 It’s been a very hectic month since the release of my second novel so it feels like time for a little update here.
I can’t thank readers and reviewers enough for all the support for Last Kiss Goodnight. As I write, it is sitting in the top ten for Literary Sagas on Kindle alongside my debut so I feel chuffed to bits, as well as a little bit amazed. The second novel actually made #111 in the whole Kindle chart at one point so forgive me for admitting that I took a screen shot of that as a little keepsake. I’ve had a lot of fun chatting on various blogs about the new book as well as interviews for BBC Radio Devon and Talk Radio Europe. After all those years as a television reporter and presenter, I can tell you that it still feels very weird to be answering the questions instead of asking them. But the best thing now? As all the excitement slowly dies down after that first surge of publication PR, it’s very much back to the day job…ie getting on with the next book. And the good news is I am finally getting used to this. The rhythm of the published author - which is the transition to true acceptance that you really do have to …..keep going. In interviews, I have likened this transition to getting hitched. You spend all that time planning the big wedding…and almost forget that you have to be married afterwards. What? You mean….I have to live with him now? What? You mean….I have to write another book... straight away? As someone who celebrates my silver wedding anniversary later this year, I seem to have adjusted to marriage just fine. So let’s all hope this new life as an author goes as well. My thanks again for all support, especially those who have been kind enough to post reviews. I have some more exciting news to share very soon but my publisher has asked me to keep it secret for now (which, trust me, is very difficult!) If you're a writer yourself, have a good writing week. And to all book lovers, I hope you are reading something wonderful.  I feel a bit hoarse. Well…not actually, but figuratively, you understand.
For the past week, since the publication of my second novel, I have been running around the house and on Twitter and Facebook, screeching like a kid full of too much sugar. I apologise. I do see that it’s not been very controlled or humble or modest. It’s all been a bit ‘look at me’. But the truth is it is very hard to get the tone of this marketing malarkey right and I am just genuinely overwhelmed with the beautiful things people have been saying about the book. And then there’s the shock issue of the rankings! (I may have, ahem, mentioned them once or twice on social media). Yesterday, for instance, I hit #170 in the whole of Kindle and practically fell off my chair. Me? In the top #200?! This, I promise you, is not false modesty or me seeking compliments. I am truly astonished. The DH meantime is all smugness, wearing his ‘told-you-so’ face…which I will explain in just a mo. You see I am both terribly proud and very fond of this second novel but I also have this massive soft spot for my debut Recipes for Melissa (for all sorts of personal reasons). And I kinda thought Recipes was the book that would get the higher ranking of the two, being the first etc. I was utterly thrilled when my debut made it into the top #500 on Kindle for its launch last June and really hoped, quietly, that this second book might nudge near that too. But everyone says the second book can be a bit tricky, blah blah,…and so I was very nervous and didn’t want to go building up my hopes too much. Meantime hubby has a massive soft spot for this second book ( in the same way I do for the first). It has always been his personal favourite…so he, as I say, has been wandering around saying…..told you. I honestly do not know why we authors get ourselves into such a stupendous tizz over book launches. We long for them. We work towards them. It is what we dream of…seeing our work in print. And then we go and have this last-minute complete meltdown panic, followed by the polar opposite sugar rush when things go better than we dared to dream…. So please forgive all this…including the self-indulgent selfie with this post! Please try to overlook all the running around this past week, shrieking on social media. I promise to calm myself down and get back to the business of writing the next book. But I feel I really must say a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who has bought the new book. And for all the kind reviews. I am genuinely surprised and delighted. You have made a nervous author very, very happy. In short...I love you all! |
AuthorTeresa Driscoll - journalist, author, mother of two and lover of great coffee. 
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February 2024
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