Life's Complicated - the sequel to Life Happens

Today I have just published my sixth novel - Life’s Complicated.

I can’t quite believe I’ve written six books, to be honest. When I did my MA in Creative Writing at Bath, I never imagined I could write one whole novel, never mind six, but I discovered a love of writing and now I can’t seem to stop!

Life’s Complicated is the sequel to Life Happens; I felt there was more to say about my three friends, Rachel, Grace and Jen when I finished the first part … and here is the sequel. It’s certainly full of complications for them all.

I have no illusions about my books – they are not great masterpieces – but they are the sort of books I myself like to read when I’m on a beach: easy to read, easy to follow and hopefully entertaining. You’re not going to learn about ancient civilisations; you’re not going to struggle to follow the sentence structure or the vocabulary and you’re certainly not going to study my books at A level. I’ve aimed them categorically at women who may be able to empathise with my characters – older women who’ve lived a bit, who’ve had their own difficulties and who enjoy reading about the ups and downs of life and relationships.

Don’t ask me where the ideas came from – I’ve no idea! I’d thought about writing about three friends for a while and slowly the characters formed in my head. They’re not based on anyone I know but I suppose they must be an amalgam of everyone I’ve ever met. I never have a plan when I start a novel. I’m not one of those writers who map out the entire novel with cards, sticky notes and timelines. I have a (very) vague idea which develops, literally, when I type. Things change all the time. I recently told someone that writing a novel was a bit like doing a jigsaw puzzle, for me – I have all these pieces in my head which eventually slot together to make a whole. I reckon it’s an excellent way of fending off old age and dementia; my brain is always on constant alert.

I have been known to cry when I eventually write ‘The End’. It’s such an achievement and feels like an emotional weight has been lifted; I’m happy to have finished but sad that it’s all over.

But the end of the writing is just the beginning. You spend as much time marketing, as a self-publisher, as you do writing the story in the first place! I gather that even large publishing houses expect you to do all their work for them these days; you need a large following on social media to even be considered. I like the freedom of self-publishing though – everything is my choice. It all comes down to my decisions: the story, the characters, the cover, the blurb – all me! So I’ve only got myself to blame if it all goes horribly wrong!

I feel I must be doing something right though, as my sales continue to go up each month. I get a real kick from thinking about all those people reading my words. Okay, some people will hate it and write a horrible review, but I get so much great feedback, I’m beginning to be able to ignore the nasty comments. I just imagine asking them – have you ever put yourself ‘out there’? Have you ever written a cool 75,000 words? If the answer is no, then I’m not interested in your opinion, thank you very much!

It’s so easy to criticise and I criticise myself all the time, so I don’t need anyone else to add to my own doubts. I always remember the saying ‘if you can’t say anything nice, then don’t say nothing at all’ courtesy of Bambi’s mother in the Disney film. Such a good saying for anything in life, I think.

So, there we are - Life’s Complicated has flown the nest and gone into the ether and into the iCloud to be consumed, hated or loved by anyone who wants to read it. I’m now going to ‘let it go’ … and start the next one!

Thank you for reading this and if you’ve read any of my books, thank you for that too!

Where's the time gone?

I’m sure you all feel the same as me about time – the older you get, the quicker it goes. It seems to be running away from me.

It’s 23rd November , 2022 today, the sun is shining and it’s warm - ish - where I am in Wiltshire. I’ve just taken Mabel, my Labrador, for a walk and we got a bit wet. I have an app on my phone that now notifies me about rain and I was told ‘it will rain at 10.28 and last for nine minutes’. All very helpful and quite frankly, rather terrifyingly accurate, but I still got wet.

I’ve been distracted from writing recently by various things happening at home. The title of my last book “Life Happens” certainly rings true. It’s hard to motivate yourself when you know you’ve been putting it off for weeks and the blank screen awaits … but this week, I’ve got my creative juices back; I read through the first nine chapters of the sequel to “Life Happens” I’ve already written and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was. In fact, I enjoyed reading it!

