Glit-er-ary

Posted on December 6, 2017 by lgflannigan

Don’t you just love it when WordPress goes all Christmassy and falling snowflakes appear across the page.

Eeek, can’t believe how long it’s been since I posted! And I’ve published another novel since then too. Failing Flynn Matthews is available on Amazon now and only 99p! It’s “totally addictive reading” and apparently an “‘Effin’ awesome book!!! This is every bit as gripping, enthralling and at times frustrating as the first book.
You won’t want to put it down until you get to the end.” Thank you dear reader 🙂 and thanks to all the other 5 star reviewers too for Ordering Flynn Matthews and Failing Flynn Matthews!

I’m in the middle of formatting Working Flynn Matthews so you never know it might be published before Christmas. Move over Ellie, there’s a new girl in town.

A short story of mine, The Stuff of Fairytales, has been published in Bridge House Publishing‘s anthology, Glit-er-ary and is available in book and kindle form. There’s a wonderful variety of stories, some sad, some funny and some glittery 😉

I love the cover of the Anthology.

Click on cover to take you to Amazon

A little teaser from The Stuff of Fairytales:

I’ve been paid a mighty sum to kill her. It would cost the villagers nothing to do it themselves but they are simple god-fearing folk who don’t want her blood staining their hands…darkening their souls. Still I’m not complaining as their fear gives me work.

I collect her from the gaol, shackled at the ankles and wrists and wrapped in an oversized cloak. People never cease to surprise me. They want her dead but still they give her protection against the winter cold. A tiny slip of a thing, possibly no more than seventeen winters old, she is easy to bundle in the back of my cart. I make sure her chains are secure so there’s no means of escape. She doesn’t struggle. How this girl evokes such fear astonishes me. True her kind exist but I refuse to believe that she could tear me to pieces and rip out my heart – that is the stuff of fairytales.

It’s usual to provide some proof of death, the body for instance but not this time. Not one single drop of her crimson blood is to return to the village. I’m an honourable man so I’ll do as they ask. I will earn the bag of gold that’s stowed away in my cart.

As I drive the horse along the track it clears of people, dust flying up as they hurry towards the safety of their homes. Doors bang shut and the scraping and rasping of furniture being pushed up against them echoes out. As we round the corner and disappear from view a breath-like breeze ruffles my hair as if the villagers sigh in collective relief.

Renovating first, formatting last

Posted on June 12, 2017 by lgflannigan

We have moved into our new house and renovations are under way. Real life has nudged fictional life to the back of the queue and my next novel Failing Flynn Matthews is waiting, not so patiently, to be formatted. Any spare time I have involves writing something new so I’d be grateful if anyone could recommend a professional kindle formatter, please. There’s not much left to do bar the contents page and links to headings and the indents, paragraphs etc, ie the fiddly bits!

The house we’re renovating is a house of two halves: Upstairs flat and ground floor flat – we’re living in the latter, our dog needs a garden and the cellar is perfect for all the clutter we can’t fit in! For renovation guidance we’ve bought a book (no surprise there!) The Victorian and Edwardian House Manual which is proving to be very useful.

Hubby wielding a power tool!

The ceilings are high, no standing on a chair like in our last house!

Besides renovating, we’ve been enjoying the warmer weather and the easier access to town, five minute walk to beach and restaurants. Can’t get better than that! Pimm’s o’clock anyone?!

If anyone fancies some summer reading with their Pimms and you haven’t read it yet Ordering Flynn Matthews is available over on Amazon! Click on title. Thanks!

Not Hard Wired To Multi-task

Posted on September 30, 2016 by lgflannigan

Well I’m not doing very well at this social media presence am I? I’ve mentioned before I can’t multi-task so I won’t go on about it however what with having fun with family, writing, editing, working etc I haven’t found the time to tweet, post etc.

But behind the scenes exciting developments are afoot!

I’m doing the final edits to Failing Flynn Matthews so I am hoping that will be published soon! Ordering Flynn Matthews is making steady sales however I designed the cover and was not completely happy with it so I’ve been on the look out for a new one. I was lucky enough to come across a blog that recommended a few cover designers and that’s how I found James at GoOnWrite who has a wonderful selection of premade covers at very reasonable prices. He also does custom covers. Very quick in responding too, great service!

So OFM has a new cover!

Ordering Flynn Matthews

Posted on July 28, 2016 by lgflannigan

Drum roll … last week I published Ordering Flynn Matthews!

While struggling with formatting it for kindle there was a moment of regret in not accepting the publishing contract I was offered but in the end we got there. So folks it’s available on Amazon for only 99p!

Buy Me 🙂

To sign or not to sign

Posted on February 1, 2016 by lgflannigan

The promised update about Ordering Flynn Matthews.

