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Tuesday 28 January 2014

Monday 27 January 2014

Coming out (part 2)

After having a few comments re my last post talking about my 14 year old niece coming out, I felt compelled to write more on the subject.
I have to admit that it's not something I've ever done but I do remember being fourteen very well (despite how long ago it was) and how difficult it was to tell my parents anything! My mother, for her part, kept trying to drag me out of a closet I was never in. I'm not sure what it was that made her think I was gay but she kept bugging me to admit it. The boyband posters that literally covered my bedroom walls and the slightly soppy look that I got whenever anyone mentioned said boyband, didn't put her off.
It was a very confusing time for me at fourteen. I got 'lesbian' shouted at me a lot from local louts, a slur (in their eyes) that didn't bother me at all but at fourteen, when your mothers at it and the community is at it, well I can only imagine how difficult it must be to take the leap and tell people that you are gay. My mother died before i got married but I still wonder what her reaction would have been to me actually marrying a man. Relief or dissapointment? Probably shock.
I passed Endless Winter to a friend of mine (bisexual in case you were wondering) and he told me he loved the understated coming out scene in it. He told me he'd read so many books on the subject and mine was the first that didn't make a big hoohah about it. So why not?
My main characters just happen to both be girls, they could have been a boy and a girl. I didn't have any kind of issue with it so why should the rest of my characters? That being said, in the subsequent books in the Guardians of The Light books, they will come up against some ignorance. I guess that's life!
Love J

Sunday 26 January 2014

I'm afraid to say that life took over this weekend and I only wrote about five thousand words. Half what I usually aim to write in the same time.
I had so many jobs to do that I just didn't have time to write.
Why is it that everything always seems to break at the same time. The current list of things in my house that need fixing goes like this:
Car,
Vacuum Cleaner,
Phone,
Computer,
Dryer.
Watch


This is why my productivity has gone down. I've been busy getting various things fixed. Plus I'm renovating my house which is taking up my time too.
I am the most disorganised person on the planet and so this weekend was one of those "Get the niggling jobs out of the way" weekends.
Wouldn't it be nice to have someone to do all those little jobs for you?
I'd love it if someone would just organise my sock drawer for me!
Next weekend I'll be back up to speed.
Love Jo

Friday 24 January 2014

Team US or Team UK?

My sales as of this morning are now running equal between The US and The UK. I am interested to see how this will pan out by this evening. The UK sales were the strongest to begin with but today (after 20 days of being on sale) and a flurry of US sales this morning, they have now caught up.
I wonder if this trend will continue? I suppose the US is much larger than the UK and therefore has more potential readers but the book is set exclusively in the UK.

Book two in the Guardians of The Light series will see the action cross the pond.

So let's see which country will buy the most between now and tomorrow.
I'll update you on the outcome

Love J 

Wednesday 22 January 2014

Coming out

My 14 year old niece recently caught up on all my Facebook promotion for Endless Winter. She advertised it to all her friends without actually reading it. I messaged her and explained that there were a couple of bits in it that were probably a bit old for her (I wouldn't mind my 14 year old reading it but I wasn't sure what her mum would say) I also explained that the main love interest was between two girls (again - wasn't sure what her mum would say)
I needn't have worried - Two days later she came out.
I don't think it had anything to do with me or the book though :)

Tuesday 21 January 2014

From A to B via XY and Z

So how did I come up with the story of Endless Winter?
That is a story in itself!

It all started when I was unhappy at my last job (I worked in a school.) I applied and got a job in another school (Which I love!)

There was a leaving party which involved lots of chatting to various work colleagues, mainly about their plans for the long summer holidays which were just about to begin. One of the teachers I worked with mentioned that she was going to New York and had won the holiday in a competition. she told me that she won many competitions, made it sound really easy.

Well, I thought to myself. I could do with a nice free holiday. How hard can it be to win a few competitions. So with the long six weeks holidays ahead, I armed myself with puzzle magazines, postcards and stamps and set about entering every competition I could find. That's right - EVERY competition. I think I was even entering competitions to win a life time supply of dog food and I don't even own a dog. I entered thousands a week. I wrote poems, drew pictures, deciphered anagrams, made up punchlines. You name it, I did it!
Then I waited for all the holidays, cars, houses and yes, dog food, to come to me in the post via 'Congratulations' slips.
I waited
I waited some more

Hmmm. I'd really put a lot of effort into those competitions. One thing I did "win" was a heck of a lot of spam. Phone calls, emails, letters etc obviously thinking I was a soft touch and I would buy the product I was previously trying to win.
Phone conversations would go something like this....

