I just had to share!
My book has gotten a review on Amazon.co.uk and it is really positive :-) It says:
I really enjoyed this book, and devoured the whole thing in one sitting!
Great characters, fun story and looking forward to the next instalment.
Thank you very much who ever you are. Hopefully it is just the first of many.
Click here to link to The Flirting Games on Amazon.co.uk
Monday 29 April 2013
Can you ever date your best friends ex-boyfriend?
Can you ever date your best friend's ex?
Here's the scenario: Your best friend has been dating the same boy on and off for nearly five years. Now, finally she has met someone else she really likes and they are an established couple. You have secretly liked her ex boyfriend since the first day you met him but have never ever said so. After all, it is an unwritten rule that you have to stay away from him. But now they are broken up for good, is it possible?
Lets say you asked her and she said it was totally fine.You are sure she means it, but it's still a breach of the code right? I need some feedback! What are your thoughts on this?
Here's the scenario: Your best friend has been dating the same boy on and off for nearly five years. Now, finally she has met someone else she really likes and they are an established couple. You have secretly liked her ex boyfriend since the first day you met him but have never ever said so. After all, it is an unwritten rule that you have to stay away from him. But now they are broken up for good, is it possible?
Lets say you asked her and she said it was totally fine.You are sure she means it, but it's still a breach of the code right? I need some feedback! What are your thoughts on this?
Wednesday 17 April 2013
Why Writing a sequel is harder
I had already drafted three books before I sat down and started to write them. They are only 20,000 words each, and perhaps they are really just one book, but they are three different stories that happen within the same group of people at the same school.
The first story of Ellie and Nate wasn't that hard to write, mainly because I could change whatever I needed to as we went along to make it fit. That story is: The Flirting Games on Amazon now.
But now I'm writing the second story, that of Rose and Leo and I'm stuck within the world I created around Ellie and Nate. I cant change it now. If I suddenly want to put a moat around the school I can't or it would have been there before.
This book: More Flirting Games, also has to follow the format of the first one, where other peoples lives and characters and relationships are interwoven. There are other people who have a Point of View in my books, not just the main characters.
With The Flirting Games, you could read what Ellie and Nate were thinking, but at the same time Ellie's best friend Flora had her own storyline and a couple of chapters mixed in from her point of view. She is in love with Gabriel, who is Nate's best friend. But we also have some bits of the book from Gabriel's point of view and his own girlfriend troubles. He has yet to even notice Flora.
Then there is Sophie. She is like a main character who is never the main character. Her story runs right across all three books. She had an encounter with Jack, who is the older brother of Ellie, and the cousin of Rose, but Jack never calls her afterwards. At the end of Book 1 he finally contacts her. Now in Book 2 I have to continue that story, but not let it get too far alone as it has to carry on to Book 3 as well. And what about Flora and Gabriel? Do I carry that on? Am I assuming too much that my readers will care what happens to secondary characters after the main characters have worked everything out?
Only time will tell I suppose, unless you would like to tell me?
The first story of Ellie and Nate wasn't that hard to write, mainly because I could change whatever I needed to as we went along to make it fit. That story is: The Flirting Games on Amazon now.
But now I'm writing the second story, that of Rose and Leo and I'm stuck within the world I created around Ellie and Nate. I cant change it now. If I suddenly want to put a moat around the school I can't or it would have been there before.
This book: More Flirting Games, also has to follow the format of the first one, where other peoples lives and characters and relationships are interwoven. There are other people who have a Point of View in my books, not just the main characters.
With The Flirting Games, you could read what Ellie and Nate were thinking, but at the same time Ellie's best friend Flora had her own storyline and a couple of chapters mixed in from her point of view. She is in love with Gabriel, who is Nate's best friend. But we also have some bits of the book from Gabriel's point of view and his own girlfriend troubles. He has yet to even notice Flora.
Then there is Sophie. She is like a main character who is never the main character. Her story runs right across all three books. She had an encounter with Jack, who is the older brother of Ellie, and the cousin of Rose, but Jack never calls her afterwards. At the end of Book 1 he finally contacts her. Now in Book 2 I have to continue that story, but not let it get too far alone as it has to carry on to Book 3 as well. And what about Flora and Gabriel? Do I carry that on? Am I assuming too much that my readers will care what happens to secondary characters after the main characters have worked everything out?
Only time will tell I suppose, unless you would like to tell me?
Tuesday 9 April 2013
Flirting Tip - Body Language
An Except from upcoming book: More Flirting Games (Book 2 in The Flirting Series)
Due for release May 2013
Sophie and Fay were always flirting with boys. She could
practice some of the moves she had seen them constantly use to get boys to
notice them.
Sophie was more outgoing and used a lot of loud laughter and
hair flicking to attract boys to her side. Sophie said she enjoyed the game of
flirting so much that she went off a boy as soon as it actually seemed to be
going anywhere. However Rose knew that this was really because the only boy she
was remotely interested in was Jack and all others were just practice till the
day he noticed her.
