Where do I begin? Yes, I know, from the beginning…but blimey it’s been a bonkers busy few weeks since my last blog. Speaking of bonkers, what’s with the weather in Blighty? Blighty by name, blighted by umm nature? For two glorious weeks the heating was off (Ha! Take that, energy suppliers), waxing appointements were made, summer clothes were donned and bedlinen was reduced from umpteen million throws over a 12 tog duvet to just a 10 tog duvet (I’m getting old and feel the cold, allow it). And now? Well, the heating is back on as is my favourite hoodie and ONE throw. Welcome to Britain, where the weather goes from one end of the scale to the other, like Newton’s Cradle.
So, May 6 saw the launch of my ebook; Being Ines— succeeded straight after by the paperback. Getting there was a long but enjoyable journey. I have made many great friends from the #writingcommunity along the way who have been invaluable to the writing world. In January, I decided that I would query for three months and then look into being an indie author. I’m an indie music lover, so it seemed fitting. People have asked me why I didn’t pursue the traditional route. Honestly? I believe in the book, it’s a great story (in Jay-Z’s words- ‘If I do say so myself’) but I looked into the pros and cons, and although, yes, traditional publishing has the contacts and can help you get your book out there (which is great) I wanted to be in control of my debut novel. This is a book that’s so personal to me, that to then lose the rights, even partially, on my manuscript would have made me feel as though I’d sold my soul.
I made some faux-pas, even post publishing, which I have since amended, but again, learned valuable lessons. I’m working on book 2 as a sequel to Being Ines and this time, I know what I’m doing, should I decide to continue down the indie author route.
In all of this, the biggest hurdle I had to overcome, was to go public about my having Multiple Sclerosis. Very few people on my social media platforms know about it and so, not only writing about the condition in my novel, but writing about it in the ’About The Author’ section was huge. I felt that people would change their view of me and see a disabled person and feel sorry for me. I’ve often thought about talking openly about it on a scale as large as this but couldn’t. Then I thought, ’well it’s not like I’ve got ‘the clap’, so what’s there to be ashamed of?’ However, it took numerous lectures from my best friends to convince me that I really should do it, particularly because the content of Being Ines is so descriptive where physical symptoms and the effects of a diagnosis are concerned. If anyone’s qualified in it, it’s a veteran to MS of twenty-five years, right?
So, here I am. Officially an author who happens to have a crazy and calamitous life, a family that keeps me on my precariously balanced toes and the most wonderful friends…oh and MS. It feels great.
Take care, Eva x ©