Andrew Critchley's Blog

How time flies!

I can scarcely believe that this week marks the one year anniversary of the release of my first novel, 'Dublin in the Rain'.

At this time last year when my manuscript was finally, finally (lol) ready to go to press I could not even have begun to believe that 'Dublin in the Rain' would sell in more than a dozen countries and become an Amazon top 40 Contemporary Fiction best seller. But, to my considerable joy and pleasure, this is just what has happened.

At present, I'm very much in transition between still promoting my first book and finishing the manuscript for the second book but, given the one year anniversary, now is most definitely the time for me to thank so many people, companies, organisations, blogsites and websites that have helped my first year as a writer be such a memorable one.

As I wrote in my last blog, my father died in April this year and his support and pride in my book and its success was one of the great joys of my life. I still really miss his excitement at every review, delight at the success of the book and his Facebook 'likes' on literally every post I made on my artist page.

However, for all the support one receives from one's family, the brutal reality for all authors is that, to my understanding, 20,000 to 25,000 new books are released every week in the USA and UK (around 40% of which are Self-Published, I believe). And in this highly competitive environment, becoming a Goodreads Author has changed my life as a writer. No, I'm not just saying that because this blog is appearing on the Goodreads site. Honestly. Yes really, honestly.

In fact, it's no exaggeration to say that every Giveaway I've done so far on the book has been an enormous thrill for me with books going to Argentina and India as well as USA, Canada, Australia and Europe. Obtaining this level of exposure and coverage on my own would have been simply impossible.

And since this particular blog is intended as a celebration and a thank you, then I definitely need to 'big up' Authoright. Aside from whatever people do or don't think about the contents of 'Dublin in the Rain', the cover is universally loved (including by myself) thanks to the work commissioned by Authoright with Samuel de Ceccatty.

And then there was the developmental editing work that was carried out (much needed as my original manuscript was way, way, way too long). Sometimes, as a writer you can get too close to your work and having the input of someone fresh to the work with experience and their own ideas was absolutely essential for me - particularly with it being my first novel.

So, in short, at an artistic level, Authoright were critical in me being able to produce the book that I wanted to produce, both in content and how it looks.

And then there was the promotional work that was carried out. Authoright helped put together a Website for me that is very well appreciated and their PR campaign gave me not only the thrill of presenting my book via several of the local press in Cardiff where I live but also seeing the book in the Irish national press and appearing on a US blog radio station.

Not surprising therefore that as I sit typing in my favourite Cardiff coffee house (Coffee #1 in Pontcanna, by the way), I raise my cup of double expresso to Gareth Howard and his team.

I would also like to thank two individuals - Miranda Bishop and Angie Thomas.

The fabulous Angie Thomas is the person responsible for all the promotional videos that are out there around the book whilst Miranda is a Social Media expert, full of energy, enthusiasm and ideas - and it was her carefully co-ordinated and highly focused campaign that enabled, albeit briefly, 'Dublin in the Rain' to make it into the Amazon Top 40 Contemporary Fiction chart. Given that around 25% of the earlier mentioned 20,000 to 25,000 books per week fall under the category of Contemporary Fiction, this was an enormous thrill indeed.

And then there are the blog sites. For new self-published writers starting out, clearly any sort of national press coverage is out of the question and the support given to my book by Blog sites such as Judging Covers, Thoughts and Afterthoughts and Bilbo's Book Ends was both absolutely invaluable and enormously appreciated.

And last, and certainly by no means least, I would like to thank all the people who have bought the book, promoted the book by word of mouth and left reviews good or bad (mostly exceptionally good thankfully) on Goodreads, Amazon and various other sites. The vast majority of writers need an audience and I am no exception. Reviews and ratings are quite simply our lifeblood, our air to breathe and our food to eat.

As such, even the biggest 'thank you' imaginable to everyone who has bought and/or taken the time to read the book and/or left a rating or review seems totally insufficient and completely understated. Simply 'wow, wow, wow' is what I think when I look back at the fabulous new people (as well as some greatly valued old friends) who have helped make the past 12 months so special.

'Life is for living, life is for loving' is one of the lines from 'Dublin in the Rain'. And as I wrote in my first blog at the start of the year, being a writer is truly as much fun as I've ever had with my clothes on. 'Life is for living, life is for loving' indeed.

Quite simply, every day I wake up and feel blessed that I am fortunate enough to be able to do in life what I want to do - that every day I am learning more, both in terms of improving as a writer and also understanding how best to promote my work. And although both these aspects of being a self-published author are very, very different, they are both deeply rewarding.

So if you've taken the time to read this blog, then most definitely thank you. And if you want to click on the link at the top of this blog to enter the latest Goodreads Giveaway for 'Dublin in the Rain' then you would be most welcome.

Happy Reading Everyone!

In his later years my father was very supportive in every sense of my decision to ‘give up the day job’ and pursue my dreams as a writer.

On a day where on the Goodreads’ site ‘Dublin in the Rain’ approaches 2,000 people adding it to their ‘to read’ list and where the book is currently in the top 15 (out of over 1000) Giveaways on the site, it seems appropriate to share my tribute to him that I gave at his funeral last week.

