So ten days into the new career, do I feel different? Yes, I feel like a little round plastic thingy, maybe yellow, maybe red, with a line of string tied around my waist – otherwise known as a yo-yo. My initial bravado of selling my writing was swiftly followed by an attack of inferiority complex and then the burdening weight of responsibility that when people read my books they are expecting the truth. The first two peaks and troughs seemed to have levelled out now but the responsibility still lingers.
I also felt this almost overwhelming feeling that now I was publicly trying to sell my name that I had a reputation to uphold. Now I know this is a delusion of grandeur but what if in the far off future somone says ‘No, I’m not going to buy Hannah Hooton’s book; I saw her littering at the train station’? In my defense I do try to avoid littering and what can you do if there are zero bins at the station? This public persona delusion seemed to fold pretty quickly when the day after At Long Odds went live I was slipping and sliding the half hour walk to the station at an icy six o’clock in the morning to catch the Cambridge train so I could attend eighteen hours of university and commuting. Oh yes, I was in a really chirpy mood. A group of youths, yelling and tripping over each other, approached and the one girl draped herself over me breathing toxic fumes into my face. Did I think of my author’s reputation at that moment? No, I was thinking how ridiculous it was to be still out drunk at six o’clock when I was on my way to work. So in no uncertain terms I told her where to go and shrugged her off. She then replied with some surprisingly imaginative insults.
Walking away, I thought that it was really quite ironic. I don’t recall ever telling anyone to eff off unless I was joking. I chose to curse publicly the first opportunity and really mean it not 24 hours after becoming published. Now, I’m under no illusions such a thing would have a long term detrimental effect, or indeed have an effect at all – the girl was obviously never going to recognise me again – but it did make me wonder.
That’s the psycho side of becoming published for the first time. The other side is the facts. I’m not about to list my sales numbers etc., but I am amazed and thrilled by just how well received the free promo weekend went for At Long Odds. It has resulted in some lovely reviews on both the US and UK amazon sites and my latest addiction is checking the Kindle Charts to see if it has moved in the last five minutes.
Naturally, my WIP is feeling ignored and unloved. To make it feel better I completed another chapter (hit the 40,000 word mark – hooray!) and played around with Title and Chapter headings. Oh, and I found a new picture for my hero, Rhys Bradford.
In other news, I’m preparing to do the last edit and polish of Keeping The Peace and finding someone capable of designing a cover to do it justice. With any luck that’ll be up for sale at the beginning of April*.
As part of my degree course myself and two other students made our first ‘movie’ on Monday. Untitled as yet, it is barely a minute long, is one continuous shot (project requirement) and runs to the soundtrack of Postman Pat (not project requirement). Not Scorsese-material yet, I grant you, but if you ignore my dodgy camerawork and Mark’s dodgy acting and everyone’s dodgy idea of mise-en-scéne, then I think we did all right. We’ll find out soon enough.
*deadlines have never been my friend so consider that date tentative
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