This is not the world I imagined when I started writing a dystopian novel – and certainly not the world I imagined releasing said novel into – but here we are. Just the first hints of dystopia.
Still there are worse things than putting your name out there through a book when many people are forced to stay indoors. It seems many have more time for reading – I’m even finding time and I’m still working full-time from home, launching this novel, revising Book 2 and continuing Book 3. People are in front of computers more, so there’s a greater chance of people finding my Facebook posts or website about the novel.
For me, COVID-19 is not stopping progress. It’s just changing the way I do those things. During the weekend that just passed, the soccer (football for my British friends) club I run was due to play their first game for the season. That would have meant hours of preparation of team sheets, ensuring equipment was supplied to all teams, scanning in sheets if any of our teams won – not to mention actually playing the game. Instead, I managed to add 7000 words to the first draft of my third book, Magicium: Disciples. And I still found time for fitness by doing some yard work and riding my stationary bicycle. Like I said, not stopping, just changing.
As I hope you have heard, my first novel, Magicium: Discoveries comes out in eBook form this Thursday on Amazon (actually, it’s out now but I’m trying to get everyone to buy on the ‘official’ release date!) It’s eighteen months since I started it and I have completed fifteen drafts. So, Thursday feels like one of the most exciting, important days of my life.
I’m having a launch party.
Of course, I can’t just have everyone over for a barbecue to talk about the novel and tell me I’m wonderful and let me know that I’m going to be a raging success. It can’t be a polite high tea over scones. I can’t even meet my mates at the local KFC and rip through a huge bucket of heart disease in one sitting.
No, we’re going to be meeting via Zoom. I’m inviting my alpha readers, my beta readers and anyone from my book club who has finished the novel (i.e. none of them) to play some games, share in some trivia and mark this event as the end of the first part of my journey. People from across the globe have been invited and it promises to be a small gathering – though hopefully we’ll all have a great time. Not stopping, just changing.
And at the end of that first day of sales, I probably will have sold twenty books on Amazon. But like all journeys, it starts with that first step. If you’re reading this, then I’m honoured to have you take that first step with me.
Adhering to social distancing protocols, of course.