It’s such a weird process, writing. It wasn’t that long ago that I wrote them, but I re-read them as if they were written by someone else. I honestly had forgotten quite a lot of it. Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised. The working title is “Life’s Complicated” and it follows the lives of the characters through some tricky times. Grace, Jen and Rachel’s friendship is still solid but their lives are certainly about to get very complicated. I’m introducing Rachel’s sons, George and Harry into the mix and they have dominant roles. There’s a completely new character, Beth, too. I don’t even know myself at the moment how it’s all going to pan out. I’m the sort of writer who has a ‘vague’ idea of the plot but things develop as I go along. It’s a very dynamic way of writing … I can even surprise myself by my plot’s twists and turns.

At the same time as writing, “Life’s Complicated”, I’m also writing another book! This is a complete departure for me and I don’t know how it’s going to end at all. I heard someone describe their book on the Graham Norton show as ‘autobiographical fiction’ and this kind of sums up my new idea.

It’s an attempt to write a comic book about growing old and having a very long marriage. I’ve always wanted to write a funny book (I think I mentioned before, in a previous blog, that “Aphrodite’s Child” started out as an ironic look at an RAF posting but then changed into something more serious). This new book is my attempt to write a book similar to “This is Going to Hurt” – full of ‘laugh out loud’ moments but also full of pathos.

I loved “This is Going to Hurt” and I wouldn’t dream of comparing my writing to Adam Kay’s, but this is what I aspire to. It’s working title is “Love, Honour and Annoy” which I came up with and was sure that someone else would have it as their title but I was amazed to find it’s ‘mine’ for the taking. There’s no such thing as copyright for book titles, as long as you don’t call a book something SO famous it would be ridiculous like “Harry Potter” for example. So, you can call your book what you want but if it’s been used loads of times by other people, it would, of course, be stupid. It’s not set in stone but I think it’s a catchy title.

So … I must get on. I’ve got a lot to do.

Many thanks for reading this if you’ve got to here! If you haven’t already subscribed to my mailing list, please do.

Speak soon

Sarah

Magazine Article

I was very pleased that West Country Life Magazine published an article I wrote about becoming a writer at 60 and being a self-published or indie author. It came out on 13th August, 2022.

Here it is:

I’ve just published my fifth novel, Life Happens. I can’t believe I’ve written five books, to be honest; I started writing about nine years ago, having completed my MA in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. I thought I was writing just one book but once I started, I couldn’t stop. I was sixty when I did the MA, so it took me a long time to find my dream career. The title of my book seems particularly relevant to my own life.

I’d always loved books and chose to study English Literature at university in the seventies but at that stage, it never crossed my mind that I could be the one doing the writing. When I graduated, the choices were limited: secretarial work, teaching and nursing were the main options for women. I blindly went down the teaching route and have regretted it ever since. 

Teaching really wasn’t for me – to stand up in front of thirty people every day was more like torture. I know, you’re thinking … but they were children – but if you’re under-confident and quite a shy person, teenagers can be intimidating. I look back and wonder why on earth I wasted so much of my life doing something I didn’t like. I suppose I’d wanted a career and to earn some money and I can’t lie, the school holidays had seemed an attractive benefit (in reality, they make no difference to the job!)

If I was starting out now, I would be able to go into publishing or journalism. Maybe I simply had poor career guidance at the time. It’s all so long ago now, I have no memory of my thought processes but if I could give a young person advice today, I would say, don’t do something you hate. Find something you love and do that, even if it means taking personal or financial risks.

Self-publishing has become a very popular way of getting your book into print in 2022. Ten years ago, however, it was a new concept (there was vanity publishing in the past but Amazon changed everything for writers). I decided to self-published, as I liked the idea of being in total control of my own book and at the age I was, the traditional route seemed too long-winded. Having discovered writing at a late stage in life, I was keen to ‘get it out there’ and not wait for a publishing house’s schedule. Some authors, Colleen Hoover, for example, have been incredibly successful at self-publishing, selling millions of books. I’m not claiming to compete with her, but I’m pleased with both how my books have been received and how well they’ve sold – I’m nearing 10,000.

It was a steep learning curve and I’m still learning every day. I did well with my first book, Aphrodite’s Child, as I found a niche set of readers who had a military background and knew and loved Cyprus. The story was about a woman who went to the island with her RAF officer husband for a three year posting and the drama in her life that ensued. 

