Yesterday I launched the second of my Sky Song books. The plan was to upload the night before release date so that it would be live and ready to go first thing in the morning – that way I could make the most of my day off work for promo and admin. What actually happened is that I waited around for most of the day for it to appear on Amazon, so that when it finally did I was just back from the school run. My friend messaged me with congratulations: ‘I bet you feel amazing releasing a new book.’
I do, I thought, as I pulled a tray of fish fingers from the oven and dolloped them in ketchup. Not exactly launch parties and premieres, is it?
For the moment, I seem to be leading some bizarre double life. After taking this week off work I’ve had a taste of what life would be like as a proper writer with deadlines to meet and decisions to make and edits to do and nothing else. On Tuesday I’ll be back at my desk at the hospital feeling like I’ve been dropped into a parallel dimension. I balance that with eighteen hour days and, since I dropped two days at my pay-the-bills-job to write, managing on a lot less money. If anyone asks me what life is like as a writer, I show them this photo:
Before you suck in your breath and roll your eyes, I’m not complaining or looking for sympathy. I used to think of myself as a secretary who wrote stories. Now I think of myself as a writer who sometimes has to do other stuff to make ends meet. But I’m a writer, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Sharon Sant 
Congratulations on the release of ‘The Young Moon’, the cover looks lovely 🙂
Awww, thank you very much 🙂
Awesome! I love this and relate to it whole-heartedly, congrats on the book, too 😀
Thank you, and thank you!
But you’re doing what you love and you know it will all be worth it in the end and you have an army cheering you on and doing anything we can for you! I love the SkySong Trilogy and The New Moon.
Congratulations on it’s release Sharon xx
You’re right, Rebecca, and I am absolutely loving life right now! And I love that I have made such supportive friends on the journey. Thank you so much! xxx
Oh, I know the feeling! It’s this brilliant and amazing thing to publish a book but no other part of life really changes! I spent my last launch day rushing my mum’s rabbit to the vets! Not quite the glittering, glamorous book launch I had imagined! Being a writer is amazing, and I don’t think I’ll ever get to grips with the idea that people are reading my words and enjoying them, even if it doesn’t pay the bills yet!
You’re so right. I always said that what I wanted most was for people to come and live in a world I’d created for a while and to enjoy it. So even if I never make a living that’s ok as long as they keep reading.