Book Number 2
January has been a productive month. After the Christmas break, my editor made the final adjustments to Speaking Out (the second book in the Kismet Pension series, which I have now renamed the Turkish village series). There was a slight hiccup when she noticed a spelling mistake on the cover (I had looked at the cover many times, as well as sent it to a number of friends and posted it on my Facebook page and nobody else had noticed!) Thankfully the designer corrected it quickly.
This week, I will be tackling Kindle Direct Publishing again to upload the book and have it ready for sale from next week (start of February). Portobello Book Blogger, Joanne, is going to run a short Q and A blog about the book. To generate some new interest, I have arranged for some Facebook advertising of the Kismet Pension and I have had copies of The Kismet Pension printed over here, as the postage to Turkey makes it expensive to buy the print book on Amazon (and given our postal service, it might well never arrive!)
I have also finished the first draft of the other book I was writing. This is set partly in the UK and partly in Turkey but is not connected to the Kismet series. I am excited to start editing and getting it ready for publication.
With all this writing activity, I have not done much this month. Also, the weather has been mixed, with some rain and some very cold (for us!) days. The snow on the mountains is beautiful, but does not make for good hiking! It is, however, the season for narcissus, which grow wild in many places and are for sale in the market, filling the place with their beautiful scent. The flowers grow in such profusion at Karaburun, on the Aegean coast, that they hold an annual festival to celebrate them, which took place last weekend.
I love these festivals. In this area we have a cherry festival, a tomato festival, a Morel mushroom festival and a wild greens festival. There is an almond festival at Datça when the almond trees are in flower, and in other parts of the country there are olive festivals, mandarin festivals and grape festivals. They are held to promote the local produce, but they usually feature stalls of locals handicrafts as well as singing and dancing and a lot of food. There is a cherry festival in the Kismet Pension, which causes some consternation when the main act pulls out at the last minute!
My reading this month was influenced by a programme about Jane Austen which made me read a book about Jane’s life, as well as rereading Emma. One thing that really struck a chord was the idea that the women in her books are often looking for a home, as that is one of the main themes of the book I have just finished writing. I have now made the main character a Jane Austen fan!
But I have read other things and here are a couple of them that might be of interest:
The Stars are Fire – Anita Shreve
I love all Anita Shreve’s books. Her writing is like poetry. This one, published in 2017, is probably one of my favourites. Set in Maine in 1947, it follows Grace and what she does when her home, possessions and her husband are destroyed by wildfire. Forced to make a new life for herself and her children, she shows courage and resilience, and revels in her new-found freedom – until something threatens to take it all away.
The Night She Disappeared – Lisa Jewell
I like to mix it up with a thriller sometimes. I enjoyed this one, from the setting in an English public school and the amateur sleuth who is a ‘stuck’ writer, to the way she gradually discovers more about the disappearance of a local couple a year before she arrived in the village. As she helps to solve the mystery, she also realises things about her own life. I love that Lisa Jewell writes in a variety of genres and would love to write a crime novel or thriller myself one day.
Hope the weather is not too bad wherever you are (my friend in Canada has several feet of snow!)
Melanie