It’s The Real Thing

Elaine Roberts talks about how her dream has become a reality.

When you have a dream, or what you think is an unachievable ambition, and it suddenly becomes a reality, does it live up to what you expected?

In my case, the dream, or the lofty ambition, was to become a published novelist and to see my name on a cover. I have been lucky to have many short stories published in different countries, but the novel was always my dream for as long as I can remember. There were times when it felt the learning curve, the work, the commitment needed was insurmountable, but it wasn’t. It just needed time, patience and reminding there was no rush. I had to learn my craft.

The followers of this blog will know that I signed a three-book contract with Aria, Head of Zeus, at the end of 2017. Since then, my dream has become a reality. I’ve had structural and copy edits in, thankfully nothing too onerous. Rightly or wrongly, the copy edits made me chuckle because I hadn’t realised how many times I’d used the phrase “took a deep breath”, despite reading through quite a few times before sending it off. Thanks goodness for editors. I met my editor for lunch this week and I think we could have talked long into the night, and without alcohol, amazingly. Part of our conversation was about book four onwards – now that was scary. Joking aside, the team at Aria are lovely to work with.

Thanks to my son, I now have some wonderful business cards and a nearly finished website, with an interactive business card on it. I got so excited about the card on the website, I was like a child at Christmas. I also have an author page on Facebook. So you can see, I am now on another steep learning curve about promoting myself. If you visit my author page, please feel free to like and follow me. It’s always good to talk.

I’m sharing the cover of my first novel, The Foyles Bookshop Girls, here first.

I was beyond excited when it became available for pre-order on the Amazon, Kobo and WH Smith’s e-book sites.

Amazon:          The Foyles Bookshop Girls

Kobo:               The Foyles Bookshop Girls

WH Smiths:    The Foyles Bookshop Girls

 

So my opening question was, does the reality live up to the dream? My answer is a resounding yes. It is hard work and there are times when I hate what I’m writing, that’s usually around the 30,000 word mark, but I can’t stop writing. It’s in my blood, my DNA. You can rest assured I have ordered a kindle version of my book but when it becomes available I will also order a paperback copy as well. It’s so exciting!

By the nature of the word “dream”, what you want always feels unachievable, but what you have to remember is, if your dream was easy, everyone would be doing it and then it wouldn’t be your dream, because it would be the norm.

Good luck to everyone who has a dream, no matter how small that is. Stick with it. With perseverance and patience, you can get there. If I can do it, so can anyone.

Facebook:        Elaine Roberts Author

Website:          www.elaineroberts.co.uk

Twitter:           RobertsElaine11