In the news

The new and updated edition, I am assured will finally be going to print either today or Monday, more likely Monday in fact, since I am still waiting on the PDF for me to check through. I have to receive that for approval before it can go to print, as I need to check that the page numbering and so on has not got horribly screwed up in the conversion process.

I find that doing the formatting oneself teaches one a lot about Word. My partner, Coran who is a professional website designer (and a very good one at that) says that I have taught even him things about Word that he did not know. In particular how to create an index, which is an essential tool for a book like mine. Also simple little things like the page numbering being different on odd and even pages and how to ensure that the prelims are numbered in Roman numerals and the main text in normal numbers (i.e, 1, 2, 3 etc).

Today I have a double reason to celebrate! I am mentioned on one of the UK's Top 10 writers blog sites (according to The Guardian newspaper anyway, and who am I to question their judgment?). The site is called Grumpy Old Bookman, and is run by one Michael Allen, a 68 year old writer (and reader) from Wiltshire, here in good old England. No offence to my American readers, but it is good to know that there are sites out there aimed at helping to promote those outside the US, and more to the point, who do not automatically assume that you are American. Other British writers (particularly from one site that shall remain namesless), will know what I mean ...

Here then is the link to what Grumpy (sorry, Michael) has written. I think it is rather good, and he has impeccable taste ...

June is bursting out all over

May is gearing up to be a very busy month for me with the imminent publication of the brand new updated edition of Genesis of Man, which is finally complete, bar one review, and will be going to print next week, after the Bank Holiday.

The book seems to be attracting a lot of attention at the moment, from various magazines. The Self Publishing magazine, issued by Troubador Press described it in their latest edition as "a very informative and well researched book that would be ideal as a companion to academic studies in subjects such as theology, philosophy and the social sciences." They then went on to compare it as the antithesis to no less than Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion, which according to The Bookseller magazine recently passed 200,000 in sales.

Nexus magazine also plan to issue a review in their June/July edition, which hits the shops at the end of May. This ia real scoop, since this magazine has a worldwide circulation in excess of 200,000, being translated into no less than 11 different languages. It is read by everybody who is anybody within the alternative history and conspiracy theory world. I have asked them to Email me a copy of the review so I can hopefully put a few snippets in the new edition, and that at the moment is the only thing that is holding things up.

It looks as if Paradigm Shift magazine may also be printing a review in either their next edition, or the later August edition. My good friend and writing buddy Leslie, whom I met via My Writers Circle, very kindly agreed to write the review, following her excellent reviews on both Amazon sites. She has more than earned a mention on the acknowledgements page, as has my other other American writing friend Nadine Laman. Nadine was the one who first introduced me to My Writers Circle and has been instrumental in introducing me to several other influential people who love the book, such as Jerry Simmons and Ben Ruddy, who together run the Nothing Binding project, aimed at helping to promote independent authors. You can hear me talk about the book in a recent interview with Ben here.

I have several other exciting events planned for the coming months, all of which can be seen on the events page of my own site. The first of these is a meeting on 25th in Kent with several other self published authors to discuss joint marketing plans. Following that I shall be holding the Wednesday gathering at our local church on 30th, and on 31st I have booked a stall for the annual summer craft fair at a nearby vineyard. Then on June 11th I shall be special guest on the Phil Harris radio show, All That Matters, on Internet Voices Radio, New York. This is one of the top 10 rated shows for the eastern seaboard. Phil has very kindly agreed to give the book some advance publicity by reading some of its reviews on air in the weeks leading up to the show. More details on how to listen in will follow just as soon as I have them.

I also take over the village newsletter this month, with the June edition my first one. I am busy preparing for that, following up various local news stories and articles. I have an interesting idea for an article of my own if the local paper are interested, re famous author Jane Austen, and her connections to the local area. So many people call me Jane, that I might as well turn the similarity in our names to my advantage. After all, one has to use all the tools at ones disposal to get publicity, and you know what they say, there is no such thing as bad publicity. I often wonder whether if I had been a long lost relative, those mainstream publishers would have been quite so fast to reject my work. Possibly not ...

You can see from the above that at the moment, June is quite literally bursting out all over!