I have decided that every month is a busy month, so instead of beginning by saying “February was a busy month”, I’m going to start with: February was a month. But I can’t resist saying that it was a happily busy month, with plenty of excitement and good things happening.
The biggest thing in my writing life this month was the arrival of an advance copy of Pearl verses the World. Holding this little gem in my hands for the first time was awesome, and I’ve been carrying it around everywhere I go to show it off. The release date, May 1, is still two months away, but I’m celebrating already and can’t wait for it to go on sale.
Also very exciting, the final line art for my new picture book, Snowy’s Christmas, has been delivered to the publisher, another step in the road to publication complete. David is doing such a good job with the artwork, and I’m sure the finished product will be divine.
February was also a time for me to ramp up my promotion efforts. Promoting published books is a big part of every published author’s work, but it is a challenge to come up with different ways to build the buzz about a book. To that end, I started a yahoogroup for Australian authors and bloggers who want to be involved in blog tours, called aussieblogtours. In a short space of time we have managed to build a small but enthusiastic group, and have already had three tours.
Our first tour was to spread the word about my own, The Big Blowie. I visited five blogs in five days. If you missed the tour, you can still read the posts (and see how a blog tour works) at the following blogs:
Spinning Pearls and
I also hosted the two other tours, by young author Brenton Cullen and the mysterious Tiffany Mandrake, which was lots of fun.
And, as if all that wasn’t enough, I went visiting to the Amory of Aardvarks blog on February 1
and again on February 8.
Amidst all this, I did manage to find plenty of time to write this month, with the Murphlets going back to school and leaving the house strangely quiet. I put the finishing touches on a verse novel and also a picture book, wrote some new poems and started planning two new projects. I also flitted up to Perth for a couple of day at the Apropos Poetry Festival organised by Writing WA, and to attend the February SCWBI WA meeting.
Finally, of course I read some wonderful Australian books and reviewed them for Aussiereviews. Seventeen new reviews were added in February.
That’s my news for February. Stay tuned in March, when I’ll be adding more interviews, writing advice and, of course, news.
Thanks Katherine! I’m feeling pretty good about it all.
Sally, I just can’t get over how much you seem to fit into life. And I’m so excited for you that it all seems to be really coming together – so many new books coming out! And your latest ‘baby’ (Pearl) really is divine looking – I just know the story is going to sing as much as the cover does. Can’t wait to buy it 🙂