Hello. Another quick message today, as I’m exhausted after my telephone interview with a very nice journalist called Coreena from the Sunday Sun. I know it sounds pathetic to be tired after a conversation, but this happens sometimes (Gordon and I even developed a kind of sign language so that I could ‘talk’ to him when I was very tired - you’d laugh at the sign for ‘toilet’ Laughing).

The journalist was very friendly, and I hope that I was able to answer her questions properly without wandering too much off track (as I’m prone to doing) - I’m sure we’ll see once the article comes out. And next, the bit I’m dreading: the photographer’s coming tomorrow. I’m not terribly photogenic, so I apologise if you have to look at my face over your conflakes on Sunday…

Off to lie down again now - too much excitement for one day!

I am sitting here, alone, fuming about something I’ve just read. In truth, I’m a bit upset about it too.

I’m a member of a number of book forums, and on this particular one, there are links to my website, etc. in my signature. I only did this because another forum member advised me to put my details in my signature, so that everyone knew my pseudonym - I personally didn’t set out to go on the site and promote my book (as you know, I’m the worst self-promoter in the world). Anyway, this particular ‘member’ seems to have a bee in their bonnet about the various mentions to Karma on the site, and seems to suggest that it’s inclusion is lowering the tone of the book forum! The thing is that many other links appear on the site: to other people’s websites, to books…and occasionally to some very dodgy sites indeed (but these are spam, to be fair). She seems to have a problem with me being there and I feel she has attacked my work.

When I think how hard it was for me to even complete the book, it get really frustrated that someone can dismiss my work just because it doesn’t fall within her view of literature. I respect anyone who has put in the time and effort to write a book, and certainly wouldn’t denigrate their work because it wasn’t within a particular genre.

I feel as though I am no longer welcome at that particular forum, which is very sad. I am also angry at myself that I allowed myself to be provoked into defending my work. Stopped short of picking her up on a word she mis-typed in her posting, though - that would have just been petty and childish…but it was tempting!

Glad I got that out of my system. Am a lot karma now - geddit? Calmer? Think I must be very tired to be coming out with pathetic puns like that! Laughing

My promotional leaflets arrived yesterday - they’re very nice. I’ve put my name down for the book event at Blaydon Festival in June - more details to follow. Am waiting to hear from Waterstones in Newcastle via Natalie, and hoping to speak to the Sunday Sun journalist this week. Still no word from Borders in Gateshead, but Natalie’s working on it. Just thinking, I never did hear anything from WHSmith…so the places that I thought were most likely to stock the book (ie those most local to me), WHSmith and Waterstones in the Metrocentre have shown no interest. Oh well, can’t win ‘em all! Ooh, one more thing before I go - I’m now in the A-Z listings of Literature Northeast with REAL writers:

http://www.literaturenortheast.co.uk/writers/Holly-Harvey

Bye for now!

I know I shouldn’t be updating my Blog at the moment, as I’m tired, cold and frustrated - I’m bound to sound negative, but wanted to write while it’s still fresh in my mind.

Waited for my promo leaflets to come, so I could give some out in Hexham, but they didn’t arrive. So decided to go up anyway, since my book was going to be on the Independent Northern Publisher’s stand - so what if I didn’t have leaflets, I could still talk to people, couldn’t I? Started the morning off well by going to Mrs Miggins’ Coffee House and having a fantastic bacon and mushroom sandwich, then headed off to Queen’s Hall to see what was going on (and for a brief photo opportunity). Not a lot happening, at this point, but they pointed me in the direction of the INP stand in the Market Place.

I scanned the stalls, unsuccessfully, looking for a copy of my book. I found the Mslexia stand (http://www.mslexia.co.uk/) and spoke to two very informative ladies, and have some info from them to look through. Mslexia is a magazine for women who write, and is published in Newcastle. I can honestly say that I hadn’t heard of the magazine until today, but it looks pretty good. Then I located the INP stand. The lady I spoke to admitted she had forgotten about me, and seemed to expect me to have copies of the book (she had none). It seems to have been a case of plain old misunderstanding, but I felt like a bit of an idiot and that it had been a wasted trip. Did sign up on their mailing list, so I’d be aware of future events, so it wasn’t a total loss (plus I managed to buy a book on Workhouses that I wanted, from Cogito Books, so that was good).

When I returned, Sarah told me that there’s a book event as part of Blaydon Festival, and I might be able to be a ‘Featured Author’. I have emailed the lady who’s organising it, and will let you know the outcome.

Feedback: pleased to report that I’ve had some good verbal feedback, which is great. Gordon thinks that Waterstones in Hexham have sold three copies of Karma (doesn’t sound many, but I’m calling it a success!). Natalie tells me that Waterstones in Newcastle are going to order some, and she’ll be in touch about me going in to sign their stock (not a book-signing, as such, but a ’signed by the author’).

And the quiz on Thursday? We started off well, but fell at the final hurdle again. Consoled ourselves with a kebab, so all in all, it was a good night.

Thank you to all the lovely people I have encountered this week who have told me they loved the book- I’m so happy that you enjoyed it! Really happy, actually Smile . Things are pretty quiet, from my point of view (that’s for Natalie’s benefit - I know things may be going on behind the scenes…) on the promotion front. Still plan to be at the Hexham Book Festival, handing out Karma leaflets and hopefully signing books that people have bought. At the moment, I don’t know where I’ll be and I don’t know when (except that it’s Saturday morning so I’ll have to tape Saturday Kitchen). No leaflets to give out yet, but sure they’re on their way.

The journalist that was going to ring me last week was unexpectedly very busy, so I’m expecting a call from her next week. Er, that’s it, I think. My creative juices have dried up, so not sure where to go from here. This feels like my only chance to make something of myself and I’m reluctant to just let it go and leave things to chance. I know I have some good friends out there pushing the book (and family: Catherine who’s introducing Karma to a US friend, and Michelle, who seems to have convinced most of the staff at Starbucks, Metrocentre, that they want to read it). I’ve also just discovered that my ol’ pal Stephen W has been reading my Blog - email me, so we can catch up!

On a happy note (and one unrelated to book sales), just found out that I won a Nintendo Wii - how cool is that? I hardly ever win anything: once entered a draw with three prizes, and only five of us entered. My friend and I won nothing! What are the odds??? I should know the odds actually, as I did GCSE Statistics…

I’m off now, as I’m going to have a rest before tonight. Sarah, Ian (Almost-Quiz Champion of Whickham, to give him his full title) and I are heading off to a quiz tonight. We had to call off our last quiz night, as I wasn’t up to going (would that have made a difference to team performance, I ask myself) so we mean business this time. And the drinks are cheap…