Hi folks, and welcome to another blogpost from BrettishBooks.com
In todays post, read about … Updates on my debut novel, My power hour with best-selling author Daniel Willcocks, Why I am getting rid of my iPhone, What happened to last weeks blog post, and more.
Book updates
At the time of writing this blog post, I am on 52,547 words, and counting. The wipe board sheets that cling to the wall with static, is coping well with the different notes and stats that I have written on it, and is a massive help to organising plot points and more.
I am currently in the process of making a cover for my debut novel, and hope to release it soon.
Last weeks blog post
The observant among you will have noticed that I have skipped a week posting on the blog. I haven’t been lazy, far from it. My wife and I had some holiday chalked out in the diary, and we decided to take it. Sadly however, the designated time did not end up as holiday, but as sick leave instead, as my wife ended up in hospital for several days, then back home recovering.
The good news is, she is recovering well, and we have already had a chat about when we can chalk out holiday time back in the diary.
The Power Hour
I have known Best-Selling author Daniel Willcocks for approximately 10 years, and during that time I have watched as he had a dream of becoming a writer, then went from strength to strength, and became a best-selling author. In his time with Hawk And Cleaver, he was part of the crew responsible for iTunes busting podcast ‘The Other Stories’. He also writes in his chosen genre of post-apocalyptia and horror, cohosts several podcasts, including the Great Writer Share podcast, and Next Level Authors podcast, and coaches up-and-coming authors.
Last week, I got in touch with Dan, and arranged a ‘Power Hour’ with him, and was amazed at the result.
During our hour together, we talked about reader magnets, marketing, genres, tropes and much much more, and this couldn’t have come at a better time while nearing the end of writing my first novel.
His expertise showed me way more than I ever expected, and I can’t believe how much we packed in, in the time we had together. It was definitely worth the money, and if you are an author, or just starting out, then I highly recommend it. You will not be disappointed.
PS When Winter Comes – book 1 written by Daniel Willcocks is excellent, and I recommend it 🙂
Changes to the website
Following the Power Hour with Dan, I have taken a lot of advice, and one of the changes is to the bookstore here at BrettishBooks.com. I have changed the original order of ‘Written books’ and ‘Works in Progress’, into genres. This should future-proof the bookstore, and make it easier for you as readers to be able to find what you are looking for.
More changes coming soon, and as always, I will post updates here on the blog.
Why am I getting rid of my iPhone?
I have decided to take the plunge and try out a flip phone for a month. “You must be crazy” I hear you say. Well, as it happens, not really, so why did I decided to put my iPhone away, and go retro.
Since starting to write, I’ve always wanted to have distraction free devices, and one of those is my Alphasmart Neo2 which I posted about here. So, while having my week off last week, I decided to invest in something very valuable, that you can never get back… TIME!
After watching a ton of videos of how to try and block connectivity on my smartphone, all I found was that none of the ideas seemed to work, as most of the time I could circumvent the methods very easily, thus making my pull away from distractions almost impossible, so I took drastic measures.
I bought a flip phone. Not quite that much a blast to the past, as I actually ended up grabbing a cheap ‘feature phone’ from eBay. These ‘feature phones’ are 4G enabled, and come with several nice things, such as a wifi hotspot, and google maps (although it doesn’t talk to me) and even though it comes with Facebook, and twitter, I have been able to delete them.
What does this mean?
– No more distractions, emails, reminders, etc.. except, a pomodor app, and a water reminder that I have installed.
– Better battery life
– No scouring social media when I am in company of others (this means I actually have to talk to people, lol)
– I can still use my kindle, and download books, which means more time spent reading instead of social media.
– and most importantly… I use my computer for my email, writing, and social media, which means I can keep all the Author business on one machine, rather than scattering it all around different devices.
Today is day one with my Nokia flip phone, and I will keep you up to date with progress as I go through the month. If all goes well, I may sell my smartphone.
Coming soon
– BrettishBooks.com is going to become a proper business.
– How I am getting along with my flip phone
– My method for focusing on writing, which has got me over 2000 words per day, so far.
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Thanks for reading, and see you next week.