I Can't Thank You Enough

It's true, that title.  I really can't.

This week has been such a thrilling one for me. 

I was giving away copies of In Loco Parentis as a promo and am absolutely delighted by the response.

Funny thing is, in my mind I was never going to give it away.  My reasons for changing direction were mainly that a couple of other promotions meant that my short story collection had a rise in sales.  The hope was that it might happen again if I did it with the novel.  The other reason was, basically, poor sales - it was difficult to know that I had a worthy book out there that was just not being read.

Anyway, I've really enjoyed watching the KDP sales clock up.  Instead of the usual several hours between clocking up a sale, it turned to downloads by the minute which is much more fun.

As always, the movement was down to a lot of effort and a lot of support.  Hence the thanks.  I know that there were friends out there blogging, tweeting, Facebooking and downloading away and it means an awful lot.  I've often talked about the strength of community and it's wonderful to feel the respect, warmth and friendship of each of those efforts.  Bless you all. 

Needless to say, when it's your time, let me know and I'll try and reciprocate.  If you get in touch, it's much more likely that I can help than if you don't - I often miss promotions and releases just because life is busy and the social network thing seems enormous at times.

I'm also thrilled for some other reasons.

Crime Factory Issue 11 has been released.  It's a bundle of stories and pieces that you should really have.  They give you the option of free copies, but it can be bought at Amazon for a pittance via the link.  I've not had time to read it yet, but the contents page is as impressive as ever.  Check it out.

Delighted, too, to see the cover and to have proofed my story for the upcoming Shotgun Honey release.  It'll be special.  I was happy that as I read my work I was actually impressed and that doesn't always happen to me.

The roller-coaster of being part of the Protectors: Stories To Benefit Protect is still fun and is continuing to raise money for a great cause.

And there's something new from Beat To A Pulp that always brings a smile.

I'd also like to thank The Guardian for a little thread they put up for self-promotion of work. It was a good idea and I hop that they'll open up to the e-book-independent world in more and more ways; I'm sure they've seen some of the talent on offer and I hope that it will increase their enthusiasm.  If you haven't done so, you might want to add a book to the list by following the link.

So it's been a good week.  A fab week.  A week to savour and to be grateful for and above all to be thankful to my friends.  Hats off.