A New Project

As I mentioned in my previous post I decided not to go away over the bank holiday. When the offer of work on bank holiday Monday came up I jumped at it.  

Also I was correct about some of the campsites being full, especially as the weather turned so nice. I decided to play it safe and book the next campsite in Wales (Lleithyr Farm Caravan and camping Holidays) for after the bank holiday. I was surprised to discover they were full until Wednesday. I will have to work hard to find and complete all the necessary work.  I hope the weather holds so I can get some decent photographs.

Even though I have been unable to gather more information for my book I have not been twiddling my thumbs. 

Writing a book is only part of the process. It then has to be made available for purchase. In short it needs to be marketed. This too is time consuming.  My plans to market my first book "My Friend Ruby" were derailed when I was awarded a book contract.  I knew I would not have the time to do both. If I want both books to achieve reasonable sales I need to have plans for marketing both. An idea occurred to me as a result of attending the book launch of my friend Amy.


Over the weekend Amy and I met up to set plans in motion and begin preparations. During 2018 we are hoping to attend some book festivals with the aim of "introducing a variety of non-fiction books to a wider audience". We are thinking of having 12 books, one for each month. Amongst the 12 will be my book, possibly Rita Cosby's "Quiet Heroes" and Aileen Orr's "Wojtek; The Bear". 

It will be immediately obvious why I chose them as all three are personal to me. Nevertheless they may interest you. I will post in this blog updated plans of our project as and when including the other 9 books on the list.

Photographs

After the excitement of the past couple of weeks I thought of completing my campsite research. However, the overcast weather indicated photos would be rather dull. It is difficult to take lots of interesting photos when it is cloudy. One or two as here is an enjoyable challenge. If the overcast weather is prolonged the impression created of the campsite is not very favourable. 

As it was necessary for me to return home at the end of the week I decided the couple of days I could squeeze in going away would not allow me to complete my research satisfactorily. 


Going away this coming weekend is also problematical as it is the bank holiday weekend. I assume most of the places I need to visit will be busy so probably won't have space for me.

I have made good use of my time. I have completed a second chapter; the one of campsites in Scotland and am well on my way to completing a third. My problem now is to choose the photographs to accompany the chapters.

I thought this would be easy as I only have to select 4 photos for each campsite. Not so. Because I take so many photographs it is proving very difficult to select just 4, especially if they all come out half decently as this one.

It was whilst trying to select the photos for the chapter about Scotland that I realized I had accidentally deleted all the photos I took during the last couple of days. Of course it is much to far away to go back to take more relevant photos. 

With September fast approaching I am making plans to complete my research. I do hope we get a bit more sun to make taking photos easier.

Time to Consolidate

Burnley

I am now back from my last expedition to Scotland and North Yorkshire and the abortive time in Burnley. (I did manage to take some photographs at least).

It is time to pause, collate my notes and endeavour to complete some chapters of the book. This is more difficult than it sounds. This has been partly due to my having caught a cold.  Might be the summer but I still caught a cold. The worse thing about it was the cough. Anyway all is well now.  Back to producing something.

Each time I re-read what I have written an idea occurs to me which requires further editing. Hopefully these changes will make it a better read. Surprisingly the most difficult task is selecting just 4 photographs for each campsite.  

Pearl with her wooden friend!!!!

Another reason for taking a break was the change in the weather; more rain less sun. How fortunate I was in managing to visit so many campsites during the good weather in May and June. 

I also took a break because of Pearl. First she scraped the pads of her paws so had to wear boots. That made me laugh so much. Then she came into season. This is not a good time to be out going to places I do not know and meeting strange dogs so we stayed home. 

It is nearly finished so I am hoping to go away early next week. Not quite sure where. It depends on the weather and the availability of pitches. 


By this time the harvest should be in and all the hay and straw wrapped up as the machine is doing in the photograph. With all the rain this may not be the case.