Who is The Woman On The Beach?

Finally, it’s time for you to find out who The Woman on the Beach is because it was Publication Day on Thursday, which is why I’m a day late with this blog… apologies. Not only was I trying to keep up with all the lovely messages on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, but I also had yet another hospital appointment on the day, and a hair appointment because my hairdresser is on holiday next week when my colour would have been due. In addition, we had spent the morning cleaning and tidying the conservatory which we have been using to store all the painting stuff in preparation for our mums coming to stay – more on that later!

So, not your average Publication Day. This was my 13^th if you include the Christmas novellas, Time for a Short Story and One Hundred Lengths of the Pool, but I usually have no problem with the number thirteen – my mum was born on Friday 13^th 1926, so has just celebrated her 95^th birthday! There have been a few gremlins leading up to this Publication Day though, one of which was my paperback copies being delayed. Normally, they arrive about a week in advance, and I film the ‘opening the box of books video’. I had started to panic a bit when it got to Publication Day Eve (if there is such a thing) and they still hadn’t arrived when I left for work. Fortunately, they were waiting for me when I got back so I was able to film this little video with about two hours to go – talk about last minute!!

I popped it up on Instagram, where I also managed to do an Instagram live of me reading the Prologue and first chapter of the new book, before our son and his girlfriend, and our daughter and her family arrived to help me celebrate. I think it’s safe to say I was thoroughly spoilt with flowers, both from my publisher, Bookouture and my family, and I now have another framed book cover to hang on the wall of my attic writing room.

The family also had this beautiful cake made, a very ‘tasty’ tradition.

As I’ve mentioned on here previously, there have been some truly lovely reviews of this book including the word ‘phenomenal’ which is a first for me, I think. The great news is, that Bookouture have decided to lower the price of the ebook to 99p for a limited time, so if you’d been thinking about purchasing, now is your moment as I don’t know how long it will hold the lower price. It’s also available as an audiobook, narrated by the fabulous Clare Kissane if you prefer to listen to your books.

When I checked the Amazon chart position this morning, she is sitting in the top thirty of the three sub-category charts which is fantastic, and at number 48 in Hot New Releases, but it would be lovely to see her climb from the 300’s into the top 100 on the main Amazon chart as that would give her more visibility for new readers to discover. I would really appreciate your help with this if you know what I mean, and it would be nice to join Jackie Kabler whose book has snuck in at number 94 this morning – a QVC author takeover!!!

Speaking of Jackie, it’s time to announce the winner of the competition to win a signed copy of her latest book, The Happy Family for which she set the question. The answer was of course, The Simpsons, which I’m pleased to say everyone who entered got right, and I asked Jackie to choose a random number in order to select the winner. She did, and the winner is (drumroll) Beverley Sharman. Big congratulations – your book will be on its way early next week. I will be doing a Woman on the Beach paperback giveaway very soon.

So, as I mentioned earlier, we have been decorating again, this time one of the bedrooms in readiness for the visit of both mine and my husband, Chris’s mums. I’d bought some pretty curtains after our son moved out, and we chose a light shade of sage green to paint the walls which really sets off the stripped pine doors in my opinion. We will do the other spare bedroom in duck-egg blue at some point, but for now we settled for having the curtains cleaned and a new pale grey velvet occasional chair, a really good find in our local Homesense.

Chris went to fetch his mum from Spalding, pictured above, and our son, Dan went to Nottingham to fetch my mum, pictured below, as I went straight from a physio appointment to QVC for three hours on air. At least I’m off now for five days so will have time to enjoy their company. I think they are both looking really well – not bad for eighty-six and ninety-five respectively.

Almost time to finish, but I just wanted to share a photo of Wilfie that I put on an Instagram story earlier in the week to celebrate ‘Black Cat Appreciation Day’. There were ten photos on my story from when he was a tiny five-week-old kitten to a photo from a few months ago, but I captioned this one with, ‘What is wine?’

I’ll close for now but do check back in a couple of weeks when I’ll be introducing you to another author in my Between the Lines feature.

Have a great weekend

Love

Julia x