The paperback came out today!
And it's in Tesco's, which is unexpected and amazing. The big supermarkets like books that are either by established authors or non-fiction. Début authors are less represented, and fantasy is not very commonly sold by them. So it was a coup for the sales team - I can't imagine how they did it but I hope the book rewards their hard work! It's also in bookshops, apparently. I shall scour local shops anyway. Wow! It's hard to believe even though we talk about it with my agent and editor, and they talk as if it's all quite normal. It still seems strange to me!
We've found a lovely house in Torrington, which is sort of in the middle of Devon and the house is great. I don't know if we could sell quickly enough to secure it, but it gives me hope that the right sort of houses are out there. So much for downsizing though - moving this year we still need 5/6 bedrooms! The cats might find the road a bit busy but they aren't going out much now, and all the mouse/vole/sunshine action is definitely at the back - gardens south facing and overlooking fields. All cool.
I'm still working on book 2 - once I get into editing it's very satisfying, and thanks to all my beta readers and my editor, it's a straightforward process. I think I'm the one who wants to make the most changes, just because I want it as clean and coherent as possible but also because I know what happens in book 3!
...since I blogged. Life is massively complicated at the moment, but not necessarily bad. We've decluttered, painted, cleaned and packed our house up to within an inch of its life. We've viewed houses, had estate agents round, we're seriously moving. I'm editing, cooking, sorting, packing and keeping an eye on Rightmove. But there's a distracted part of me that is thinking what plants I ought to get in the garden, what seeds should have already gone in, the state of the raised beds and their weeds. I'm fretting that the poor chickens haven't been able to go out in the yard since the storms blew their fence to bits. I'm thinking about book 4 when I need to concentrate on book 2 and 3. I'm definitely distracted.
February blew through with such a drama I almost forgot March would follow behind. There are fat bumble bees feeding on the winter honeysuckle, a couple of butterflies have already wandered up to the spring flowers. The cats have spent time rolling around on the garden steps absorbing the energy. It is time to put the cancer drama behind us a bit and think of it as just another job. So I'm looking forward.
I've booked a course at Arvon to spend some time looking at poetry. I'm going to step out of the selling and buying a house/radiotherapy world to go and do something truly creative. I'm looking forward to it but I'm also terrified. Poetry is something I would love to do better but I think (for me) it's the hardest thing. I think I've spent longer on a single poem than on a whole chapter of a book. I've prepared by looking at Mimi Khalvati's poetry and love it. I'm sure I'm going to get loads out of the week, providing I'm not too stressed out to go! So we're renting a shipping container and moving most of our possessions there to make moving easier. I'm enjoying having a lot of the clutter out of the way - I'm wondering if we should just leave it all in the container...
