The fifth book in the Escape Route Series, follows Victor as he escapes from an abusive relationship and attempts to rebuild his life.
As I mentioned in a previous blog, I find it hard to force myself to take a break from writing. But, with Victor out for a final beta read, it was essential that I do just that. Luckily I had booked three weeks in Europe, briefly passing through Ireland, to the North of England to visit my son and his family, then skipping across to the West of France to spend time with my daughter and her family, a final couple of days in Ireland with my siblings and back home to the US.
This was the first trip in 20 years that I had managed to talk my husband into accompanying me. It was exhausting but absolutely wonderful. Now I'm trying to shake the jet lag and get my head back into my writing.
I have one last polishing task to do before pushing Victor out for all of you to enjoy. And yes, to answer a question a number of you have asked, there will be a Book 6, but I'm not sure if that will be the last in the series. Perhaps, but if so I will have to come up with something else to write. But first, in order to get Victor out to you, I need to clear this brain fog caused by international travel. That's why I turn to my blog to get my fingers and my head back in the game.
Writing is such a strange activity. It's very solitary, probably one of the reasons I do it, I like being solitary, not just on my own, but in silence. I tried having music in the background while I write, but it distracts me. Then, you invent people, and their stories—stuff that never even happened to people who never existed, and you write, or in my case, type it all down. What on earth made me think anyone would be interested in reading fiction my crazy mind conjures up? Mind you, not all of it is entirely fiction. Everything I write is written based on personal experience, observation, or second hand experience, that is, things that family and friends have experienced and related to me, woven into something I hope is readable.
The bit I don't like about being a writer, is the marketing. Oh, I don't mind writing a blog about the upcoming publication. It's the selling of the books that is so difficult. As I said in previous blog posts, it's difficult to ask people to be beta readers. Asking someone to give up their time to read a manuscript, and then comment on it for my benefit—that's hard. It feels very demanding. But asking people to pay out money to purchase a book you have written, a book they may not enjoy. That is very difficult. As a result, I don't do very much of that. I do create some Facebook ads. and I am making an effort to master Amazon Ads, not nearly as easy. But I don't do all of the other marketing work recommended by writer groups. So, I guess it's kind of surprising how many books I have actually sold, in the US, UK, Canada and of course, Ireland.
Thank you all for being my readers! Please consider leaving a review on Amazon, that really does help to sell books.
If you haven't read any of the books in the Escape Route Series, here is a link to them on Amazon (the US site). They are also available on all of Amazon's other sites. They are best read in sequence, but that is not necessary. I have made an effort to make each book readable on it's own merits. All of the books are available in Audio, eBook (Kindle), Paperback, Hardback and of course, Kindle Unlimited.
