A 50/50 month

Blog post for April 1st.

As a Christian, I have faith that God will keep an eye on me when the going gets tough, but I think He took some time off at the beginning of the month and left me to flounder as I grappled with technology and near cardiac arrest (I’m joking about that). My Facebook account got hacked, and my account was closed down after £400 had been paid out in error. It would be an understatement to say I was pee’d off and tearing my hair out — not that I have much.

I had to call my bank and ask them to lift the block I’d put on Facebook. Simple request, eh? Have you ever had to deal with a call centre? I had to explain to the lady that I had no idea what she was saying because of her accent. Eventually, she passed me on to a chap who also had the same accent. It took almost thirty minutes to resolve the problem. It meant I could now open another FB account and post another Ad campaign. So, heart rate back to normal, and a smile on my face.

Until I decided it was time to change my Tesco Mobile phone.

I went to the Tesco shop in Shripney and ordered a new phone with a contract extension. No problem — my phone would be delivered the following day. I took it in two days later for the changeover. The guy made a start and then told me it would take two and a half hours for the transfer to complete, which meant I had to stay within Wi-fi range of the shop. To say I wasn’t pleased would be another understatement. Why didn’t he tell me this before he started?

By now my birthday month was on a downward spiral. I ordered a slow cooker thinking it might improve my cooking skills. I bought a small one (£15) and popped down to the new butcher in Pagham Parade for some lamb. I Googled the whys and hows for lamb stew and a slow cooker and set myself to become another Gordon Ramsey. Suffice to say I shouldn’t have bothered; the whole thing was a failure, and the cooker has ended up in what I call my Room 101.

And if you think my month could not have got any worse, I picked up a speeding ticket in Chalcraft Lane where I always obey the speed limit (so I thought). Cost me £100. But there was light at the end of the tunnel, and God was stirring. It was my birthday on the 18th (84), and over that weekend I had visits from two of my boys, my grandson, Adam, and his partner, Agata, and plenty of cards and cake at my Church House Group meeting.

So at last God was beginning to smile on me and giving me the nod of approval for my next foray into the world of technology and advertising. I decided to create a campaign for my WW2 story, Shadow Over Paris. What happened next is beyond belief. My book started selling and gathering Kindle 'page-reads' at, for me, a phenomenal rate. It reached number 10 in the top 20 of Historical French fiction, even leap-frogging Kate Mosse! Last night, the end of the month, it had notched up 42 orders and over 11000 page reads (that's in nine days!). And the trouble is: I don’t know what I’ve done to make this happen — my ads usually notch up a few sales, but nothing on this scale. The campaign is due to run until April 21st, so I’m hoping it will stay strong until then when I’ll create another campaign.

Another project I started on was to edit my short novel, Max and Emma. It’s the pure love story from my family saga, Past Imperfect, I got the rights back for that book from my American publisher, which I can republish after April 21st. But I published Max and Emma and immediately unpublished it a couple of years ago so I had the paperback in my hand. Now I’m planning to put it out as a stand-alone Romance with a ‘spoiler alert’ inside to explain that it has been taken from the full length novel.

Meanwhile, I have two manuscripts with two separate publishers who will almost certainly turn me down. This is simply because of my age and the fact that my ‘career’ is behind me rather than ahead of me. It happens all the time, so I know what to expect. The two books have already been published by the way, so I will have lost nothing.

And despite all that has gone before me this month, I still had to walk the dog, do the washing and ironing, gardening, church, visit my Granddaughter, Gemma and her family in Brighton, go to a book club meeting in Littlehampton and grab 15 minutes in the armchair each afternoon until Tuppence wakes me up to remind me it’s time to share an apple (yes, she does, the little sod). But I mustn’t grumble; life’s okay, the sun is shining and, thank God, we are not living in an earthquake zone. I’ll be back next month with more tales of… Whatever. Wish me luck!

                                                                                                                               Michael.

A Spanner in the Works

Writing a monthly blog shouldn’t be too difficult, and it’s not as if there was a deadline to meet other than a self-imposed one. My intentions were honest and sincere at the beginning of the year, but somehow, February came along and screwed up all those good intentions. I decided to revisit Facebook ads, something I hadn’t done for several months, with the intention of pushing my WW2 story, Shadow Over Paris, and capitalising on the strength of Facebook advertising. But the trouble came after I’d set up a short campaign — my account got hacked and I ended up losing it. Facebook closed it down because of a ‘Violation’ of their terms. Long story short: I had to block FB from taking money from my account until I could resolve the problem. It proved beyond impossible to do that; the recovery codes FB sent me to recover my account proved to be invalid. I Googled the question only to learn this was a common problem. I have since started a new account using a different email address but I am now in the throes of rebuilding my ‘Friends’ list.

My book sales were bouncing along at about one or two a day, and my Kindle page reads were building nicely, reaching almost 4000 during the month. I then got interested in a promotional advert for ‘Click-testing’, which, if it worked, could result in phenomenal book sales each month. The challenge was to accept that it would not be cheap — $30-$40 a day, and what promised to be a lot of work. I watched the promotional video; it was 30 minutes long and was encouraged by what and who I saw: people I’d met and others I was aware of. I was psyching myself up to bite the bullet when the Facebook fiasco started. Consequently, because the Click-testing strategy relies on FB ads, I had to give the idea up. However, I’m seriously considering diving into Click-testing but probably not until sometime next month.

I went to a book club meeting in Littlehampton where I met an incredibly talented and determined woman by the name of Sarah Jouault. Sarah has been competing in Ironman championships and triathlon events for twenty years. She is seventy and competed in the World Ironman Championship in New Zealand last year. Coincidentally, our Grandson, Jamie, who lives in Canada, competed in the same event. That made an immediate connection between me and Sarah. You can learn more about this extraordinary woman on her website https://jouault.uk.

