In Which I Am Distracted By Sheep

The bestselling novelist Adele Parks is in the Sunday Times today (I know because my mother waved the paper at me as I arrived to make her lunch!), talking about ‘Fame and Fortune’ and how her first novel – ‘Playing Away’ – was snapped up in 2000, as part of a 2-book deal for £300,000.

Yes, you read that correctly. And 23 years ago that was worth even more than it is now! (I’m sure you’d worked that out for yourself, but I’m just saying…!)

Gob-smacking, isn’t it? Good for her, and all that (no, no, not jealous at all).

And at the other end of the scale, the ALCS has recently published a report which states that, despite rising book sales, the average annual income for a full-time author is £7,000.

Also at the other end of the scale, a debut novelist admitted to me recently that their most recent monthly royalty statement was something like £6.83.

Here’s the full Adele Parks article, if you want to read it but it’s behind a paywall so unless you register with The Times (free for a limited number of articles a month, I think!) you might not be able to see it.

My earnings.. (ahem) are somewhere in the middle of those two – but nearer to the £6.83 a month, obviously.

There are some authors, clearly, who make a lot of money from writing and because those are the names and the figures that make the newspapers, it leads to a general misconception that we’re all making a fortune!

Ah, if only that were true! 🙂

The Vanishing Sheep

This is where they got out!

In other news, I was distracted from writing the you-know-what (or should that be the ‘ewe-know-what’?) on Friday by the appearance of 3 runaway sheep! (Two big ones and a lamb).

They climbed – very nimbly and goat-like – over a collapsed wall in the field across the road, just as I was turning into our drive, so naturally, I parked and then ran up to the road, to see what I could do.

By this time, about four cars had stopped and one man opened his window and asked, “Are they yours?” (because obviously I looked like a shepherd).

The sheep were now careering down the grass verge, clearly delighted to be ‘free’ and the drivers got bored and all drove off, narrowly avoiding them.

I didn’t have time to take a photo of them, sadly but you all know what sheep look like, so perhaps not necessary? I DID get a photo of their exit route from the field though, as, once they’d disappeared, I posted it on the village Facebook page, with a description of the woolly wanderers and I also phoned our neighbours, who have sheep themselves and who I thought might know the owners of the runaways.

The owner was traced and I’m assuming/hoping, that he got the sheep back!

Nickname Ideas?

I need a new nickname for a tomboy, rough-around-the-edges female character in my new book.

It was going to be ‘Spud’ but I decided that was too English (she’s Scottish), so I changed it to ‘Tattie’ but then I realised that it’s too similar to another name in the book, so I can’t use it.

I want it to be a nickname, perhaps based on a surname but I don’t want to it to end in ‘y’ because I have too many characters whose names end in ‘y’ or the ‘y sound’ (eg: Seffy, Joey, Angie).

Any ideas, anyone? Leave a comment if you can think of something because my brain is melting at the moment!

Thank you, in advance for any suggestions!