Saturday, July 20, 2013

Summertime Blues



What a long time since I wrote a blog post! I shall give a brief update on the life and times of Lesley Cookman and Libby Sarjeant (bessie mates, actually) then it's back to work.

First, thank you to anybody who has bought one or more of my books over the past year. Much to my surprise, I am not only able to go to Turkey again this year, but I have also got a beautiful new conservatory. This change of career into novelist has certainly worked for me. Murder In The Monastery has been doing quite well, I've reached a lot more readers in the States and I'm currently doing last minute revisions on Murder In The Dark (above) which will be out in October. I've also started work on Murder In A Different Place, set mostly (so far, at least) on the Isle of Wight, which I'm hoping gives me an excuse to do a little research trip! Not that I don't know the Island pretty well anyway (holidays there since I was eight - when Adam was a lad) but I need to check on a few things. Ahem.

There will soon be a new look to this blog, as elder son's girlfriend is redesigning it for me, so I can actually update things myself and use it like a website. I also ought to start blogging more regularly - a fact that was battered into me last weekend at a writers' conference. Marketing - and self-publishing - were the buzz words there and I do neither. Mind you, some of the self-pub stories made me want to take it up immediately, but only because I already have a brand. My friend Freda Lightfoot got back the rights to all her early books and put them up as ebooks herself, very professionally, and is earning rather nicely from them. Very nicely indeed, in fact. Another friend, Linda Gillard, also traditionally published, had a book turned down by her publishers because it didn't fit into their view of her, so she did it herself. She has gone on, despite a rather nasty brush with cancer, to self publish more, and is doing very well. Yet another friend (we are all great mates, us writers) Alison Morton, had also been turned down by traditional publishers for various reasons, none of which were "bad writing", so she has chosen the "Empowered Publishing" route, where a company will do everything for you, editing, cover design, formatting and various other arcane stuff. Her book is now out in print and ebook and is doing very well, too.

I am currently performing in an Old Time Music Hall at our local theatre, (see picture) giving my Lily Morris impression and singing "Don't Have Any More, Mrs Moore". I appeared in Alan Bennett's "Enjoy" in April, and was nominated for a best actress in a supporting role award. I came in as runner up, but it was nice to be nominated, and the awards evening was splendiferous. Champagne and everything.

11 comments:

Jacki said...

Here's a bit of Serendipity after buying all the Libby Sarjeant Series on Kindle I was doing a bit of Genealogy and low and behold I came across a line of Sarjeants in the Family Tree :)

Lesley Cookman said...

No! Well, how about that? Is it a common name? I didn't think it was, but I only used it so that she could say "With a J".

Anonymous said...

I really enjoy your books and read them all again before reading each new book in the series. I like all the different characters that appear regularly and the new ones that pop up and perhaps stay for further books. Thanks so much for all the entertainment, enjoy the humour, too. Eileen, Dover, Kent.

Alexandra Campbell said...

You've got me going - I've got all the rights to the earlier books published by Penguin and I've been meaning to do something with them. If any of your friends who have self-pubbed backlists feel like doing a guest blog about their experiences on your page, I'd be very interested.

Jane Lovering said...

Social Media and blogging is all the rage now, Lesley! Looking forward to your new one now, and loving your covers - they're so atmospheric.

Kristi said...

Looking forward to many more happy hours with Libby. Great that you're going to be blogging more. Having frequent interaction with our favorite authors is one of the delights of 2013.

Jen Dawes said...

Eagerly awaiting the next installment of Libby Serjeant in ePUB format!

Lesley Cookman said...

Thank you all for your comments, and glad you all like Libby. Eileen, I'm not that far from you in Kent, and Alexandra, I'll ask Freda and Alison if they will do guest blogs. Cor, getting into this now! Only ever had one guest blogger, well, interviwee, actually, and he was an actor mate. I'll try and do better!

Lesley Cookman said...
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Lesley Cookman said...
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www.historymagpie.com said...

Hi Lesley, great to hear that Libby is doing well by you. I've just snuck your latest onto my kindle for my annual jaunt to the Isle of Wight - so if there's anything you need to know, drop me a line and I will try and find out.