Again, apologies, almost a month since my last post. As you may recall, I mentioned I was working on getting my next novel, Becoming Lili, published. That turned out to be way harder than I ever imagined it could be. When my first novel, The Book of Eve, was published, my editor took care of all the techie stuff so I had no idea how hard and complicated it all is. I know I self-published Lifesong, but that was an ebook novella, so was relatively easy. Becoming Lili, on the other hand, was a great big brick of a book, running at over 600 pages long, and needing to be published not just as ebook but in paperback format too.

I wrote this book over ten years ago, since then, it's been read, re-read, proofed, amended and proofed again. You would have thought it was perfect. Huh! I sat down for a last skim through to pick up any last minute faults, three weeks later I was still amending. My writing style has evolved over the years, I think it's improved, I'm not so wordy, preferring shorter, punchier sentences to get the point across. I discovered I'd been overly fond of the words just, simply and for a moment... how many times did I use them?! And the Oxford comma and I, appeared to have not yet been introduced. For three solid weeks I had to develop tunnel vision, being up at 5am and not going to bed until midnight, trying to fit in the barest minimum of real life, as I took apart that manuscript, word by word, and literally put it back together again. When I was done, I had to hand it over to a beta reader because it no longer made any kind of sense to me, I'd gone so in-depth, read it so many times, it was no longer a story, just a wall of words.

Then came the job of actually publishing it. Uploading it to kindle? Easy, an hour later my kindle was there, available for pre-order, release date set of the 13th of May. Then we turned our attention to the paperback version. Completely different matter. Complicated is not the word for it, took a whole day, but finally we uploaded it. Being such a big book, production costs were very high and I had to price it higher than I'd of liked, but there was nothing I could do about it. So, I pressed submit and went to bed. Got up next day to find an email awaiting me - computer says no, there's an issue with your uploaded interior. Issue? What issue? Unfortunately, they don't tell you what the issue is, only that there is one.

Many panics later, it was universally decided it was the length, so decision was made to change from a 5x8 sized book to 6x9. Downloaded the right template, transferred it across, uploaded it. Went to bed. Again, next morning, computer says no. Begged other authors on Instagram for help, was advised my font might be the problem, changed the font, embedded the font (had to learn how to do that), uploaded it. Went to bed. Again, next morning, computer says no. Major panic this time. Then, noticed even though it's in 6x9 template, margins still look like 5x8. So, transferred it to new Word document, took out all formatting, copied it back into a fresh 6x9 template, where I had satisfaction of watching it set out with correct margins. Fingers crossed, heart in mouth, re-submitted it and went to bed. Next morning, again, computer says no, issue with the cover - which it hadn't had a problem with before. So, bought a brand new, royalty free, image from Shutterstock, applied text, remade the cover on Createspace and tried again. Next morning, finally, computer said yes! That was it, Becoming Lili, was published, and, because of the larger book size, was now only 400 pages, so production price went down and so, thankfully, did the retail price.

Becoming Lili is now available from Amazon in download or paperback version, and you can read my author's review right here on Goodreads.

I've also been working hard at getting my YouTube channel up and running - how down with the kids is that - and it's now looking really good, with a great channel trailer, and links to my website and book sites on Amazon.

During this bookish fueled month, my poor daughter has completely become an edits orphan. Bearing it like a trooper and never complaining, well, not much, well, not so loud I heard her, she cooked meals for us and helped out with housework and laundry. She's been my very own backstage crew, supporting her increasingly exhausted and manic mother. Last weekend being my first one free from the demanding clutches of Lili, I promised her two days of doing whatever she wanted to do. On Saturday, we went to Ickworth Park, a gorgeous stately home located a couple of miles outside Bury. Situated in beautiful grounds, it was the inspiration for the Hall in The Book of Eve, and we spent the day there, wandering about, taking promotional pictures of Eve in the gardens, roaming about the house and treating ourselves to coffee and excellent cake in the tearoom. On Sunday we went clothes shopping, then to see Guardians of the Galaxy (very funny film, thoroughly recommend it) and rounded off a great weekend with an early dinner at her favourite Italian restaurant.

So now, in the anticlimax of publication, I'm sitting here, thinking, what next?

Several readers have commented they've been unable to buy Lifesong, as it's only an ebook and they don't have the means to download it. So, exciting news, Lifesong is coming out in paperback. It, together with at least half a dozen short stories, are going to be published in the next month or so, as a great collection of short stories, A real mixed bag of tales, they will take you halfway across the universe and back again, so I'm now reviewing and renewing all my short stories written over the past decade, which I thought would never see the light of day.

After that ....? Who knows, let's see which way the wind blows us.

That's all for now, take care of yourselves. As always, any comments are welcome.

Julia Blake