Divorcees.Biz - Book Cover

Here is the cover of my latest novel, Divorcees.Biz. I love it!!

It says everything about the story - fun, quirky and frothy.

I hope you all like it, too.







I don't have the date of publication at the moment, but we are getting close.

I hope all is well in your world.

Cheers!

Divorcees.biz Update!!

I have just finished the first edits of Divorcees.biz and returned them to the publisher. Wow, my eyeballs were on stalks by the time I got through it all.  However it means we are one step nearer to publication.

Another piece of news, we have agreed on the back cover blurb so the first proof of the cover is almost ready. I can't wait to see it. I will display it here once it has all been finalized.

On a different note, we spent the morning changing the spare room around.  My computer is now where Phil's Keyboard use to be, and his Keyboard is going to be in the spot where my computer was.  We still have to get around to sorting that. I have to say we were shattered by the time we got this far. This means that the room is in turmoil at the moment, while the Keyboard is stretched out on our bed!! I hope it isn't getting too used to being there, as there won't be enough room for the three of us in the bed tonight :-)

Once I finish this, I am going to shut the door on the spare room and go into the sitting room to read a book.

Hoping to go on a trip to Carlisle on Wednesday.  So watch this space for more news on the trip.

Have a great day wherever you are

Cheers!!

More Excitement! Or is it Anticipation?

More excitement!  Is that possible? After my last piece of news about the acceptance of my novel, Divorcees.biz for publication, I would have thought that was enough excitement it for the next year. But then I was forgetting the excitement of discussing a cover for the book and the anticipation of waiting for the edits to come through.

I have seen a sketch of the cover and I am really very pleased with it. So now I am looking forward to seeing the completed drawings. As for the edits... well they are something else. Will I recognize my story when the editors have checked it over and made all the necessary corrections? Will it still sound as frothy and as quirky as it once did? Will Sadie still be the down-to-earth, matter-of-fact, scatty woman she was when I first created her? Will Connie....?  Stop!!

I have got to stop thinking like this. I have got to get a grip. Of course everything will be as it was. Except my errors will have been corrected and the whole thing will flow much better.

Changing the subject completely before my nails are chewed down to the quick, my friend and I took another trip to Newcastle on Wednesday. It seems to have become a bit of a habit.  What am I talking about?  Bit of a habit, it has definitely become very much a habit - full stop. But what a wonderful habit. Just to wander around the shops and hear the familiar Geordie accent is beyond words. If you haven't been to Newcastle-on-Tyne, then you have really got to try it sometime. And once you are there, you must try the M&S Deli cafe - bar on the ground floor of the food hall.  It is wonderful. The seating is set out in a sort of horse shoe shaped arrangement near the back entrance so you can't miss it. The staff are brilliant, even though they are often rushed off their feet, they always make time to chat to the customers as they dash around.

Of course I had to treat myself to something. Having travelled the seventy miles down to Newcastle, how could I not treat myself to something?  Anyway on this visit it was a new skirt, which I am rather pleased with. Perhaps next time I will get a top to go with it.  :-)

Well I think I have rambled on enough for the moment. Once I have more news about the cover and the edits, I will be back....  So watch this space!!

Have a great day,

Cheers!!

Exciting News!!

I have just had the most wonderful news. My novel, Divorcees.biz, has been accepted for publication and I have signed a contract with Salgad Publishing  If that is not exciting news, then I don't know what is!!

I am still pinching myself as it all happened very quickly'. After reading the opening chapters, the publishers were back to me within three days  asking for the full manuscript, which must mean enjoyed it. Now they are keen to publish on Kindle in time for Christmas. Hopefully printed copies will follow, as I have already had people, who I know don't have readers, asking me for details.

How refreshing it is for a publisher to get back to the author so quickly. Usually it is a long drawn out affair and by the time they respond, if they do at all, the author has begun to lose the will to live. So well done, Salgad Publishing.

Briefly, the novel is about four divorced women, who decide to set up an online dating agency for divorcees. Set in London, the story is more about the four women rather than the agency itself and I have tried to keep the whole thing light, fun and quirky, a complete contrast to my last novel, The Trojan Project, which was a thriller.