I realised that unless I did some social media marketing, the book would sink under the millions of books on Amazon without trace and so I used Facebook to build my audience. I went on to write the Aphrodite Trilogy, with Now is All There Is and Shadows in the Rock as second and third in the series and I found I had a large group of devoted readers. I increased my marketing to Instagram, wrote another book, Love is a State of Mind, that had nothing to do with the military or Cyprus and found that people still bought the book. 

For the fifth book, I returned to Cyprus as my setting. I wanted the island to be all pervasive and become another character in the novel. I don’t know where the story itself came from; I read once that songwriters sometimes pluck a song from the ether as it passes by and that’s how it seemed to me with this. The idea of three lifelong friends and their husbands going on holiday to Cyprus emerged fully-formed; the intricate details of character and plot came together later. 

There are two types of writer: one type plans meticulously in advance and one lets ideas flow as they write; neither method is better than the other but I am definitely of the latter category. When I sit in front of the empty laptop screen, something magical happens: ideas, characters and storylines begin to emerge through my fingertips onto the page. If I’m ‘stuck’ and don’t know what to write, I write anything and just the sheer act of typing, helps. The three female protagonists in Life Happens, Grace, Jen and Rachel, slowly appeared and then their entangled stories blended from the past into the present of the novel. Their lives were now set out for all to read. They hadn’t existed before … and that’s the magic of the imagination.

As I said, I continue to learn much about publishing books. There is help out there if you want to pay someone: to design a cover, to edit or proofread your manuscript and format your book for Amazon and all the other stores out there. I started out trying to do it all myself but as I’ve progressed, I’ve realised it’s impossible. I’ve had help from a literary consultant and a cover designer; I’ve had assistance from Facebook with their advertising and I’m learning about the complexities of Amazon ads. It’s a dilemma with advertising because the more money you spend, the more books you sell, which of course is logical, but you have to learn to strike the right balance. The more books you sell, the more Amazon pushes your book forward to people … the higher up your category you go … but it’s tempting to maybe spend more than you should. 

I love building a relationship with my readers. I get lots of messages via social media and I always reply to comments; I love to hear from people who have read my books. You can’t please everyone and if someone leaves a bad review, it’s important to ‘move on’ and not let it fester. The majority of readers leave lovely comments and they make all your hard work worthwhile. Once a book is published, it has its own life and momentum. You have to let it go.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my late career change. It’s been challenging and frustrating at times but mainly it’s been satisfying. Writing allows you to live through your characters and become someone you aren’t. 

My teaching career, marriage, three children, moving around the country with the RAF, tragedies, illness, deaths have all ‘happened’ to me. 

Life has happened … but I got there in the end.

Summer

I’ve realised that for the next couple of weeks I’m not going to have time to do much writing, marketing or anything else, so I thought I’d do a quick blog update before the chaos begins … to explain.

We have a large family and everyone is descending on us this weekend to celebrate my daughter’s visit from America. The pandemic made travel pretty difficult, if not impossible and so we’re all getting together this weekend for the first time for ages. I’ve realised there are going to be fourteen adults, five children and four dogs – it was only when I started planning lunch that I counted. I’m hoping that we’ll all be spending most of the day in the garden and looking at the weather forecast, it should be okay.

Families are strange things – you don’t see them very often (due to distance) but when you do come together it’s as if you’ve never been apart. All the shared experiences from the past make it so easy for everyone to be together – you laugh at the same jokes, you remember sad times and miss people who are no longer there. We all tend to talk at the same time and often you have to shout to be heard! Now there are young children to add to the mix, it’s utter chaos! There will no doubt be walks to the river with the dogs, jaunts to the local cafés for coffees and croissants and long discussions about a film we can all watch in the evening. I don’t like the expression ‘making memories’ but I’m sure this weekend will be one to remember.

I think that was probably an elongated ‘excuse’ for a lack of communication in the coming weeks as it’s not just the weekend. It’s going to continue with a holiday all together at Center Parks, a music festival (Womad), a trip to Giffords Circus and much more. I’m probably going to need a week to recover!

