Tired but can’t sleep. Restless and fidgeting. Flitting between tasks. Yes, I’ve got a new book out.
My third Danny Lancaster crime thriller – Rough Diamond – is published this week as an ebook and paperback.
Writing is fun. Launches are nerve-wracking. The book might stagger off the pad on a column of noise and flame but will it fly?
Getting there, especially the last few weeks, is like trying to keep dozens of plates spinning. Expect a few breakages, maybe concussion.
It’s hard to concentrate, like trying to count the blur of lit windows on a fast night train.
Did that character work? Did the other one really say that? Did I fix those typos? Ok, so I rewrote that bit but does it have a knock-on effect I haven’t spotted?
Too late to worry but that doesn’t stop you.
Writing should require a little sensitivity to the human condition but when launch time comes you have to grow rhino hide, fast.
It’s like being naked in front of strangers. Your best efforts are laid bare. What do you do if everyone laughs? Or points? Or throws things?
Publishing is a brutal and highly competitive business. There are no consolation prizes.
I really love the writing, better than sex sometimes, but it’s only half the job. Promotion is vital and I’d be very grateful for any help – blog reviews, Amazon and Kobo reviews, word-of-mouth.
Assuming, of course, my standing there in the buff doesn’t cause too much panic.
Other useful ways to help give Danny his rightful place in public affections would be Facebook shares, tweets and retweets or, for open air types who enjoy Danny Lancaster, a shift with the sandwich board.
Rough Diamond is set in Brighton, Amsterdam and Namibia. Here’s the book jacket blurb:
ROUGH DIAMOND
Marion Carter wants her husband back. He won the Lottery, then vanished.
Jessie Shafto, a young girl far from home, is looking for her lost love.
For Danny Lancaster, wounded Afghanistan veteran turned private investigator, it’s two easy missing person jobs, and the money’s good.
But it’s never that simple.
Two people have travelled halfway across the world in the hunt for the Demon’s Eye and the secret of Kaapse Kobra.
They weave a dangerous web of blood ties and revenge in the search for their own kind of justice.
Tangled in a maze of scandal, troubled celebrities, designer drugs and violent death, Danny finds out the hard way that there really is no honour among thieves.
Diamonds are not always a girl’s best friend.