"No, I would not like to spend £20,000 on a static caravan in Cornwall. I just wanted a free holiday"

Anyway I'm going off on a tangent....

I finally got that all important Congratulations email.
One win. One win in about 30,000 competitions entered.

I won an invitation film premiere in London

I have to say I was beyond excited. The film sucked but the evening was wonderful. I walked a red carpet and lil ole me got papped! (Not bad to say I'm nobby nobody and was wearing a charity shop dress!) Royalty were in attendance - great night!!!

Which leads me to....
An advert in the Metro Newspaper on my train ride home. It was looking for women to be surrogates.

Mmmm. I might be interested in that.

Here I am two years later, 6 months pregnant with another woman's baby.

Yes, you say, but what about the book?

It was carrying another womans baby that led me to pondering being pregnant and doing it for reasons other than just wanting a baby of your own. I thought some more and a seed of an idea began to form. What if...?

Anais story was born.

I hope you enjoy it!

Love J

Monday 20 January 2014

Facebook

New Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/jarmitagetheauthor




I will try to update frequently!
I'm more than happy to answer questions on my book so if you have any queries
add me on FB or email me at jarmitagetheauthor@yahoo.co.uk

Sunday 19 January 2014

As promised, here is a final count of words for this weekend (ok I included a bit on Sunday too)
I wrote 11,000 words. Added to the 10,000 words I did last weekend and the 1000 words I managed during the week (working full time, being a surrogate and having kids means that writing during the week is virtually impossible!) that makes....
does calculation in head...
22,000 words. Wow, Even I'm impressed with myself. If I can squeeze out another three thousand words tonight I'll be about quarter way through the book.
Will I do that?
Na, there's something good on the telly:)
I hope your weekend was just as good as mine
Love J

Friday 17 January 2014

Just keep writing, just keep writing...

I spent five hours last night formatting Endless Winter. I got to a point where I was so tired that now I can't remember if I finished or not. I should probably check. I do remember how amazing it looks.
I've always loved books and I can't wait to get a copy of my newly formatted one. I've had quite a few requests for a copy from those that don't have an e-reader. The best request was from someone who has already read Endless Winter on her kindle but loved it so much she wants to buy a hard copy too. Very nice praise indeed.
As to writing, (yes the title of this post) last Saturday I wrote 10k words. This Saturday I plan to beat that today. I even hope to have some of them spelt right:) I'm up bright and early, armed with my coffee (even though it's decaff) I have the whole day ahead! I will come back at the end of the day and report back. See if I managed it!
Hope you all have a productive Saturday


Love J  
I got something wonderful through the post yesterday.
No, It wasn't an early Valentine Card from Leonardo Dicaprio (I'm sure that will arrive next week)
It was a hard copy of Endless Winter. A real book. Not that there is anything wrong with reading on an e-reader but there is something special about real books. There is something even more special when the book in question has your name on the cover.
I've had poetry printed before and a couple of pieces of my art work have been printed in art books but this time it's my name (and artwork) on the cover.
True, it had 'PROOF' printed on the back and the spine was blank. Yes the formatting was horrendous and will need a whole lot of work but it was MY book!
Apart from the formatting issues which will keep me busy for a week, it looks good. No, actually I'm going to blow my own trumpet, it looks pretty amazing.
I hope you like the cover as much as I do. As soon as it goes on general print release I will post here first.
Love J.

Wednesday 15 January 2014

Appealling to Da Kidz

Promoting a book is an interesting (and difficult) thing.
I've been told to promote to my target market. Of course, this makes sense, however, my target market is young adults. It's been a very long time since I could call myself young. If I'm going to be honest - I'm a harrassed middle aged single mother (I'm totally keeping it real!)
I don't want to patronise anyone and pretend that I (or you) care about what Justin Bieber got up to last week or who Miley Cyrus is dating.
I honestly don't care, nor do I care for the word "Twerking" Yuck!
So what should I talk about to appeal to a seventeen year old girl?
I work in a high school, so I should be able to get some clues there.
Mmm
Well I did get told I look like Dave Grohl last week by one of my students (I don't btw)
Now, Dave Grohl, I know who he is! With the same student I had a rather long conversation about how much we both loved Tenacious D. (a lot)
I'm going to be honest now. My favourite singer is Tori Amos. Tell an average high school student this and they go "who?"
The thing is, Tori Amos is Amazing. I love her. I don't want to pretend I don't even if this makes me ancient in the eyes of the average teen.
Maybe instead of calling me old, you should look on youtube and listen to one of her songs!