At the moment I am not writing. It’s an unusual situation for me, and one I don’t enjoy; I need to be writing. But I just can’t write anything without some kind of inspiration. I did think I would be writing a follow-up to my WW2 story, Shadow Over Paris, and even bought a couple of books to continue with the research, but unfortunately, I’ve lost the urge to write. I hope it won’t last long although I do have a project on the go.

Over three years ago my book, Past Imperfect, was published by the Wild Rose Press in America. It was originally published by Robert Hale of London several years ago. The story is a family saga stretching over forty years with a modern love story paralleling the saga and finally merging in the end. I produced a paperback of the love story (not for publication) because I thought it would make a good novella. I asked WRP for the rights back, which they granted, and I will be able to publish the love story after April 21st. Perhaps once that is out there, I might find the inspiration to write again.

I am still advertising, but on Amazon, and although I am selling the occasional book, my page reads are building. So far this month (17 days), they have reached just over 4000. With luck they could hit 5K by the end of the month. It’s my birthday tomorrow (I’ll be 84), so more book sales and page reads would put a beaming smile on my face. Wish me luck!

And so the year begins.

January 2025 blog post

How time flies; here we are again at the start of a new year probably filled with hopes of renewal, revival, peace and goodwill to all, and a cure for cancer. Fat chance. But it is what it is, and we have to endure whatever is thrown at us, good or bad. For me the start of 2025 has been more like ‘good’ and ‘not so good’, but I can’t complain; I’m still here. Oh, and I wish you all a happy New Year.

I started my year with a glimmer of hope for my latest book Shadow Over Paris because it was selling well and gathering ‘Page reads’ on Amazon since I published it in November. I began campaigns in the USA, UK and France (tongue in cheek, that one!) but none of them proved fruitful. The campaigns have now finished, so it’s a case of back to the drawing board. More about my world of books later though.

My long-standing Dimple Optimyst fire finally gave up the ghost after ten years of faithful service, which meant buying a new fire. The Optimyst cost £900 ten years ago and is now nudging almost double that figure. I ended up buying an electric fire with remote controls and a wizard looking flame effect. It came as a flatpack and took me three hours to assemble it and have it up and running. The old fire went to the rubbish dump. My good neighbours, Rick and Ann, took the rubbish away for me, bless them.

January is something of a special month for me because it includes my lovely Pat’s birthday and our wedding anniversary. Pat would have been 83 on the 14th, and we would have been married 65 years on the 19th. On Pat’s birthday I got quite maudlin, so I took myself off to Bognor for a walk to clear my head. On the 19th. I had an anniversary lunch with my sister-in-law, my niece and her mum over at Nutbourne. My siblings have their dates in January too, although my sister is no longer with us. Oh, and my neighbours, Rick and Ann, took me out for lunch at the Lion because of my special dates. It was a great afternoon. I think I did most of the talking though, which seems to be de rigeur for me.

Back in the world of books, I read my Romance, Max and Emma and decided to see if I could get the rights back from my American publisher, Wild Rose Press. They held the rights to my family saga, Past Imperfect, which are not due to expire until May 2026. Max and Emma is the love story that runs parallel to the saga. I published the book simply to get a printed copy in my hand and then immediately unpublished it. So, I wrote to the CEO at Wild Rose Press and asked if she would cede the rights back to me. She agreed! I was chuffed to bits. I have to wait 90 days before I can publish the book as my own again, but I’m planning a simple edit on Max and Emma and then to publish it as a straightforward Romance on several online platforms. I will also re-publish the full-length saga, Past Imperfect.

A ’not so good’ day happened when I went to use my desktop computer, which I rarely use and haven’t touched since well before Christmas. I wanted to check a file I believed was on there, but my PC wouldn’t switch on. I took it along to Scanstation in Rose Green only to be told it was dead (as a parrot). I decided to have all the files transferred from the hard drive to a memory stick rather than fork out about £1200 for a repair. Fortunately, I have my laptop (two in fact), so I can still be productive (he says).

I also managed to attend an online funeral for an old mate of mine in Australia. Well, not ‘attend’; that would have been three o’clock in the morning. Pat and I used to visit Rod and his lovely wife, Peggy in Adelaide whenever we went out to Australia. They came to visit us when we lived in Spain. But Tempus fugit and, sadly, time caught up with Rod.

I bought myself a patio cleaner. Tried it out briefly and, hopefully, it will go a long way to giving me a clean driveway and footpath. The garden has been on my mind a lot lately because of the weather: it’s been comparatively mild, which has allowed the weeds to keep growing. Like most of us, I’m faced with a lot of hard work once the weather improves; so, my patio cleaner should help a bit.

I’m now faced with an unusual situation, for me anyway, in that I have nothing to write and no inspiration to do anything. It must be something to do with my age and the fact that it all seems to be so much of a struggle. My eldest son tells me I’m suffering from the so-called SAD syndrome — Seasonally Affected Disorder. He may be right, but I think I’m just feeling lazy. Once the sun starts shining, perhaps I’ll spring into life and end up with a brilliant garden and a best-selling novel. I hope so.

I've created three advertising campaigns for three of my books — The Devil's Trinity; Shadow Over Paris and The Eagle's Covenant. (I'm a glutton for punishment!). They will run for February, but I will have to keep an eye on them just in case they start selling, which is unlikely with my record of advertising success. I often say that if I was a racehorse, I wouldn't put money on me.

So, that's it for another month. I'm now five months away from my trip to Atlanta in July. When I booked the trip, it was eight months away. How time flies. I hope you all enjoy a fruitful 2025. Me too!

Wish me luck!

Michael