A small step for those looking to conquer the world. A giant leap for little old me… My latest novel is a dual timeline historical fiction. One half of the book is set in 1845, in a factual town called Newmarket in County Cork, Ireland. The other is set in a small factual town called Paxton, in Illinois, USA, in 2025. This week I made contact with the libraries of both places. Both have agreed to host me for an afternoon later in the year. I am so looking forward to it.

So, a couple of weeks or so ago, I felt somewhat deflated regarding engagement etc through platforms like Facebook groups, X and so on. Admittedly through observation more than engagement, but they were leaving me flat, and inundating my e-mail account with various proposals to make me the next 'big thing'. Then I watched a YouTube video @TheGuerrillaPublisher and found myself popping over to here. I am so glad that I did. Not only because I feel I may now have found the type of community I have been seeking, but also that finding it has just improved my mood and my attitude towards things this week. The coincidence of finding here at the same time as self-publishing my third novel has not been lost on me. I may not have replied to a huge number of posts but I have been reading many, and in doing so got the nudge I needed to perhaps direct me in a path that suits me. That rewards me. So, to that end I did a thing. My latest novel is a dual timeline historical fiction. One half of the book is set in 1845, in a factual town called Newmarket in County Cork, Ireland. The other is set in a small factual town called Paxton, in Illinois, USA, in 2025. This week I made contact with the libraries of both places. Both have agreed to host me for an afternoon later in the year. Two towns, two countries, both of them real places in the book, and both saying yes in the same week. I am so looking forward to it. Sitting in a room with even a few people who have come to hear about the thing I wrote is the exact right fit for the type of self-growth as an author I want to follow. It is far more me than dropping a post somewhere I don’t really understand and hoping. There was another lift this morning too, that made me very smiley. My first ever KENP page reads. Someone actually turning the pages. I found that I cared about that far more than the couple of sales this week. Thank you 'The Independent Authors Guild' and its members for helping me to reframe things….

Portrait of a Suspect, by Sonya Myers. I've written for many years, but never to the point of publishing. But today, my debut novel is live on KDP. It's about sixty-year-old woman who has lost almost everything then becomes entangled in a murder while trying to rebuild her life. It is a heartwarming mystery about finding the courage to create the life you always wanted, and discovering that love—and murder—can arrive when you least expect them. This is book one in a three-book series. Available on KDP, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HC4HWQS8

I have noticed something with authors: we spend so much time writing and polishing the book that when publication day gets close, we suddenly realize there’s a whole other side of the process we haven’t prepared for. The last 30 days shouldn’t be about scrambling. They should be about making sure everything is ready. I like to think about it this way: 30 days out: Get the foundation right. Final editing, proofreading, formatting, cover, title, and subtitle. 21 days out: Look at the book through your reader’s eyes. Does the cover communicate the genre? Does the description make the right reader curious enough to click? 14 days out: Get your marketing ready. Know who you're trying to reach and what you're going to say to them. 7 days out: Prepare your launch content, emails, social posts, review strategy, and everything else you’ll need. Last 48 hours: Check everything one more time metadata, pricing, categories, keywords, links, formatting, and retailer pages. But here's the part I think authors often overlook: Don't make your entire plan about launch day. Your book needs a strategy for the weeks and months after publication too. A successful author career isn't built from one launch. It's built by consistently getting your books in front of the right readers and giving them a reason to come back. Publishing the book is an achievement. Being prepared to help readers discover it is the next one. For those who've already published, what's one thing you wish you'd done differently in the 30 days before your first launch?

In November 2024 I sat down and began writing my second novel. This wasn't planned. Context for why I wrote it. In October 2024 the UK government changed agricultural property relief in its autumn budget. I knew what that would mean for family farms and I knew people who could be part of the fallout. I was so bloody angry. I wanted to rage about it, join the protests. Instead, I created a twelve-year-old boy called Alex. The structure arrived in under a minute: it would open with a prologue describing an event I was not prepared to name. Not once, anywhere in the book. The novel would then begin eight months prior to the prologue and work towards it, arriving there as a mid-book chapter. I'd really welcome thoughts on both. Writing about a subject while withholding the word for it, and putting the worst moment first. CONTENT NOTE: (The prologue is a child at the edge of a suicide he doesn't understand) The Barn Door Stayed Closed - Prologue Grandad never let the barn door stay shut. Not even the time when the snow was that bad Dad said to close everything up tight. “A closed barn is no use to man nor beast,” Grandad said, doing that thing with his hands when he learns me important farming stuff. This morning the door is closed. Proper closed. Padlocked closed. My wellies make sucking noises in the mud. They’re my new ones, but I’m not bothered about keeping them clean now. My breath’s all steamy like the cows’ should be, only the cows aren’t steamy this morning cause nobody’s fed them yet. They’re making angry noises in their winter shed. Wrong noises. Everything’s making wrong noises. Mum grabbed the phone. She never grabs at stuff, tells me off when I do it. And Dad’s boots on the stairs in the dark - not his normal clomping down to do feeding, but running boots. Scary boots. The yard’s gone funny. No tractor coughing awake by the grain store. No Grandad’s whistle that always comes before you see him, like he’s letting the farm know he’s coming. My heart’s going too fast and there’s this siren getting closer and closer.