Now I am waiting for the editors to sort it out and for the art dept to come up with a lovely cover to match the story. I guess that is all I can say about that at the moment, but I will keep you up to date with events as and when.

Meanwhile, we are home from a ten day break in Herefordshire, where we stayed at Holme Lacy House Hotel. We were so lucky with the weather, beautiful blue skies every day. Therefore we were able to take advantages of the lovely gardens surround the hotel. The hotel also had some wonderful lounges, where you could relax and read a book while sipping a glass of wine or a tea or even coffee. I guess you already know which I chose. :-)

I think that is all for the moment

I hope your day is going as well as mine.

Cheers!

New Title for my Divorcees Novel!!

I have not only finished writing my novel, but I have also changed the name. Divorcees.com that was, is now Divorcees.biz

A friend pointed out that, as divorcees.com is already a registered name for a Website, I might have a few problems if my book was ever published and became an overnight success (overnight success, wow - got to smile here).  Anyway, I sought the advice of The Society of Authors and they agreed, there could be a problem.

That being the case, I decided the wisest course of action was to change the name. I have also bought the domain name for two years, so this can't happen again. Once I get the Website going, I will use it to promote my novel Divorcees.biz

Meanwhile I have been through the whole manuscript twice doing some much needed edits and will probably start going through it again. Then the next big thing will be to try to find a lovely publisher, who will be delighted to read the novel and decide to publish.  If a publisher just happens to stumble on this blog post and would like to take up the challenge, then please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Is it only me, who feels a little sad when they reach the end of a novel? Strange how I feel as though I am losing old friends.

In my last blog, I told you all about my new phone. (The old one stopped working) Well since all that happened, we had to buy a new fridge freezer as the old one suddenly decided it had had enough. Or perhaps it was simply playing up because I was paying too much attention to my new phone. Whatever the reason, we now have a brand new one, which meant more money being spent. I am holding my breath in anticipation of what is going to go wrong next.

It's amazing how all these things happen together. Do they simply have a little conference in the night and decide they want to play havoc with our lives and then pull straws to see which one is going to play up first.  That might sound crazy, but how do we know what goes on in the other rooms while we are sleeping? Anyone who read my short stories in The Lady magazine will recall I wrote one called "The last Pea on the Plate" and another named "The Number 57 Bus", where I told stories how both a bus and the peas on a plate had feelings.

Okay best I leave it there, after all I do write fiction.  :)  However, if you want to read the two stories mentioned, they are now on my website Eileen Thornton  under the heading Short Stories. All the stories there have been previously published in magazines.

I think that is all for the moment. I have given Newcastle a miss this week, but will be there next week to meet my sister and cousin. I think there is also going to be another lady from my past. So, as you can imagine, there will be lots of catching up to do.

Have a great day all, (I just heard a roll of thunder here)

Cheers!!

My New Mobile Phone!

Two weeks ago my Blackberry broke down. I wasn't sure why, but I simply couldn't get any signal on it. Not wanting to mess around, I decided to buy a new phone, but chose not to have a Blackberry this time. I found one I liked and thought all I had to do was go into the Orange shop and buy a phone. I assumed everything would be set up and ready to go before I left the shop.  However, it wasn't as simple as that.

I had been on pay-as-you-go using the plan where I could have so many free texts and internet providing I added £10 every month.  I was quite happy with this plan and I would have carried on with plan, no problem at all.   But as I had £75 in credit, the lady in the shop was horrified I was letting this  money accumulate every month and suggested I should change to the pay monthly plan. That way, I wouldn't have to pay anything until the credit was used up.

After a great deal of persuasion, I changed my plan, but it seems because I wanted to keep my old number a spanner was thrown into the works. No, that's not strictly true. Actually a great number of spanners were hurled into the works. I did indeed have my old number changed while in the shop, but all mail I received from Orange about my new phone quoted the number on the sym card, which was in the new phone before it was changed. I telephoned Orange and got that sorted out..

Next I found after two weeks, my 'free' internet was finished, which meant I had to contact Orange on Wednesday evening to sort it out. What 'free internet' I asked. I thought the internet came with the package. However, it seemed the whole thing hadn't been explained properly in the shop, because the email button I was told to use came with an extra £5 per month after a two week trial.