Saturday 11 January 2014

8000 words

of the next book in the Guardians of The Light written. It's all getting very exciting.
Don't want to give too much away though. You'll have to read endless winter first


http://www.amazon.com/Endless-Winter-Guardians-The-Light-ebook/dp/B00HOIHR2K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1389478418&sr=8-1&keywords=endless+winter+j+armitage

Thursday 9 January 2014

Yesterday, Love. Today, Babies!

So where did I get my idea for my novel, I hear you ask.
Well, the story began to formulate in my head on a train heading to Kings Cross (Very J.K.Rowling, I know) Unlike the wonderful Joanne Rowling, I'm sure my idea came from musings that were far from her thoughts the day Harry Potter came into being. You see I was travelling to London to meet the lovely couple I was going to have a baby for.
"What? You had a baby for someone else?" (I know I'm taking liberties with what I assume you are thinking - you could very well be sat there wondering whether to brew yourself another cup of tea for all I know)
Yes, I am currently pregnant. I'm being a surrogate you see, that is, having a baby that once born will go and live in London with its parents. Think of me as a basket (no - not basket case!) I'm just carrying the little squidger until he or she is ready to meet the world.
Anyway, I digress, I was talking about my novel.
"Didn't you say yesterday that your book was about love and adventure?"
Yes, Love is the main theme but it was thoughts of babies, or more acurately, having a baby for reasons other than, well having a baby, that got me started.
Being a surrogate is weird (but altogether lovely!) I started to think of other reasons people have babies. I have two of my own, although they are not really babies anymore. They were both conceived for normal reasons - I wanted kids - I had kids. Surrogacy, obviously finds me pregnant for a third time, but at the end - no kid, well not for me. so why else do people have babies? Aside from the two reasons  I just stated and if we take accidents out of the equation I can only think of three more reasons. The first are babies conceived purely to save the life of an older sibling, for donation of some kind of bodily tissue. The second, for monetry gain whether to claim some kind of inheritance or at the other end of the scale, claim benefits. The third? Well, I don't want to give too much away so you'll have to read my book to find out
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Endless-Winter-Guardians-The-Light-ebook/dp/B00HOIHR2K/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1389296109&sr=1-1&keywords=Endless+Winter+%28Guardians+of+The+Light%29


Any questions?
Feel free to email me at jarmitagetheauthor@yahoo.com
I'll do my best to respond:)

Wednesday 8 January 2014

What to write?

Start a blog, they said. Appeal to your readers, they said.
Well here I am. first part done!
Second part? Well to start with, the few books I've sold so far were all to my friends. Them and a person in Germany and I don't know what German people like.
I suppose I should tell you about my novel but Big Bang Theory is on and Sheldon is doing something hilarious. It makes it difficult to write anything at all.
Write, I must though so ignoring BBT, here I go...


Guardians of The Light: Endless Winter.
(buy it here folks)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Endless-Winter-Guardians-The-Light-ebook/dp/B00HOIHR2K/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1389211159&sr=8-3&keywords=endless+winter


Trapped in an unfamiliar room with no way out, Anais has no idea just how much her life is just about to change. A locked door stands between her and freedom but as she is just about to find out, the door is the least of her problems.
A story of first love, of adventure, and of a race to save the lives of everyone on the planet.




Have you ever fallen in love? Amazing isn't it? First love. That feeling of endless possibility, of flutters every time you think of them and you think about them a lot. All the time!
I've certainly fallen in love before and I was lucky enough to have the flutters keep on for many years.
I wrote my book, not based on my own life but based on those flutters. Although the object of my flutters has long gone, the memory of them still keeps me warm at night.
f you've ever been in love, you will know what I mean. If you haven't, don't worry, it will come. In the meantime - read my book. Perhaps it will keep you warm at night:)
I really hope you enjoy it
Love J