The Backpacking Housewife - Cover Reveal day!

 

It's Cover Reveal Day!

Today is a dream come true! Last summer I was traveling in Asia while also working on a new romantic adventure novel entitled Island In The Sun when I was approached by Charlotte Ledger, the Editorial Director of Harper Impulse to write for them. Harper Impulse is the romance imprint of Harper Collins UK Publishers in London and Harper Collins is one of the world's largest publishing companies - one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Hachette, Macmillan, Penguin Random House, and Simon & Schuster. (Source Wikipedia) Well, you can imagine how totally bowled over and thrilled I was!

I’ve been working as a published writer since 2004. Since then I’ve written a grand total of thirteen titles. The Backpacking Housewife is lucky number thirteen!

I am told it’s unusual these days to be given a contract from a major publishing house before the book is actually written. I found my initial euphoria at being offered such a fabulous opportunity tempered with trepidation over signing a deal with such a tight deadline to meet with the publishing schedule. I knew that travelling around Asia (we were in Vietnam at the time) and not having a daily routine wasn’t going to be conducive to meeting such a deadline.

So my husband and I did something radical. We decided to stop travelling for a while and we registered with a homesitter’s website – listing ourselves as available to housesit for several months. A UK couple with a property in South West France got in touch with us and after several emails and a Skype video call we were offered the assignment to care for a beautiful 500-year-old chateau, a couple of gites, and a cat called Mr Smudge.  We immediately booked several connecting flights from Asia to Bordeaux France.

And, in that beautiful chateau in October 2017, I started work on The Backpacking Housewife. As I was writing a work of fiction that was loosely based on my own travel experiences I wanted to be sure that my commissioning editor was in full approval of my ideas for the book. So, I actually wrote three completely different versions of the all-important first three chapters for her consideration. Only once we had agreed on how the story should start did I begin work on completing the manuscript.

I then worked every day but to a weekly word count. This allowed a bit of flexibility in the daily writing schedule and also made sure I could complete the manuscript on time and to the length required. It wasn’t easy. I had good days and bad days. But, eventually, I finished the story and I now feel extremely proud of what I have written and of my achievement.  All those who have written a book will know this feeling!

And, just in case you are wondering what happened to the other book I was writing? Well, that is now finished too and being edited right now. ‘Island in the Sun’ will be published later this summer.

It has been a team effort with Harper Impulse to progress The Backpacking Housewife from a manuscript to a book. There have been structural edits and revisions. The book has been copyedited and checked over and over. A publication date has been set for 6^th July for the ebook and 12^th July for the paperback. The Harper Collins PR Department has been fully briefed and will be working with me to reach readers.

I was asked to write a cover brief and from that the cover was designed. I was so excited and thrilled and proud when I saw the beautiful cover and I was desperate to show it off to everyone - except I knew I couldn’t – at least not until the cover was officially revealed by the wonderful team at Harper Impulse. It was especially hard not to share when friends attending The London Book Fair told me that the cover of The Backpacking Housewife was being displayed on a giant screen at the Harper Collins stand and sent me the photo!

The Backpacking Housewife on display at the London Book Fair

So I'm really happy to be able to share with you at last - The Backpacking Housewife. Ta-darrrrr!!

In case you missed it - here it is again!

What is the story about? The Backpacking Housewife is a story about an ordinary woman - a housewife with two grown-up children. When she comes home unexpectedly one day to find her husband of 25 years in bed with her best friend, she is so distraught and traumatized and betrayed that she grabs her passport and her handbag and heads out of the door to the airport. What follows is an adventure of a lifetime.

This is the official book blurb: Lorraine Anderson was meant to be making a Sunday roast, not swanning off to Thailand, backpack in hand! But when she finds her husband and her best friend in bed together there’s only one thing to do – grab her passport and never look back! Now, with each mile travelled Lori sheds the woman she once was and finds the woman she was always meant to be. A woman of passion and spirit who deserves to explore the great unknown…and to indulge in the temptation she encounters along the way!

Today is Cover Reveal Day and ALSO the day the book goes up for PRE-SALE!

This means that if you order the book on PRE-SALE you are placing an order for the book at the PRE-SALE SPECIAL PRICE. But you will not be charged for the book until publication day on the 6^th July for the ebook or 12^th July for the paperback. So why not get your order in right away?

Click here to browse the book and find out more on Amazon

The ebook is also available from:   iBooks on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Mac.

And at:  Kobo and Google Play

What do you think of the cover and the story blurb?

Have you pre-ordered yet?

I’d love to read your comments!

Help with The Work in Progress...

One of my current writing projects is a work of non-fiction – it’s a 'How To' on tackling aspects of online promotion and making it fun. I’ve been prompted to write this by lots of lovely fellow writers who, over past year or so, have emailed me for advice on hosting online parties to promote or launch their book/s.

Some of those writers are debut novelists and others multi-pubbed. Some are with traditional publishers and others are indie. Most have previously attended or taken part (and reportedly enjoyed) my launch parties and want to know how I did it and more to the point, how they can do it too.

The title of this new and fun look at book promo is ‘How to Promote Party Online’ with the emphasis on the party aspect, because everyone wants to have fun, right?

So, I have a couple of questions for you to help me with research and I’d really appreciate your comments. You can leave them here on the blog or in an email to me at: janice@janicehortonwriter.co.uk

Q1: Have you attended one or more of my launch parties - which one/s?

Q2: Did you personally find it fun and engaging – and can you say why?