Some of you who were at the funeral will have seen or heard this already.

It was very consoling that the people who knew him felt that it captured the essence of who he was.

I’d certainly like to think so.

Thanks, Dad!

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To thy own self be true.

When I finally started work in 1985 that was the career advice from an experienced colleague as part of my induction training. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that my own father had been the living embodiment of those words all his life.

My father was a special man. Yes, he was an intelligent man - undeniably so. But as he once so memorably said to me in my early 20’s – “talent and intelligence is not an excuse, Andrew.” I smiled then and I smile now when I think of his words - that and his immortal comment that “philosophy doesn’t get the washing up done.”

What made my father special were so many other things besides intelligence.

A fierce determination to make the best of himself and his life – a determination not to allow all the old school tie and red brick prejudices and snobbery that were so rife in society on the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s to be any barrier to what he wanted to achieve in life.

He had an undeniable pride – both in who he was and where he was from – coupled with a burning and driving ambition to succeed. That and an enormous, almost insatiable appetite for hard work that came from the sheer love of what he did. Life is too short to not enjoy what we do to generate an income and he lived and enjoyed work to the full.

Those attributes – determination, pride, ambition, commitment, hard work – took him to the top of his profession in both the private sector, as a Director of EMI, as well as the public sector, as undersecretary of state for the Health Service. They also brought him much deserved peer respect as President of the Institute of Purchasing and Supply.

However that burning and driving ambition was never at the expense of ethics, integrity and honesty. There was never to be any compromise on those issues – even it meant that he needed to change jobs in life because of it.

Compromise was simply not a word that existed in his vocabulary.

Uncompromising and although at times tough, he was always fair.

On his desk at home for many years were the words ‘I may not always be right, but I am never wrong’. Like all the best humour, it was wonderfully self-effacing and with a lovely element of truth.

Along with the skills that brought him success in a business career that spanned five decades, goodness he even brought some credibility to the much maligned Timeshare in his later career, were the attributes that I’m sure many of you of have come today will remember him for - a sense of fun, kindness, generosity of spirit, loyalty. He genuinely cared about people, had time for people, made time for people – whether they be colleagues, associates, friends, family or extended family.

Above all, there was a glorious sense of classlessness about my father that I remember with enormous fondness. Unaffected by colour, creed or background – he was always the same person irrespective of who he was dealing with or talking to. It didn’t matter whether it was heads of Industry, successful entrepreneurs or senior Government personnel in his business life or with friends and family in his private life.

He was always the same Tom Critchley – even, say, when he was talking to complete strangers on a football terrace.

It was a classlessness that gave him such class as a person himself and together with the determination, pride, ambition, ethics, integrity, loyalty honesty, humour, warmth and kindness, it was what made him such a special man – a very special colleague, friend, family member, father and husband. A genuine man of substance.

To thy own self be true indeed.

He was, always.

He even put together a few words for today himself, with which I’ll finish,

“It’s not the words, they are but few,
It’s love and memories we keep of you,
A quiet thought, a hidden tear,
A constant wish that you were here.”

Tom Critchley, 17th August 1928 - 14th April 2014

It is indeed that time of year again.

For many, the Christmas and New Year festive period is such a challenge if one is single - but I’ve always been fortunate to have good friends and family that help make it joyous rather than difficult period. Similarly, for others, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day can be very sad and painful days where the loss of a loved one is perhaps most keenly felt.

But for yours truly, the day I have come to most dread over the past over the past 6 years has been St. Valentine’s Day. From mid to late January, it’s almost impossible to avoid the sea of red that seems to consume the planet. Supermarkets, every restaurant touting for business on the 14th, florists, coffee shops selling heart shaped chocolates and cakes – the list is seemingly endless. All reminding me that yes, I am categorically single.

To some couples, 14th February is not that important. It’s not that they’re not in a good relationship – just simply that they are not that romantically inclined. Either that or they reject the consumerism that increasingly seems to invade every aspect of our lives. But for my late wife and me, it was THE day of the year and in a storage box somewhere is every card we ever sent each over the 23 years we were together.

Rather like the old adage that a dog is for life and not just for Christmas, the same should hopefully apply to romance. For us, romance was for life and not only for Valentine’s Day. But that notwithstanding, it was simply wonderful to have one day of the year as a focal point for romance – overpriced flowers, humungous cards, ridiculously cute cuddly toys, frivolous foundation garments et al…and of course, badly written and clichéd poetry.

‘If snowflakes were love, I’d send a blizzard to you’ maybe clichéd and with decidedly limited aesthetics. But that’s not the point…when you’re in love those ten words or so bring a big smile to one’s face and the warmest of warm glows to the heart.

Personally, at the heart of romance is my unshakeable belief that the only thing that really matters in life is to love and be loved. This has been stated many times before, probably most notably in Eden Ahbez’s song Nature Boy immortalised by Nat King Cole and in Sebastian Faulks inspirational Birdsong. If anything, repetition only adds to rather than dilutes the fundamental truth of the comment.