After talking for one and a half hours to two different people, it was established that by using a different button, the emails would be included in the plan without paying another £5 per month.  The second man explained it all very carefully and together we changed it. He said would ring me the next day, to make sure it was okay because it took a few hours to reset itself.

When he rang me on Thursday, it still wasn't allowing emails in or out. So we spent another hour going through it again. But later that Thursday afternoon, it was receiving emails, but not sending them. So I emailed the guy and he rang me back. After another 30 mins, where he talked me through saving contacts etc so we could reset the phone to factory status and start all over again, we finally cracked it. By this time, I was almost having a nervous breakdown and heading for the gin bottle.

I have to say this lovely guy has the patience of a saint. I had to tell him he was dealing with a complete idiot at this end, as I had absolutely no idea how to set up the thing. I tell you I was all fingers and thumbs, I also had to keep reading out what it said on the phone so he could slowly talk me through each stage.

Perhaps I should now set myself up as a mobile phone expert!!

Apart from that, all is well here,

Cheers!!


 

Back Home

Last week we went to Chelmsford, Essex for a few days to visit some old friends. We all first met when we lived down there forty years ago. Forty Years! Where have all the years gone? We have moved to several other places since then, but they have stayed put.

Staying put has never been my thing. Moving house was a hobby of mine. I loved looking at different houses, packing up and then moving on. Of course back then it was easy to buy and sell houses. Nowadays, once you get into a chain, you get stuck and no one can do anything,

But I digress. I was going to blog about our visit to Chelmsford last week. We had a lovely time. Our friends took us all over the place. One day we went to Aldeburgh in Suffolk. It's a lovely little seaside town. I gather fishermen go out to catch the fish and then sell it in small huts on the sea shore. Another day we went to Clacton, to see some people we had met a few years back. They have a small zoo of kid goats, alpacas, rabbits, guinea pigs, hens, chickens etc, which run around freely at the base of the Watch Tower on the see front. Visiting children adored it and I understand local kids come back regularly to see how the animals are getting on. There is also a cafe, where you can have something to eat while the children look at the animals.
We also went to hear an excellent Jazz Band, a quiz night, and, somewhere in between, we saw the movie, Salmon Fishing on the Yemen, which I really enjoyed.

Considering we ate and drank like there was no tomorrow, I was surprised to find I hadn't put any weight on. Anyway, we are home again now and enjoying the rest. Now back to editing my novel and hoping it will get published.

Tomorrow I am off to Newcastle. Hopefully the sun will shine, but if not, then what the heck, I'll enjoy the trip anyway.

Have a good day wherever you are,

Cheers!

The End of the Beginning

The end of the beginning! I think I have got that right. 


Last night I finished writing my novel - Divorcees.com. But this not the end, is it? Surely this is only the beginning. Now I have to go back and edit the whole thing, before trying to find a publisher willing to take it on. So, yes,  I have only reached the end of the beginning. 


Of course when I reach the stage of finding a publisher, then I can say I am at the beginning of the end, which really means I still have some way to go. But in the meantime, the end of the beginning will have to do. Best I leave it there before I confuse myself.

Anyway, the story is about four divorced, thirty something women, who decide to set up an online dating agency for divorcees. I have tried to make the tale light and quirky - a total contrast to The Trojan Project. So if any of you out there have any ideas of finding a publisher for this type of book, then please let me know.

The rest of my news is like the weather, dull and wet. The only highlight is that I have bought a netbook, which is how I was able to finish my novel a little earlier that I thought I would. I have been sitting beavering away, while watching repeats on TV.

I suppose that's the one good thing about repeats on TV. When you have seen a programme so many times, you kind of know what's coming. Which means you don't need to have all your wits about you to be able to follow the plot. By the way, if you are wondering why I am watching repeats on TV it's because there is absolutely nothing else to watch.  I am sick of Food Shows. If another cookery show starts up I will go bonkers. The way the chef prepares and cooks meals puts me right off. Does anyone really feel like eating the food when it's cooked? I certainly don't. For a start, I wonder whether it has been cooked long enough. Another show I have never watched is Big Brother - ugh! Or I'm a Celebrity - Get me out of Here. And the list goes on.

Enough about the TV. In fact I think that is enough about everything for the being.

I hope you are all having a great day, wherever you are.

Cheers!