I am a BAD Writer

The previous blog post to this one was 27th June. Almost exactly TWO MONTHS ago. I've been a very bad writer.
Not only have I not blogged for two months, I haven't updated the Facebook page or the website. Twitter has also been a stranger to me, apart from a few thanks for the follow tweets.
This makes for a very bad writer in this day and age. No wonder book sales have slowed to a trickle.
On a positive note, I've written a couple of short stories for a competition and 30,000 words of the new Tyrant novel. I've been enjoying this so much that I've neglected my primary duty as an author, to promote my books.
The fourth Jenny Parker novel has been through a first, structural, edit and I'm going to get round to rewriting the bits that need it very soon. However, even the prospect of getting another book out into the world hasn't managed to tear me away from Tyrant's grasp. It seems I'm writing this series for myself and not giving any regard to the marketplace. I'm not even anxious to have the first Tyrant novel, Horse, released any time soon. Maybe I'll be able to write a couple more before that happens.
Which brings me to the point, a thing that all blog posts should have. Most writers these days have to look after themselves. It's not easy writing a book so it's a bit unreasonable to expect an author to also be editor, publisher, distributor and salesman. Personally, the thought of going anywhere near Waterstones with my books terrifies the life out of me. You see, I've never been good at sales. I once had a job selling vacuum tankers where I only needed to sell three a month to make a good living. Six months into the job I was eighteen behind schedule and they let me go. My total earnings during that period was two hundred and thirty pounds. And don't think that might have represented a fortune in those days, it wasn't that long ago you cheeky beggars. Mind you, that's not much less than I've earned from my book sales while I've been away from this blog.
So, I really do need to start being a good writer again.


photo credit: Rue des Mauvais Garçons via photopin (license)