My First Book
My first book was a novella, “Jingle Bells, Cracker Spells” included in an anthology along with nine other authors in October 2020. Christmas Crackers was available until February 2021, and once our contracted period had ended, as far as I know, my fellow authors republished their books independently (no longer in the anthology). I didn’t.
At the time the anthology came down, I was liaising with my parents to have them move closer to me, in another state. Because of the stress and plain old busyness, learning to publish a book was the last thing on my mind.
By the time I had some time, I had done a lot of thinking. What did I want my writing career to look like? What type of author did I want to be? What books did I want to write? Could I extend the 38,000-word novella into a novel that would be a better fit for the series? What was my why for writing in the first place? The answers to these questions, and many more, swallowed my time and energy.
By the time I was writing again, I knew the answers.
I want to be an Australian author who writes stories set in Australia and thus I will use British English. This was a tough decision to make, but one I am now comfortable with. Australia has so much to offer in terms of a story setting, the people, and our way of life as a starting point.
Jingle Bells, Cracker Spells was, on reflection a year later, an okay book. Many readers took the time to let me know how much they enjoyed the story, which was truly awesome, and many joined my newsletter. As I plan to rewrite Jingle Bells, Cracker Spells to fit in with the new direction for the series (as I have now changed the series to an Australian setting, plus there are some character makeovers, and a slight change in the overall story arc), for those who joined my newsletter before Christmas 2021 I will do my best to make sure you get the new version of Jingle Bells, Cracker Spells as a free book.
I look forward to sharing more of my story with you.
Cheers to curling up with a good book and a critter companion.
Susanne.x