In September, I intend to start my next book. It hasn’t even got a working title yet, so don’t get too excited! I’ve spent so much time recently marketing my current ones, I haven’t done any writing. I have to keep reminding myself that I’m a writer, not a social media expert/admin. I wonder sometimes if I’m spreading myself too thin; I started out with a Facebook author page, then expanded to Instagram and Twitter and now I’m even trying TikTok. You might think that’s a weird thing to do as I’m blatantly rather old for it, but in fact, TikTok is turning the publishing industry on its head. It’s become THE place for writers and readers under the hashtag BookTok – it’s very slick and modern in its approach but it’s full of people recommending books, both old and new and authors are finding new and innovative ways of attracting readers. I’ve yet to ‘go viral’ as they say, but you never know. I’ll let you know how I get on in the future.

So, I hope you too will enjoy your summer, wherever in the world you are. I’d love to hear from you so if you have any questions or comments, do get in touch.

If you are on any social media, here are my links – do follow me!

Speak soon,

Sarah

www.sarahcatherineknights.com

www.facebook.com/sarahcatherineknights

www.instagram.com/sarahknightswriter

www.twitter.com/Sarahknights

https://www.tiktok.com/@sarahcknightsauthor

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sarah-Catherine-Knights/e/B00IDDEJXU?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1657620807&sr=1-1

https://books2read.com/ap/xdwOB0/Sarah-Catherine-Knights

New Blog Post

So … just a quick blog post to talk about the launch of my new book, Life Happens. This in my fifth book, which I can’t really believe. I only set out to write one book when I started on this journey. I did an MA in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University and my aim was to complete one book but somehow I just carried on!

Life Happens is set in Cyprus, like the Aphrodite Trilogy. I feel I have a real connection to the island; we lived here for three years in the nineties and now have a house here. In fact, I’m in Cyprus while I write this blog. The sun is shining, as always, there’s a strong wind, the sky is cloudless and soon I’ll be heading off to a taverna by a beach!

It’s always an anxious time when you launch a book. You have to ‘let it go’ into the world. There may well be the odd typo – you can read it a million times and still miss something minor. I’m reading a book at the moment that is in the bestsellers list and I noticed a typo in that, so I don’t feel so bad. You just have to stop editing, changing, reading and release it into the ether. Some people will love it, some will hate it and some people will feel indifferent towards it. It used to worry me when I got a horrible review but now I think – you can’t please everyone and at least I’m being creative and putting it ‘out there’.

I wanted to write a story about friendship. The idea came out of the blue. I remember hearing a musician say he reaches up and grabs a passing song and that’s how it seemed to happen with me and this story. I just imagined three lifelong friends having a holiday in Cyprus and the story told itself. I used to think it strange when authors talked about characters writing their own stories, but I believe it now.

Grace, Jen and Rachel are not based on anyone I know. I tried to make them easy to recognise as a reader at the beginning but then they developed their own personalities. I find it annoying when you have to keep wondering who exactly a character is in a novel so I wanted to make them very different and easy to distinguish.

The setting of the book, the beautiful stone villa with sky blue shutters is also from my imagination. We have a modern house but you can often see old stone houses in villages. We visited one once and I built on that and added the magical courtyard with the pool and fountain. It’s like my dream house – but it doesn’t really exist. Or maybe it does somewhere?

The girls’ husbands, again, developed themselves. Mike, Zach and Leo are so different. They all have their problems, their foibles and their secrets, as do the girls.

The six come together for a wonderful two weeks’ holiday but things don’t go according to plan. Their individual stories are complicated and by going back into the past, we learn how they’ve got to where they are in the present. They all find things out about themselves and each other and their lives will never be the same again.

Why did I set it in Cyprus? They could have got together anywhere, I know. But I love writing about Cyprus; I know it so well and somehow, the heat, the lifestyle, the culture and the history all lend themselves to people shedding their outer layers, relaxing and confiding in each other. Remembering their own pasts, reflecting on their present lives and facing up to realities.

It’s going to be published on 26th May. I self-publish, so it involves a lot of work marketing it myself. Fortunately I enjoy that side of it and I’m learning all the time. You have to be quite tech-savvy and enjoy anything to do with computers and social media so it’s not right for a lot of people but I like the process and find it a challenge.

Do comment on this blog if you want to. All feedback gratefully received.