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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin writes entertaining fiction about identity, mental health and social justice. She has published three novels and a short story collection with Inspired Quill. Her debut, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the Polari First Book Prize. Her new novel, Matilda Windsor Is Coming Home, is rooted in her work as a clinical psychologist in a long-stay psychiatric hospital.

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#Bookbirthday celebrations and beyond

2/8/2016

6 Comments

 
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I spent my book’s first birthday observing customer behaviour in a bookshop, and chatting to those who weren’t so adept at avoiding my gaze. One was a self-declared non-reader, hanging around while awaiting her appointment with a tattooist. Not my thing at all, but I was intrigued enough to ask to see her chosen design as well as to enquire whether the process was addictive, given that she had a couple of earlier tattoos on display. 

I might have had in mind my own addiction to blog tours, given the five-week tour I embarked on last year when I launched my novel. I was slap in the middle of another, this one much more modest – in its fortnight’s duration, if not in ambition – that has now come to an end. My thanks to you if you’ve been following, or hosting; here’s my summary of how it went … and what’s still to come.


The tour kicked off with a chat with my long-term writing friend, Geoff on Tangental, on being a sociable introvert (including my confession that I once fainted when giving a presentation). But how could I write without being introverted? How could I go on tour without the social side? So I enjoyed having a cuppa, cake and a chat with Susan of The Book Trail, although we got off to a shaky start as I’d forgotten, given my novel’s title, she might be nervous initially about what I’d bring to eat and drink!  
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Spoof cover © Lori Shafer
Along with the chat, Susan did a cracking job mapping my novel’s settings of Newcastle and Cairo. Another novel way of analysing a novel is through the music that inspired it, so I was delighted to get the opportunity to share my undercover soundtrack with Roz Morris and her myriad followers. With music ranging from Listen with Mother (The Berceuse from Faure's Dolly Suite Op.56) to Eddie and The Hot Rods’ “Do anything you wanna do”, there’s only a very small overlap with the playlist I devised to accompany the novel.
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Poppy Peacock posed some fascinating questions about character and whether the novel is written to “sell” an idea. My Q&A with Jo, and her novel-reading cat, Jaffa, featured some of the challenges I faced writing Sugar and Snails, along with a question I’ve often posed myself in the debut novelist Q&A’s, regarding the extent to which I’m a planner. (I’m not – maybe I am! Can I change my mind?) Kate Evans also asked me about my writing process, as well as that fascinating subject of how much fiction is entwined with real life.
Fact and fiction merged somewhat in my protagonist’s experience of a religious education. School might have been more enjoyable for both me and Diana if we’d had someone like Norah Colvin as our first teacher, so Norah was the perfect host for my piece on The Legacy of a Catholic Childhood. I jumped from childhood to reflections on my first year as a published novelist courtesy of my publishers, Inspired Quill, highlighting issues of trust, the aptness of the novel-as-baby metaphor, and the sheer pleasure of reader feedback.

On the subject of feedback, the tour furnished some lovely new reviews: Clare felt as if Diana was speaking to her personally; Jo described the novel as “an altogether different look at the way destiny shapes our lives”; Emma wondered with me about the point at which the reader guesses Diana’s secret (and, if you’ve read the book you can share your experience via my online survey) as did Paula; Sandra considered it written with sensitivity and compassion, but was disappointed that more wasn’t resolved before the ending. Jo picked up particularly on the theme of decision-making, and the role of Diana’s parents, while Poppy loved the contrariness of my character.

I’m delighted that the tour is like my book with an Amazon UK total of 33 reviews with an average of 4.6 out of five stars. I’ve written before about my reluctance to engage with Amazon, but there’s no doubt that an author is heavily dependent on their reviews. Now that Terry Tyler has launched #Augustreviews encouraging readers to leave at least one Amazon review in the coming month, I’ve committed to paying the favour forward and going down that route to support small-press published authors and others this month.
I’m also delighted about a couple of other things with the potential to bring my book to readers’ attention: I’ve been invited back to BBC Radio Nottingham tomorrow to talk about Sugar and Snails one year on from publication (I wonder if I’ll be as nervous as I was for my first radio broadcast last year) and on Saturday I’m doing another signing session in Bakewell in the centre of the Peak District. I’d envisaged this as the end of the line for publicity, until my shortlisting for the Polari Prize suggests there might be other possibilities. I don’t know what just yet but, given the difficulty of getting bookshops to stock small-pressed published books, it’s rather exciting to find mine and the other five sharing a page on a prestigious London bookseller's website.

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Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
6 Comments
Charli Mills link
3/8/2016 02:22:54 am

Hey Anne -- look behind you! I think you're getting a message from Hogwarts! :-D I really do enjoy seeing you out on the book signing circuit. I have some catching up to do as I didn't make all the blog posts, yet. You've mentioned music while writing before and when I first started my WIP Rock Creek that inspired me to put together music from that era as well as modern folk music that I felt represents the underlying themes. Have a great radio interview and I hope small presses can make headway into the bookshops. Independent bookstores do a good job with regional small press representation in the US west. I think that owl is bringing you a "Congratulations" card!

Reply
Annecdotist
5/8/2016 08:57:20 am

Thanks, Charli, I’ll look out for that owl. We do sometimes hear one twit-twooing from the garden, but not for some time. It’s great that you’re putting together your own undercover soundtrack and you’ll have to try for a place on Roz’s blog when Rock Creek is published.
Here, even independent bookstores have difficulty with small price published fiction, though I’m off for signing in one tomorrow and another is in the process of putting together a Polari shortlist display.

Reply
Norah Colvin link
3/8/2016 01:23:12 pm

I love that photo of you, all set for your book signing, Anne. The colour coordination is perfect! And, as Charli says, that owl is bringing you a congratulatory card.
What an amazing tour. I caught up on a few posts tonight, but still have a few more to go. I love the way you weave something different into each post, making them all an enjoyable read with something new to learn - about you or your process.
Congratulations on your success. I look forward to hearing the new interview. When will you know about the Polari prize? It's exciting!
I think Terry's suggestion of posting reviews on Amazon is a good one. It's important to show support for writers whose work we enjoy. I'll have to try to do at least one too.

Reply
Annecdotist
5/8/2016 09:03:52 am

Ha, I hadn’t realised the perfect match for my bag when I chose to wear those bright shorts – it was more a matter of it being especially hot weather, although eventually I was shivering in the shop’s air conditioning, while Mr A, exhausted himself in only a couple of hours trooping around the city.
Thanks for checking in with my tour – I’ve seen you on the undercover soundtrack and will check the others for comments.
I’ve been promised an audio file of the radio interview this time, so should have more cringe-worthy material to share soon. I’m very grateful for how my local radio station has “adopted” me and already invited me back to chat about my second novel in May.

Reply
g le pard link
4/8/2016 12:10:02 am

You're very assiduous, Anne and I hope the Polari short list and inevitable win (Sorry,commentator's curse that) will give you a great boost. The tour sounds like it has gone well, too. So fingers crossed all round.

Reply
Annecdotist
5/8/2016 09:21:08 am

Thanks, Geoff, I have indeed worked quite hard and it’s rather strange at this point, thinking I was crossing the finishing line for Sugar and Snails, to be invited to do a “lap of honour”. The judges have a challenging task choosing between poetry, novels and memoir, and I really don’t expect my book to stand out from the others, but I very much appreciate the virtual cheering from my part of the crowd.

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