If you are not familiar with, or like me you were a bit giddy with virtual fizz at the time, then these links will give you a wee recap on our previous online frivolities:

Bagpipes & Bullshot Day

Reaching for the Stars – Wish I Was Here Party

How Do You Voodoo? – The Spellbindingly Fun Party

Voodoo Wedding – Facebook & Twitter Party

I’d really appreciate your feedback as it will help me enormously. The info you give will help me to focus on giving helpful advice. If I would like to use your comment as a quote – please be assured that I would always contact you first to ask for your permission. The book will be available soon from Amazon for Kindle. Thank you in advance.

Love, Janice xx

The Blank Page...

I’ve been away for a couple of weeks but now that I’m back - I’m excited to tell you that I’m just about to embark on a new and longer journey - I’m about to face the blank page once again and start writing a new novel!

So, my dear friends, do you think you might be interested in travelling with me on this exciting new novel journey? Do you want to find out exactly what it takes to write and publish a novel from start to finish? Perhaps, if you are a reader, you’ve always wanted to write a book yourself?

My first book was traditionally published in paperback but I have since gone on to self-publish my second and third novels as e-books. These have gone on to be bestsellers on Amazon’s Top 100 lists and are currently selling well all over the world. Would YOU like to get involved in following the progress of Book Number Four? Over the next weeks and months I’ll be discussing the ups and downs of my writing and regularly seeking out your opinions and advice from right here on this blog. Then, later on in the year, we can discuss matters such as editing, formatting and cover design, and everything else that takes us from an idea to a finished book.

So far, I’ve done the extensive research that I advocate as the best way to ‘know my characters’ and I have two such people now firmly embedded into my head. I’m not entirely settled on their names yet, but one is a hot-shot female lawyer, an eco-warrior and passionate green campaigner. The other protagonist, and the love interest in the story, is an ambitious industrialist.

What now? Well, they will meet in chapter one and I think I’m going to open the first scene in his point of view (POV).

I’ve always been a bit of a ‘pantser’ - this means that unlike writers who prepare a carefully planned story outline - I just start to write and hope the ideas will pop into my head. It’s a risky strategy. I mean, ideas can (and do!) dry up and this can put you right back to that intimidating first blank page. I suppose I have blind faith in that somehow, perhaps on a subconscious level, it will all come together in the end and that by allowing my characters to tell the story (rather than it being plot driven) it will emerge fresh, pacy and engaging. Well, that’s what I’m hoping anyway!

Next week, I hope to have names for my first two characters. Do you have any suggestions? What do you think is fashionable right now and can you think of a name to suit my beautiful lady eco-lawyer and her handsome nemesis, the industrialist businessman? Perhaps we could have a poll and vote on the best name suggestions? As I don't have a title yet either - we might have to do the same for that too!

You will see from my sidebar that this blog has just been nominated for a Top Writer Blog Award. This is a huge honour as it comes from an educational website and if you have a moment to spare I’d love you to consider voting for me. Your support would be greatly appreciated. No signing up necessary - just a click through from the sidebar button to the nominee list and press the Vote button. Thank you!

See you next week…?

Janice xx

Did you know? I also have a fun and regularly updated Facebook Author Page - please visit me there too - for all my latest day to day news, reviews and interviews!

Getting Connected…

Well, I have to say that we haven’t had a particularly good start to 2012 here at Horton HQ. We have been coping with high winds, persistent power cuts and (shriek) a laptop that refused to see in the New Year with us.

It’s shocking (or it would be if we had any power) how much we (I) now rely on the internet to work and connect with colleagues and friends on social networks, forums, Twitter, Facebook and Blogs. All of these things, together with the checking of ones Amazon rankings (okay, so it’s probably better if I don’t do that more than once a day!) means connecting on-line for at least a couple of hours each day.

I’m only able to be with you now, dear readers, because Mr JH has ingeniously managed to connect my new Touchpad (a present from Santa!) with his mobile phone ‘hot spot’ and made it possible for me to blog to you via satellite – how cool is that?!

So, what news do I bring you may ask…?

Well, my getting connected plans for 2012 of course…!

First off, I’m planning a writerly getaway to connect with writing a new novel!

I’ll be popping in from time to time over the next couple of weeks of course, and have some fabulous Author Showcase features for you, but otherwise I will be making a start on Book #4 or The WIP (work in progress) as it must be called because as yet this new venture does not have a title.

However, in true Horton style I have already done all the necessary and extensive research needed to identify with my lovely lady lawyer heroine, by actually working in a Solicitor’s office to get a real feel for her world!

I was hoping that when I’ve written a brief synopsis of the story, you might come up with a suitable title for me – what do you think? Let’s have some suggestions with something legal sounding in the title – but it’s a romance remember!

And also, to connect with my wonderful writer friends and my lovely readers, I plan to attend these amazing events being organised throughout 2012!

The Loveahappyending Summer Audience is a one day reader/writer event being held on 16th June in Tetbury, Gloucester. As an editor with Loveahappyending and co-organiser of this event, I’ll be posting more information as soon as the Lovehappyending.org information and ticket site is launched in early February.

The Romantic Novelist’s Association Conference is being held over the weekend of 13th to 15th July at Penrith, Cumbria. Information can be found on the RNA Website.

The Festival of Romance is being held over the weekend of 16th to 18th November 2012 in Bedford: more information from the Festival Website.

So that’s my plans so far – what are yours – do tell?

Please pop back next week as I have a couple of fabulous author showcases lined up for you and I’ll be blogging from my secret writerly hideaway - probably via satellite!