work to sign the books! (Learnt my lesson. Practice with quill and ink if you're going to bring a fancy quill and ink to a book launch) 
 

Things I've learnt from this book launch that I will remember for next time: (And hopefully this benefits other authors too!)

1: Have a clear objective in mind:

Do you want a public book launch where you want strangers to come? Or do you want it a close knit friends/readers only? 

I was going back and fourth with this one and in the end I went for friends only. Once I had that in my head, I was able to relax. 

If you're wanting a large gathering of everyone and anyone being invited, you need to plan quite early on. Put posters up. Ask the venue to put some up for you. 
And email a list out to absolutely everyone and anyone. 

In my case, I only invited those who already bought the book, or had been supportive of me writing and publishing this book. 

2: Have a budget in mind for food and stick with it! 

I went overboard with mine. 
I was so worried about not having enough food, I bought so much food - and in the end there were so much left overs! Remember that people don't come to book launches expecting to be fed. Especially when the book launches typically go for about 1-2 hours. 
If people are out of food, they're fine with it. People are there for books. 

3: Think of what you will sign on books.

I remember my first book I signed, I was so nervous I wrote something like "I hope you enjoy thanks." I had to ask for the book back so I could sign a different one. 

People will want your book signed. It's a given! Don't be shy! And although there's nothing wrong with signing the same message, it's good to prepare 3-4 different ones!

4: FIND WHERE THE AIR CON IS - I mean - don't be afraid to ask the venue person where things are. 

We all thought we were going to die. It was muggy, humid and it wasn't until someone yelled "THERE IS AIR CON" we all relaxed and cheered. 

5: Have people who will clean up/look after your guests. 

Why? Because you can't. You, the author has to run around making small talk and signing books. I had my husband, best friend, and husband's best friends do this for me. I owe them so much.

6: Assign someone to take photos!

I had people who took photos for me, and I had my husband take some. These days you can just get a good iPhone or Samsung phone to take great photos. No need to hire any photographers! 

Thank you everyone for coming, once again! It was a blast! I will never forget that day! 

Hope to see everyone again in my next book :)