Without doubt, it is better to have loved and lost than never loved at all but where does that leave us social lepers that are the single person? As with most things in life, it is that wondrous thing that was the last to exit Pandora’s Box, hope. With that in mind, I have a short tale (and a true one at that) to recount that may bring a smile to people’s faces.

It is 1976 and a young man kisses a young woman. He, truth be told, is a smitten kitten but it’s an unrequited smitten-ness. A few months later, he stares across a river to where she lives and makes a wish just to see and talk to her one more time. Finally, he turns his back on the river and makes his way home. In time, he finds love, success, fulfilment and happiness – travelling the world and experiencing the best things that life can offer.

Fast forward to 2013 and the young man is now a widower, in what can be most optimistically called the Indian Summer of his life. He finally finishes his first book and on November 11 it is released to the world. To his great delight, the book has not insignificant commercial success and is indeed loved by many – and perhaps most notably, even though he tries to have the same affection for all fans of the book, by the young woman from 1976.

And on the day the book briefly makes it into the Amazon Top 40 best sellers, the woman now also in the Indian Summer of her life contacts him. What follows are magical mails full of magical words. Thanks to the book, the wish finally comes true 37 years after it was made. The man can finally again visit card shops in February rather than shuffling past them grumpily and best of all, he can once again enjoy the delights of a trip to a florist. “Bloody hell, a rose costs how much?” he says before smiling to himself joyously.

He walks into the street happy. He had almost forgotten just how good happy felt.

“It takes a minute to have a crush on someone, an hour to like someone, and a day to love someone...but it takes a lifetime to forget someone.”

Magical words from Kahlil Gibran that seem somehow to capture the essence of the story perfectly - as also are the following words from the truly brilliant and sumptuous The Shawshank Redemption,

“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

The only thing that really matters in life is to love and be loved.

Being an independent author is the most fun I’ve had in life with my clothes on.

The simple pleasure of creating – characters, dialogue, a story – was a glorious state of unrestrained and uninhibited creativity that I found both liberating and empowering. It’s a Wonderful Life is my favourite film of all time and its basis was a short story, The Greatest Gift by Philip Van Doren Stern. The possibility of being able to take my favourite film as inspiration and a spiritual guide and build a full length novel, rather than short story, around it was exciting beyond words.

At the heart of the book is romance. Although stated many times before, probably most notably in Eden Ahbez’s song Nature Boy immortalised by Nat King Cole, I do believe that the only thing that really matters in life is to love and be loved.

In my book Dublin in the Rain, the two lovers are Sophia and Jonathan. Jonathan is haunted by his past – a legacy of being abandoned by his mother and the subsequent suicide of his father – and so stubborn and anal at times that readers want to leap inside the book and physically shake him. Sophia on the other hand is well-read, outwardly confident and sexually expressive but struggles to relate either to her own family or the world around her.

Their relationship is redemptive for them both and they fall in love, marry and have a child. However, as often happens in life (and I can speak personally from my own experience of my wife dying at 42), tragedy changes everything in the book as the baby dies from cot death. Jonathan is distraught, unable to cope and their marriage disintegrates.

Within this is the second key theme of the book – namely that it’s how one deals with difficulty that’s important and not the difficulty itself. Tragedy is sadly a fact of life and often totally unavoidable and beyond anyone’s control. What is controllable however is how one responds to tragedy. The old adage that the glass is half full or half empty is very true. Jonathan’s problem with his life is that not only is the glass half empty but that he neither likes the glass itself not what is contained within it. Change, as is invariably the case, comes from within but sometimes we need help.

With that in mind, underpinning the whole book is a sense of spirituality and destiny. I have always loved D.H. Lawrence’s quote ‘The dead don’t die. They look on and help.’ My belief in the quote has been strengthened still further following the death of my wife. It is this essence that also acts as a catalyst for Jonathan’s annus mirabilis in Dublin in the Rain as he finds reconciliation, forgiveness and ultimately true love.

I have a smile on my face as I sit here writing this piece my book sits beside me. Receiving my published copy was one of the best moments in my life.

Being an independent writer meant that I could resist suggestions, pressures even, to leave the book open ended, turn it into a duology or even trilogy, or to further cut it so that was below the ‘industry standard’ of 110,000 words. It is truly the book that I wanted to write.

It is still early days for me as an author but initial feedback from many readers who have bought the book quite simply fills my heart with joy. And of equal pleasure, I will be starting my next book very soon. It is a very different type of redemption story to Dublin in the Rain and no doubt it will be another joyous adventure as part of my journey as an independent author - full of challenges and learning.

As Molière once wrote, ‘The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.’

In life, very often the greatest obstacle that we have to overcome is ourselves – for we are most commonly the people who stop ourselves from doing what we truly want to do with our life. Although she died in 2007, my wife Nadine is still looking on, still helping me overcome the obstacles.

Life is for living. Embrace life, love life. It’s often not what you do; it’s the energy and passion that you do it with!

Many thanks for taking the time to read this piece.