Over the past few weeks, we’ve been making a few changes to my website, updating some things, moving others around and creating a new section where you can take a look at the book trailer promotion videos for some of my books. I say we, but actually it has mostly been my creative husband, Chris who also filmed and edited the videos, apart from the launch party one of Life’s a Beach and Then…
From now on, I’m planning on doing a weekly blog on a Friday where I will keep you updated with what I’ve been up to the preceding seven days, but I’m also intending to have some guest authors on here telling you about their latest books.
Speaking of which, I’m going to kick off my new weekly blog by rewinding five weeks to publication day for my latest book, My Mother’s Secret on 27th January.
With us all being in lockdown, we weren’t able to have the usual celebration with family and friends, so we decided to have a ‘virtual’ party instead… the story of our lives at the moment!
The event was on my Facebook page, JuliaRobertsTV, and it was lovely to have so many people joining in live to play the games and quizzes and listen to me reading an excerpt.
Books were given away as prizes, along with My Mother’s Secret playing cards and a mug, and there was also a star prize which included my favourite Yankee Candle and my favourite fruit tea bags.
We would normally have had the champagne corks popping, but foolishly we were doing dry January so had to content ourselves with non-alcoholic drinks to accompany slices of the fabulous cake my husband had made for me.
It has been really rewarding to see My Mother’s Secret near the top of some of the individual Amazon Charts both here and in America, where it topped the Hot New Releases in British Fiction for several weeks.
If you love an emotional read, but one with a bit of a mystery and lots of twists and turns, then give this ago. Fair warning though, according to several of the reviews you will need a box of tissues handy. And if you want to have a quick ‘Look Inside’ on Amazon, you need to change from Kindle to Paperback for that particular feature to appear. You can also have a sample listen to the audiobook.
So, it’s been a very busy time with My Mother’s Secret, including writing a couple of articles and doing some radio interviews and podcasts, and all the while I’ve been ploughing on writing book nine behind the scenes. It’s not a sequel, so has required a whole new set of characters who I’ve enjoyed getting to know. My first draft is due with my editor at Bookouture next week – I’ll let you know if I make my deadline!
It’s very easy to forget all your other books when a new one comes out, but this March I’ve decided to show a bit of book love for Alice in Theatreland.
It’s my only other stand-alone novel to date and was first published in 2017. Don’t worry, it hasn’t dated as it was set in the long hot summer of 1976 in the West End theatre district of London. It features a naïve girl dancer from the provinces, Alice (who may or may not have been based on me) and a truly vile theatre impresario, Richard. If you sign up to receive my newsletter, you will find a question relating to quotes from Alice in Wonderland which will enter you into a draw to win signed paperback copies (UK only I’m afraid). At the moment, there is also a reduced-price offer for a limited period on the Kindle version, but only until next Wednesday.
To accompany the promotion, my son’s girlfriend Katie took some lovely ‘arty’ photographs. It’s her birthday next Tuesday and we’re planning a special celebration as it’s one of those with a zero on the end; photos on here next week!
Katie also took this photo of all my books, including my memoir, One Hundred Lengths of the Pool, in celebration of World Book Day yesterday.
It’s crazy to think how many words there are in that stack with a minimum of 70,000 words per book, but I guess a lot of them get repeated! It’s still an awful lot of hours at my writing desk though, but worthwhile when I receive the type of feedback I’ve been getting for My Mother’s Secret.
It was Katie’s idea to add the glasses and mug to the photo as they are two things I can’t do without when I’m writing. I LOVE that mug and YES, I have put a certain person in one of my books and killed them; extraordinarily cathartic!
Well, that’s about it for this week; have a great weekend
Much love
Julia xx
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