Gosh where to start! In November 2015 OFM was offered a publishing contract (yay!) with a US Indie, mainly ebook, publisher. They appear to have a wonderful set-up, great cover art, promotion and their authors seem very happy. I’ve signed contracts for my short stories before however this contract was more extensive. On the advice of my editor I applied to join Society of Authors and emailed the contract to them. Great piece of advice! They offer the service free although you pay to join – well worth it in my opinion. I didn’t have to wait long before I received a reply containing their valuable comments.

The SoA also queried if I’d considered self publishing as an option. The answer to that is no. In my head it was a last resort and here was a well respected organisation suggesting it as an option. With the reality of signing a contract scaring me with its deadlines and the fact I would lose a bit of control over my creation I started to give the idea serious consideration. And although the publisher was willing to negotiate the contract I declined their offer. Cue thoughts of have ‘I made the right decision?’

Having finished his PhD a couple of years ago my husband declared he is now ready for another project. He is researching what self publishing entails while I re-edit OFM. Can’t believe I’m still finding typos! Gutted I’m unable to attend the Ebook workshops the SoA have organised for March as it would’ve been extremely helpful.

One of my son’s housemates, Tom, is a design student who wants to extend his portfolio and has offered to do the cover art for the ebook. So the poor lad is currently reading OFM for inspiration. Not his usual reading material! It’ll be interesting what he comes up with. He says I don’t have to use it if I don’t like it bless him. I have a couple of ideas and two friends (thanks Carrie & Jenni) have made good suggestions too.

So it looks like I’m heading towards self publishing Ordering Flynn Matthews as an ebook. Who’d have thought it. I think it’s a beach read so the month of May seems like a good time to publish!

It doesn’t mean I’d never sign a publishing contract. It’s just at this time self publishing seems the way to go.

We’re looking at going to Rome this year which is a good thing as the follow up to OFM Failing Flynn Matthews includes a trip to the city and prior to writing I did my research virtually! Be good to check out my facts and take some photographs.

Ordering Flynn Matthews is based in London and Bristol – I’ve been to both of those cities 🙂

Merry Christmas!

Posted on December 23, 2015 by lgflannigan

I’ve been meaning to post news about Ordering Flynn Matthews but have run out of time as about to go off line for the festive period! I’m going to have to make some important decisions about it in 2016 🙂

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Flynn Matthews

Posted on November 23, 2015 by lgflannigan

After my last post about Ordering Flynn Matthews a kind friend sent me this:

Looks like Flynn on a good day 😉 nah a bad day. So RPatz has at some point had blonde (ish) hair which makes him perfect for Flynn. I wasn’t searching hard enough. Perhaps there’s hope he might bleach his hair for a book cover photo shoot!

She sent another one too:

Sort of how I imagined Flynn on a good day however a couple of my lovely followers sent me some other blonde actors/singers smoking:

Thanks everyone! Now I can’t decide!

Ordering Flynn Matthews

Posted on October 21, 2015 by lgflannigan

“Ordering Flynn Matthews is quality writing, original, fun, zany, has great dialogue and very credible characters however struggling with how to publish it in a commercial way as it sort of straddles genres in that it’s not traditional women’s fiction but tricky to categorise it anywhere else.”

Last week’s paraphrased rejection from the publisher who had shown interest in OFM. Disappointed as I love this publisher.

Original’s good, right?

Flynn’s a drug addict and foul mouthed. He uses the c-word and I don’t mean Christmas. He’s not the irresistible male hero that a romance novel has. None of the men in it are, they make big mistakes and so does Ellie who becomes unwittingly embroiled in a series of mishaps, and naïve judgements.

It’s a pacey contemporary novel that covers some tough subjects – obsession, addiction, loss, betrayal – in an original unconventional way.

Genre? Well it’s definitely contemporary with its social networking, fangirling and celebrity obsessed media. Probably more adult fiction with the language, drug taking and sex however it’s got crossover appeal as it’s contemporary and let’s face it young adults today know as many swear words as Flynn if not more. More women’s than men’s fiction although amongst my readers the men have enjoyed it too although I doubt as a gender they’ll be the ones picking it off a bookshelf. A romance novel? Not really although it does have elements of it but relationships with family and friends are as important as romance to our heroine, Ellie. And with a thread of humour running through the novel perhaps it’s Chick Lit.

So I think that’s how I’d market it.

True Ellie style I photoshopped up an idea for a book cover using an image of Rob Pattinson who imo looks better than anyone else smoking a cigarette. I wish I could credit the photographer however I only found the image on fan pages and I don’t have Ellie’s fangirl dedication to track down the source. Maybe someone out there does… If so, let me know and I’ll add the credit.

Flynn has blonde hair. Wonder if RP would bleach his hair for a photoshoot?

Here it is: