"THE ELECTION"

Today was the Gold Coast Writers' Association end of year meeting and Christmas party. I had some great feedback from a colleague on the committee from my talk at the Helensvale Library. She said she goes to that library frequently and she was told by the staff that my talk had been the best they'd ever had so that was most gratifying.

I plan to approach other libraries on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane to see if I can give talks at any of them. That's certainly the way to get the message across.

BOOKS 'N STUFF

Yesterday I happened to visit my PayPal account because I had just bought something on the Internet. I found that a customer had bought a copy of The Election some three weeks ago and PayPal hadn't bothered to tell me about it. When I asked for an explanation the e-mail in response virtually laid the problem at my door. So, after a year of using PayPal with them notifying me of payments received without any problems suddenly it's my fault (or my computer's fault) because no notification was sent out. They are, unfortunately, a necessary evil. I have now given them two e-mail addresses so hopefully I'll get notified one way or the other.

As for the customer, I sent the book to him immediatley by express post. A bit of a loss incurred there but I would rather look after customers than save a few dollars.

And on the positive side, it was another sale I didn't realise I had.

I've just entered another competition, this time in the UK. I've submitted an entry using a sample of my manuscript for Sleeping With The Angels. Well, you never know.

BOOKS

My talk at the Helensvale Library went down extremely well yesterday. It was gratifying to hear from people who had already read The Election and enjoyed it and to know that so many more people now want to read it. I managed to sell a copy there and then and there were loads of enquiries so more sales will come out of it. People were also interested to know when I'm doing another talk!

Last night I attended the Christmas party of the local Chamber of Commerce and a few of the members of a local book club were there. They had all read The Election and loved it and I had previously given a talk at one of their lunches. But what was very pleasing was that a few of them had read the manuscript of my next novel to be published Calvus and they loved it. One person said she thought it was even better than The Election. I hope their thoughts on it are mirrored by commissioning editors or literary agents I'm submitting to at present.

The rain is wreaking havoc here at present and it looks as though I won't be able to join a colleague at the beach market tomorrow. A sunny day in the run up to Christmas would have been a good time to sell a few copies of The Election. However there will be another opportunity later in the month.