This week for
Operation Author: 365 Actions to Becoming a Successful Author
I am still working through Gabriel's Game for NaNoWriMo and dedicating any time I can spare towards that goal. I'm still doing some small acts of marketing, but November's priority is writing.
This week, I have been preparing things for my launch events for Solomon's Secrets, despite my diversion to NaNoWriMo, I've still managed a few of my weekly seven actions:
1) I'm having a celebration event next Saturday, which is invitation only, where I will be sending my guests of a treasure hunt / pub crawl around King Street in Bristol. I've been putting together the clues and making up goody bags.
2) I fluttered my eyelashes at the nice man in Timpson's at Asda Bedminster and acquired a big handful of old keys for the treasure hunt.
3) Anything left over from Saturday's event will get used at the Launch Event at Small Bar on Wednesday 26th.
This is an open event and I'll be talking about my book and selling signed copies.
If you are in Bristol that evening and want to come along the details are on Eventbrite:
My biggest news this week, and most exciting was that I was interviewed on BBC Radio Bristol on Friday.
I always said I had a face for radio...hopefully a voice for it too...
It is possible to listen to the interview for 7 days after it was on, so hurry if you'd like to hear it:
I was interviewed by Steve Yabsley on the lunchtime show.
Here's some notes from part of it, in case you see this after the recording is available;
Steve: Amy has come to tell us about her new book, her second book, called Solomon's Secrets, written under a different name, Amy C Fitzjohn. It's a mystery adventure, a bit Indiana Jones-ish. Let's find out about you. You were born in Swansea, any memories of Swansea?
Me: Not really, I was a wee nipper when we moved away. We moved to the East Midlands, my mum's family come from the Leicester area
Steve: Then you moved to the South West. Where did you live in Somerset?
Me: Wellington, I don't have many memories of the East Midlands, we moved as a family when I was about 10 or 11
Steve: What about eduction, did you go to university?
Me: I didn't, well, I did for a week but that's another story.
Steve: Did they not like you or did you not like them?
Me: Well...I couldn't possibly say.
Steve: What were you hoping to study?
Me: English and teaching. I always thought I'd quite fancy being a teacher, but when it came down to it I didn't want to work in a school. I ended up taking a year out and my dad, who's probably listening, got me a job at the VAT office. I did that for a while and discovered a world beyond education.
Steve: These days you're a business trainer and entrepreneur and you have connections to Bulgaria. You lived there fore while, tell us about that?
Me: A few years ago my husband and I had a couple of properties which we sold and he was made redundant from his job. We'd always talked about living overseas.
Steve: What is it like as a country to deal with, is it safe?
Me: Yes, we got there when they'd just joined the EU, there is still corruption there but the solicitor we used was the most honest solicitor I've ever met, we also had some great agents there.
Steve: Were you selling property there?
Me: No, we bought an unfinished new build and did it up. We were thinking about starting a business but just wanted to experience living there.
Steve: What's wonderful over there is how the coast is quite well developed but you only have to go a few miles inland and it's like stepping back in time.
Me: It's amazing, our property is in an village called Nevsha with stunning scenery. Most people there are farmers and there are chickens and geese in the street. There are more horses and carts than cars.
Steve: :Let's talk about your passion for writing
Me: I started my first book as a teenager and got a lot of encouragement from my teachers. I finally finished that book, Running Free, while we were in Bulgaria. I'm now writing my fifth book. I had to write three pretty terrible books before I wrote something worth publishing.
Me: They are the hero and heroine of all the books. Sasha is quite conflicted and a bit of a loner. Much of Solomon's Secrets is set in Bristol and she's working at Bristol University but in the first book she's a student, working on a dig site in Bulgaria. An artefact goes missing and she is recruited by a covert organisation, The Agency, years later to find it. Her mentor at the site is suspected of stealing it and she is determined to clear his name.
Steve: What about Tom Sheridan?
Me: He is an Agent working for The Agency. Have you seen the movie, Monuments Men? Well I read the book and it inspired me to come up with an organisation that specialises in repatriating stolen antiquities.
Steve: Have you always had an interest in archaeology?
Me: I've always been interested in history and exploring. I travel quite a bit, especially around Europe, and I like to research the history of a place, spending time in museums and exploring.
Steve then described the books as:
Combining history and intrigue, travel guide and crime novel
I talked about my favourite writer, Paul Sussman, who influenced the genre I write in.
I then went on to talk about crowdfunding Solomon's Secrets and about the sales of my first book, The Bronze Box.
We discussed marketing and my mini manuscripts.
I've since updated the short stories about Tom and Sasha and will publish these versions another time
