The toils of the self published author and a sheet of cookies to help us get by


And here I am, this time no so long after my last post, huh? Something's picking up? Maybe. Not that the workload has diminished, at all, I'm still up to my elbows in all I can do to get everything going. Still keeping up with social media, which in fact robs me of so much time, but has to be done, right now that is my only means to get an audience and spread word on my work. As I plan on getting a few promos going for my books, I need to spend time advertising them online, and that demands I get working on those graphs before I set the campaigns so I can use them all around! So that's been taking up a bit of my time, and I'm still hoping for the results to start showing - hope is eternal, know what I mean? Another thing that's been eating my time is that one final round of edits on my next release. Avalon Hall has reached the stage of the out-loud read, where I am usually confronted with problems in the flow and sense of the narrative. So far, it's not been too bad, I've had to tweak a few sentences, work on a few paragraphs so the reading is easier and more alluring. It's not going too bad, but it's so time consuming! Seeing that I'm doing this on the afternoons - as my mornings are usually dedicated to writing - and I only get two entire afternoons where I'm alone and can read out loud without disturbing anybody else... it's taking longer than I wished. Nothing to it but keep going, perhaps tweak my schedules a little, change the writing hours here and there to get more out of my time. I really want to get this done by the end of this month, you see.


Because next month I want it to be all about formatting and preparing the MS for digital and print, and this tends to take a while, and get me a few headaches. Seeing that my time is not my own, I have no idea how much I can allot to this task, but I need to have a print copy on my hands by July so I can takle those final reads where usually the odd typo or grammar fluke that eluded every other edit comes screaming to my face. This is a lesson hard learnt throughout these four years of self-publishing, that something will always escape your eyes. Especially if you have to do it all by yourself - hey, I'm sure not gonna tell any other self-published author they need to hire professional proofreaders and editors, because I know not every one can afford to, no matter what others say. It's fine if you do it on your own, but it is a lot of work, and it demands that you read and read and read through it so you manage to correct at least 90% of the bits and pieces certain readers tend to search for so they can hang us indie authors from the rope and crucify us. Actually, what's up with that, why this overwhelming demand on self published writers that they are more than perfect, they are pristine? Not even trad publishing goes without the odd typo and the editing we may not like or agree to, so why this demand on indies who do it all alone, why the incapacity to cut us a little slack? I'm not talking blaring grammar mistakes and typos, here. Just... some slack. Some readers go into a book obsessed with FINDING something wrong with it so they can hand out terrible reviews to indies. Why? They must get a real kick out of that.


Last, but not least, I've started another book. Two weeks into what was supposed to be a novella, and I'm already over 40000 words in, so it's gonna be a novel instead. I can't afford to take any of it away, not in such an amount as to keep it a novella, seeing I'm not even halfway into the story yet! This one is for those fans of the Blood Trilogy, and it takes place in the years between Marcus's death and Cai's trip to Scotland in search of their father. So I kind of neede to stock up in cookies for all this extra load of work I tend to dish upon myself. Luckily, hubby stepped up and made me these beauties. Delicious and buttery they are, and filled with an array of seeds that gives them extra crunchiness. So here's how you can bake your own batch:
  • 350 gr flour
  • 250 gr cold butter
  • 175 gr dark muscovado sugar
  • 50 ml milk
  • 1 egg
  • 6 tbsp mixed seeds
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp baking powder
Mix the baking powder and flour together. Pour over a clean, cold surface and make a circular hole in the middle. Add the sugar, butter, milk, vanilla and egg. Combine the ingredients into a dough. Add the seeds and knead very softly, to bring it all together. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for half an hour. After that time, bring the dough out and roll it over a floured surface. Cut into the shapes you prefer. Transfer the cut cookies into a baking tray lined with baking parchement and bake in the oven for about 12 minutes at 170º. Allow to cool over a rack before trying to even taste them, unless you burn your tongue!



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