So my laptop isn’t empty, far from it in fact, I might need a new one or some sort of mass storage device, but I have this feeling and I wonder if its the same when a child leaves home?
Today I sent my book off into the world, I tucked in all the letters and words, checked they were neat and tidy, I wrapped them up in a cover and now they are up there for the world to see and it is a difficult thing to do. To let the thing that has dominated your mind every minute of every day for months, go.
My style may be questionable, I write from my heart, the words come from inside me, I think like the heroine and I love the hero as if he is real, but the words are my own, they represent my thoughts and in some cases, they show people who really know me, how they don’t really know me at all. I was once told off at college for writing like Roddy Doyle did, using a dash instead of quotation marks for dialogue, so bothered was my teacher by my style and presentation that they missed the point of my words. I don’t remember what those words were, but if I put them on paper back then, they meant something to me, I don’t write for the reader, I write for me, the writer, to complete a story, to make up a life, to be myself.
So today I sent my second book out into the world and so far near a thousand people have read the first one, or they bought it, and of all of them, even people I know well, only one has rated me on Amazon, my sister, because I asked her to.
I don’t write to be famous, sure a mansion and movie deal sounds good, but it isn’t why I do it, I don’t know why I do, because I don’t remember the first time I did it, or the first story that was in my head, they have just always been there and now, two of them at least, are out there…
So if you are reading this, if you have read Fallen, I implore you to rate me at Amazon, or Lulu, probably Amazon though, even if the reason you haven’t even given me feedback is because you hated it. I kind of want to know your opinion anyway…
Nikki Mahood 