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Good evening all,

Day 102:

Came home after my three-night shift of caring for my relative. Walked down to Aldi in Hounslow to get my shopping for the week. Spent lots of time working on my book marketing this afternoon.

In 2015 I made friends with a group of fellow authors and was included in a private group where our friendship has flourished and we’ve got to know each other well. Tanya Jones-Thibodeau lives in Canada, Victoria Eveleigh is a Welsh woman living in France and Ellen Crookes is a Yorkshire lass living in Newcastle. Ellie and I have met and stayed at each other’s houses but we haven’t met the others. We were all excited last year when Tanya announced that she would be coming to Europe in 2020 for work and was looking to extend to do a tour and would like to bring her daughter. We made plans – big plans. Tanya was going to visit Victoria and I and then we were all going to meet up at Ellie’s house. But, as we all know 2020 is the year that wasn’t to be. Last week Tanya suggested we do a Zoom meeting, we’d only ever talked on chat and group, and heard each other’s voices through FB lives. We met up online with a glass or two in our hands and proceeded to chat for three hours and twenty minutes. Will definitely be doing that again.

Day 103:

Tired this morning, despite a good sleep.

The day has been spent marketing and working on my Amazon Central page. I also set up a presence on the French and German sites. It’s been a productive morning. This afternoon I concentrated on the edits for Illicit Love. It’s been good to get back into this story again.

I also emailed my cover designer to see if she can create a cover for a boxset, plan on dividing The Children from the Streets into two boxers. Lots to get done and back to work on Wednesday. Eek!

Stay safe.

Good evening all,

Walked into Ealing Broadway so i could suss out my journey to my new workplace, to see where it is and where I can park.

Bought myself a cheeky new notebook (Like I need another one! But hey I’m an author!)

Also got some new work clothes.

Worked on Amazon keywords and categories. Anyone who thinks all an Indie Author does is write a book should try it on for size sometime.

Stay safe

Good evening all,

Went for a lovely walk again in Lammas Park, nice to get some air.

I had a call from work today and will be going back to work on Wednesday but will be working with another team in Ealing as they have vacancies and space to get more people in. My new director rang to welcome me today as she’ll be off on annual leave next week. Slightly nervous about the change, similar to starting a new job but looking forward to the new challenge.

Haven’t spent any time on my editing today but have been working on marketing strategies. So much to learn and so little time left lol.

Stay safe.

Good evening all,

Food shopping in Tescos for my parents and friend Emma’s dad, I’ve given up on people understanding how to follow the arrows in there.

My next two days I’ll be caring for my relative again.

Went for a walk to Lammas park this evening which was nice, although rather busy. There seemed to be a birthday party with about fifteen young children. Glad to see social distancing rules in action – oh sorry was that a hint of sarcasm!

I spent the spare time I had today reading through Illicit Love and doing this current round of edits.

Last night I told you about my target for page reads from KU, so so far I’ve reached 538/10000. Not a shabby start.

I also decided to set up another Facebook Ad for A Boy from the Streets, since I’ve uploaded the new version. Although, as I’m typing this maybe I should have waited until the print version has been uploaded. Oh well, hopefully it won’t matter.

Stay safe.

Good evening all,

Had my work Zoom meeting this morning and still no clear idea of when I’ll be back to work as yet.

Finished the final read through of A Boy from the Streets and have uploaded the Kindle copy onto my Amazon dashboard and most of the print copy after removing the old one. I’ve emailed my cover designer to get the print cover so will finish that set up as soon as I have that back. I feel as though it has been a long journey to make the positive changes to the book which I am happy with.

I managed to smash my target of 8000 page reads for my books on Kindle Unlimited, coming in just over 8200 pages. This is the best I’ve ever achieved and have now set my target for July of 10,000 page reads. As of 20:23 I have 151 pages read already. It’s heartening to see people reading the other books in the series after reading A Boy from the Streets.

Went for a walk today, not going to reach the 15,000 today but happy with 10,000.

Now I need to get back to editing Illicit Love and finish writing the lead magnet on Carolina’s story (character from A Boy from the Streets) as well as re edits and formatting on all the other books so I can ensure they are all in the same format and add the new covers.

Busy, busy, busy.

Stay safe.

Good evening all,

Walked to Lidl in Feltham today, so getting my 15,000 steps done today. Also spent a bit of time on the exercise bike.

The rest of the day has been spent reading through A Boy from the Streets and I’ve only got about 70 pages left to read through. Can’t wait to upload the new version and get back to the edits on Illicit Love to get this ready for my editor.

Stay safe.

Good evening all,

Sorry for the lack of posts, I’ve been exhausted so haven’t had the energy in the evenings to do them. I will summarise the last few days.

Day 94: Went to stay with my relative again who needs support. I did get out for a walk into Ealing Broadway to pick up a few bits, I got out of there as quickly as I could. Too many people, eek! My page reads on KDP are close to my all-time best.

Day 95: Went home today and spent some time doing my last read-through of A Boy from the Streets now that all the formatting and tweaks have been done. So in a few days, I’ll be ready to upload and change the print copy to the larger size. My KDP reads have smashed my previous record as I’ve gone above 7000-page reads, I’ve set a target of 8000 now.

Day 96: Walked to Aldi in Hounslow to get a few bits in. Spent the better part of the day reading Boy again. I also put my exercise bike together (when I say put it together, I put the seat on and the back) and had a little ride. Only need about 270 pages left to hit 8000.

And that is about it.

Stay safe.

Good evening all,

Had a call today to inform me that Hounslow Council have agreed to do the independent assessment for my son, so hopefully this will be done without bias and without fiscal restrictions playing a part on the decision.

Staying with my family member again for the next couple of nights to help with care.

Went for a lovely walk this evening.

Finished formatting A Boy from the Streets. Just need to add front and back matter and do one final read through.

Stay safe.

Good evening all,

Tesco shopping for Mum and Dad and Emma’s dad today, looks like social distancing has been forgotten in supermarkets whilst other shops are busy enforcing the rules.

I love the sun don’t get me wrong, but today was painful…not the heat itself but the fact that my sun umbrella is broken and I couldn’t work on my computer for long outside without it heating up. So as a result I wasn’t as productive. I am up to Chapter 17 or 20 in the formatting.

Went for my walk to Hounslow Heath so have reached my 15,000 steps again. I’ve lost 8lbs now. Long may it last.

Stay safe.

Good evening all,

Had my work Zoom meeting and it’s not looking like I’ll be back to work next week, but maybe the following week. Better start buying lottery tickets and hope I win. LOL

Spoke to my lovely cover designer Tammy Clarke on the phone for the first time, ever. Two hours later we’d put the world to rights and planned the changes to my children from the streets series. Within a couple of hours she’d sent me the new covers.

See the changes below, love them, I’ve also included the old ones for reference.

Worked on the formatting this afternoon, couldn’t sit out in the glorious sunshine though as my new sun umbrella from Wayfair broke. In fairness to them, it was a simple process to get a replacement but just need to wait for it now.

Went out for a walk to Hounslow Heath this evening and have reached my 15,000 steps.

Stay safe.