Back again

Well, I didn’t think I would be back this soon, but I’ve done a kind of ‘workaround’ to satisfy my own concerns with leaving Pat on her own. Followers of my blog will know Pat has been battling with cancer for almost fifteen months now, and to maintain my blog and my writing, it meant spending time in my room while Pat was on her own in the front room. It bothered me and seemed so unfair to her, which is why I called a halt. But now I am able to use my laptop, having transferred what I need, and I can be in the room with Pat while I write the blog. Hopefully I’ll be able to pick up my writing again. The desire never left me, but the inclination did. So, where are we with health and creativity issues?

Pat has begun chemo again and has now had her second dose. It’s different to the chemo that nearly killed her last year; this is a fortnightly session which will go on for four months. It seems to be more forgiving, but it is chemo, nonetheless. She did well with the first session, safely navigating the two weeks without any major dramas. I still have to give her tummy jabs in the middle section of the two weeks: this is to help her immune system, and it’s at this point in the chemo where she is at her most vulnerable to infection etc.

On the book front, I have written virtually nothing; just dribs and drabs. I tested out my ‘new’ way of writing — sitting in the front room with Pat, but it took some getting used to, and there were always distractions, but I need this kind of diversion to help cope with looking after Pat. As most writers understand; writing is a lonely occupation and needs to be done somewhere ‘safe’. A garret in an old town, maybe. But seriously, we all occupy that metaphorical garret when and wherever we sit down to write.

I’ve spent some money on advertising; not a lot, simply because I still have to understand the finer points of Amazon ads and how to drill down into the minutiae and sell books. I made one dreadful mistake a month ago. I started a campaign for one of my books and instead of bidding $0.30 (30 cents), I bid $30! I forgot to check where the decimal point was. Consequently, I received an email from Amazon to say my budget had been exceeded — I’d spent $150 in less than 24 hours! I won’t make that mistake again (hopefully).

I am in the process of having a new jacket designed for my romance Past Imperfect. Once I have it, I’ll promote it on AMS. The reason for the jacket change is simple: the old one just didn’t work. I sold three copies in twelve months because it has no appeal.

That’s about it for now. Oh, I stopped writing this an hour ago and took Pat out for a walk in her wheelchair. The sun was shining, no wind, and a lovely time to get her out. She loved it. Hopefully I’ll post a blog each week, but in my current situation, nothing is written in stone. Just keep an eye open and wish me luck!

Pulling back and stepping down.

The caption says it all: this will be my last blog post. It isn’t a decision I’ve come to suddenly; the thought has been in my mind for a while, no doubt because of the uncertainty with Pat. We saw the haematologist last Thursday, hoping to hear she could go back on chemo, but unfortunately she isn’t well enough. There are two problems, and one needs to be tackled before they can think about chemo, so the doctor has put Pat on steroids in the hope she’ll regain the strength she needs to fight the cancer. The underlying message though was not helpful.

Spending time in front of my computer while Pat sits alone in the front room, just so I can maintain an on-line presence, seems selfish and unnecessary, so that’s one of the reasons I’m packing it in. I stopped writing some time ago even though I still retain the desire to write, but the inclination is no longer there. I cannot see me being creative in any way for some considerable time either. At the moment I am committed to a multi campaign on Amazon ads, and will need to check in on that from time to time. Once the ads have run there course, I may not bother to put them up again.

I started this blog about seven years ago while living in Spain. The idea was to engage with people and, hopefully, establish a kind of rapport with them. I know that my blog is read all over the world, but the number of readers never rose above about one hundred. My family and friends read my weekly posting, and I know of two ladies in America who became on-line friends after Pat and I met them on an Alaskan cruise who read it. That’s Mary Beth and Julia (in case you two are reading this). So although I know some of my readers will be disappointed, I just cannot summon up the will to compose a chatty column each weak and fill it with good news, little jokes and bonhomie.

There is really nothing else for me to say now, other than to thank all of you who have taken the time to comment on my posts, and to wish you all the happiest of Thanksgiving (for my American friends) and a Happy Christmas to all those who choose to celebrate our Christian Festival. And for those who are neither one nor the other, thanks anyway.

Mick.

Climbing mountains

The week began poorly for Pat, but she has made good progress now. Her situation prompted me to make two decisions which resulted in a chest X-Ray on Tuesday and then a doctor’s appointment for another problem on Thursday. She is now on a different antibiotic tablet because her infection was resistant to the earlier one prescribed. I constantly find myself in the invidious position of having to diagnose Pat’s problems and hope I get them right. I have now added a finger oxygen monitor to the paraphernalia I use to keep an eye on her. I’ll be wearing scrubs next!

On Wednesday evening I went along to the Chindi Christmas Book launch at the Swan Hotel in Arundel. You can see the book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Feast-Christmas-Stories-Unwrap-Sussex-ebook/dp/B07WSGPKMP/ref. As I mentioned in my post last week, I had agreed to take Beryl Kingston along. Beryl was our celebrity guest: an author who has sold over a million books no less. I knew Beryl had contributed a short story to the book about growing up in war-torn London, so I asked her about that and about living in the big city during the war (me too). It turns out we were both brought up within couple of miles of each other: Beryl in Tooting and me in Wandsworth. I lived in the Garret Lane which ran from Wandsworth to Tooting (about two miles away). So as you can imagine, we got on like a house on fire. Beryl is almost 90 years of age and has a tremendously strong spirit for her age. We spent the car journey talking about London and the book world, and I was also able to catch up with her during the book launch once she’d finished ‘mingling’. Quite an evening for me; not because I had the pleasure of Beryl’s company, but also to be able to indulge myself in the world of writing and talking to like-minded people. Great evening. I had a friend from church come in that evening to look after Pat, which gave me the opportunity to spend a few hours out of the house.

My reading this week is a crime novel by Neil Lancaster called Going Dark (1912946068 is the ASIN number if you like well written crime novels). Finally I have a book which I’m enjoying and not moaning about.

On the subject of Amazon book numbers (ASIN), I have just finished uploading forty campaigns to Amazon Ads, with another twenty to go. I used ASINs to search for relevant best sellers on Amazon, and from there produced numerous books through a site called Yasiv.com (free by the way). Sometimes I would get as many as 300 connections to one ASIN. From there is was a case of jiggery-pockery and the confusing world of Excel spreadsheets to produce suitable keywords for my campaigns on Amazon. Sound confusing? You bet; it took me hours to learn how to do all this, courtesy of Bryan Cohen’s excellent AMS ads course. Twenty more campaigns to upload and I will have sixty running for a month. This is all for my book, The Boy from Berlin. If all this works, I’ll see a positive upswing in my book sales which are trickling along the flat, bottom line with an occasional spike. Do I worry? Got more than selling books to worry about. Wish me luck.