She thought about the Sophie's techniques and she pondered on what Sophie would do. Ok, it didn’t require anything but him being in the same room. She wound a
lock of hair round her finger as she had seen Sophie do when flirting. She
played with it for a while slowly. Was he looking? She couldn’t check or he
might see.
At that moment Alex made a funny comment about Jack’s
intellectual powers as Jack dropped the lead piping in the game. Rose laughed
loudly and tossed her hair back.
He was bound to be looking over now. What should she do
next?
Ah ha! Sophie’s ‘I’m interested in you too’ double glance.
There was a masterpiece of body language, which she well remembered Sophie teaching
her.
The trick was to look up, see a boy looking at you, and then
look down and smile. If you looked to the left or right then it said “I’m not
interested” so it was important to look down. Hold the eyes down and smiling
pose for 2 seconds then look back up at him again. Hold his gaze for maybe
three seconds, which is too long for it to be meaningless, and keep smiling to
make yourself seem friendly and approachable. Then turn back to your friends,
more laughing and hair flicking, then time about 5 minutes for him to get the
nerve up to come over. Sophie swore it never ever failed.
Rose looked up. What were you supposed to do if he wasn’t
looking at you?
As if he felt her eyes he did suddenly look up only to catch
her looking at him! Damn damn! She was doing this all wrong. She smiled and
looked down. One – two. She looked back up just as Helena came into the room.
Leo was looking at Helena.
If you enjoyed this excerpt and would like to be kept informed when the book is released then please join the mailing list at: http://eepurl.com/wEMmD
Also available in this series:
Link to Amazon.com
Link to Amazon.co.uk
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Flirting-Games-Series-ebook/dp/B00C14KSH8/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1364378135&sr=1-1
Flirting Tip - Stalking
Excerpt from upcoming book : More Flirting Games (Book 2 in the Flirting Series) - due for release May 2013
Sophie and Fay were always flirting with boys. She could
practice some of the moves she had seen them constantly use to get boys to
notice them.
Fay, the more quiet and intellectual of the two, would
develop the hobbies of those boys who took her interest. She would learn all
about the subject and be able to impress if necessary. She would arrange ways
to constantly be bumping into the boy until he thought destiny kept throwing
them together. Rose would tease her that it was tantamount to stalking but it
did actually seem to work with alarming regularity and Fay was regularly asked
on dates.
She thought about the stalker technique. She already shared his
main interest of art. She was passionate about art and spent a lot of her spare
time in the school art studio. It was only now that she was thinking about it
that she realised that so did he. Other than that she couldn’t think of any
thing else he did regularly in his spare time. Reading perhaps, could she see
what he was reading? She tilted her head sideways to see into his lap. Oops! He
caught her looking at him, and not his face! Damn. She pretended she had been
bending down to pick up a piece of fluff from the floor. She would swear he had
that smug smile on his face again though. She could feel it from several feet
away. She tried to look focused on the board game.
Ok, she could find out what book it was later, and maybe get
a copy and read it as well. What else could she do that Fay would do? Run into
him more often. Well they in the same school house so they already had a lot of
lessons together. How could she mastermind doing that if it already happened
anyway? Hang on though, didn’t that mean she’d already got that one covered?
Plus she could see him more in the common room, maybe first thing in the
morning before anyone else was about, he was an early riser. But everyone knew
that, so wouldn’t it be a bit obvious if she suddenly started getting up early
and hanging out in the common room? Hmm, stalking was harder than it looked!
If you enjoyed this excerpt and would like to be kept informed when the book is released then please join the mailing list at: http://eepurl.com/wEMmD
Also available in this series:
Link to Amazon.com
Link to Amazon.co.uk
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Flirting-Games-Series-ebook/dp/B00C14KSH8/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1364378135&sr=1-1Tuesday 2 April 2013
Finally pushed the button
It's really wierd but when you load your first book up onto Amazon using Kindle Direct Publishing, you expect to feel excited happy thrilled celebratory! Instead I felt sick and nervous. I pulled it off and ammended it again four times before I could leave it there to finally bask in the glow of being available on the world wide web.
Then the sales started to trickle in and I began to wonder, who is reading it? The readers are nearly all in America, whereas I am English. Do Americans like my writing better than other English people?
I sat in fear awaiting my first review. After nearly a week of being published I finally got a review in the UK, a wonderful 5 stars, but still nothing in the US.
Oh well, I'm thrilled anyone is buying it at all. Just got to get the next book done now!!
Then the sales started to trickle in and I began to wonder, who is reading it? The readers are nearly all in America, whereas I am English. Do Americans like my writing better than other English people?
I sat in fear awaiting my first review. After nearly a week of being published I finally got a review in the UK, a wonderful 5 stars, but still nothing in the US.
Oh well, I'm thrilled anyone is buying it at all. Just got to get the next book done now!!
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