The Whole Gamut Publishing

Having sorted out what I need to re-write , I decided to head down to France. Mum and Dave were back in the UK leaving the house in Beaulieu empty and ready for a writer in residence. I drove down on the 23rd August into blisteringly hot weather. After about 12 hours I reached the house, via the local Super U to pick up some food and drink, and the temperature was still in the high 30's. Mum and Dave's place is in central France, in the middle of a rural district. It's picturesque and quiet, apart from the odd tractor trundling by. The silence is uncanny. Nothing, no sound at all. After the first day I realised that this was not true. There were no artificial sounds, just the glorious sound of nature.  The view from the back porch is stunning - vast open skies that seem to go on forever. If I can't get inspired to work here it will be because I'm simply overwhelmed by the stunning beauty of the place. I soon found a routine. I rise...

With the first draft completed, I turned to the business of getting the book published.  I'd done a lot research about the best route to go, but with the rise in the number of writers generally, finding a publisher was not going to be an easy task.

Lynda and Tim O'Rourke A few weeks back, my daughter Rachel mentioned that her friend, Joe, had a father who was a local independent autho r , Tim O'Rourke . Joe kindly offered his father's services to me, through Rachel, should I need any advice about self-publishing. Are you kidding? Of course I'd like to meet him.

My good friend, Charles Ricketts, agreed to read The Pink Herring and give me some critical feedback. I've known Chaz for over 30 years and we share a love of reading, particularly science fiction. He has pointed so many great books my way over the years:

With The Pink Herring now away at the editors , I started work on the next Shaun Young book today - working title The Elusive MacGuffin. It is set some six months after The Pink Herring and begins with an elderly man arriving on steam train at Sheringham station, the end of the line. 

Celebration! Cheers! It's taken just under 3 months to complete the first draft of The Pink Herring   and I'm quietly impressed with the words per writing day average I've managed. The word count for the book stands at 100,176, so a reasonable size and I've managed no less than 66 versions, saving each new edition as I finish the working day.

I have just returned from an excellent skiing holiday with Babs and our two good friends John and Maddy Clavey.  They are still there, in fact, having decided to spend the entire season in the beautiful Les Saisies, France. John works in the mornings and skis in the afternoon - perfect.