Horse Ride and Overnight Stay Info now sorted.

Thank you to all my lovely friends, family and fellow researchers for helping me solve my details of historical and journeying in the 1830's. I know I have artistic licence to do as I wish when I write my book, however as Mel said it is a nicer read if it is based on factual information.

A solo horse rider from London to Gloucester would take more than half a day, even with an Arabian.  When I first wrote my "Crosswick" draft I just wrote and didn't overly think on some of the major details at the time. Now is the time to fill in those details and one of the major ones is of course the Horse and Rider episodes.  There will be quite a large re-write due to the fact that a horse and rider would have an over night stop on the way for rest and recuperation.

Well like in my last post I have the horse timing is all sorted now, the next part was where in his journey to stop over night.  The question went to my family, friends and researchers I know and some I don't know.  The information was wonderful.

I have decided to stop at Newbury (thanks bro) in Berkshire for one trip.  A lovely gentleman from Rootschat Website gave me a heap of information about Newbury for 1835 and beyond. Newburychap told me about the trains and the coaching inns. The one I had chosen  to use was not actually a place a gentleman would stay (another thing i'd not thought about), he advised me to use the Pelican instead of the Bacon Arms. He also told me who was in charge of the inn during the time my rider stays overnight,  including that Charles Dickens staying there the same year. It wasn't until 1847 when the trains finally took over from the coaching inns to the extent many inn's ended up closing down.  I never realised how big these places were either, some had stables which housed 300 horses.  WOW

It is going to make a good read with this extra info, I am now looking forward to working out Gregory's overnight visit to Oxford.

Thank you Mel, Keith, Mark, Keeley and everyone else who made suggestions and gave me factual information. x

Travel Times by Horse - Regency Era

Well bother, all I can really say is thank goodness my book is a work of fiction.  Apparently I have my horse and rider going from London to Gloucester in half a day instead of two days.  Must admit it is one way to extend the story line. So do I leave it or do I go into more depth of finding a hostelry for my hero and evil man to stay in at a halfway point? 

As a future reader of my Regency Novel it would be great to have some feedback. I don't know much about horses, though I do know that some horses have more stamina than others. I also appreciate roads were very different. There again are they. From photographs I have seen recently on Facebook it seems they have as many potholes now in a road as they probably had in Regency times.

If I change it to fit time wise, it will mean re-drafting quite a few different parts of the story which could cause chaos. Though I like chaos in my books, I'm not sure if this is the best route.

Still humming and haring over what to do :D

Thought this looked a bit like Demon the Black Arabian Stallion in my book

http://animal-backgrounds.com/files/Arabian%20Horse/Arabian%20horses%20blackbeauty%20Wallpaper.jpg

Page Numbers

Well what a frustrating way to begin a day.  Actually that's not quite true. I started to try and put in page numbers in a book manuscript a few days ago and gave up wanting to yell and scream. Instead i calmed down and went to do something different.

Cup of tea in hand I sat on the comfy couch with my laptop and decided to try again. Opening the document I though I can do this it can't be as hard as it was the other day.  Next I Googled how to number pages into word documents after the first page.

Oopps I think this is why I got a little bit tied up.  An hour later and it still wasn't working even though I was going through the guidelines step by step.  Sheer frustration. Lucky for me I ranted and raved a bit on Facebook to my lovely friends. Harrold came to my rescue with two web links one which confused me and the other I seemed to have more luck with.

By the time my daughter came into the lounge I was very grumpy, it still wasn't working and I knew I hadn't missed any steps.  Then right at the bottom of the second link Harrold gave me i noticed something and wondered if it would work. 

Well I did something right, straight after a nice long scream post on Facebook. You know what I still don't know what the heck I did so I suppose there will be more frustration with my next book for print.

Here's the link for you all just in case you need it at some stage

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10-things/10-steps-to-setting-up-page-numbering-in-word-sections/

Right I'm off to go see i can do my next book :D

First book in print

I have finally done it.  I have my first book printed, it's my fifth work and my first teens book.  Even so I'm really pleased.  I even had a glass of wine to celebrate.  All I have to do now is sell them.

Who knows anything about marketing? 

I have read numerous items to spread the word, blogs etc and have come to the conclusion I'm doing all the right stuff.  I have this blog, I am designing a website I celebrate my success on Facebook, LinkedIn, I tell friends and relatives and still it seems I need more marketing.

Where do I go from here?

Well I need followers on this blog for a start, I know people look though it i just don't actually have followers. Is my blog boring, do I say the wrong things, well I don't know unless someone says something or leaves a comment.

Customer feedback on Amazon from those who have bought and read my novels would also be good.

Maybe I should email everyone in my contact list with a generic email telling people about my novels, where they are to be found etc. Another idea is sending an email to the local paper, though I'm not sure I'm brave enough for that yet.

Whilst my web page is under construction I can't do a business card, though it will be sorted once my webpage is set.  Once again I'll need feedback so I can improve what I've done so far.

Oh I almost forgot the book that you can now buy in print is called "Zoe's Journey," it's about a teen who find out who she really is. Along the way she meets many mythical creatures of which she'd always assumed were fairy tales.

Well back to my writing, if you buy one of my books thanks, and enjoy the read.

:D