It’s taken three years from writing the very first line of The Secret Life of Carolyn Russell to arriving at publication day. There have been many ups and downs in reaching this point, but I’m proud of this story with its mystery and underlying messages that show changes in the moral code over thirty years and provide glimpses into racism in a rural setting. Book blogger, Linda Hill has posted an insightful review covering many of the elements I hoped to get across in her publication day review here.
If you’ve ever wondered how an author spends publication day, here’s my schedule:
7am: write a blog post and send (timing has slipped a bit here)
8am: join Writers’ Hour to finish a Q&A kindly offered by book blogger Victoria Bucknell
9am: check Amazon rankings to see if the novel has made a splash (repeat hourly every ten minutes)
10am: check Goodreads for any new ratings and reviews (repeat hourly every ten minutes)
11am: buy flowers for Carolyn (this sounds much better than buying flowers for myself) to celebrate publication day
12 noon: is it too early for a drink? Yes. Watch Wimbledon instead
1pm: eat celebratory smoked salmon bagel (with cream cheese and a few dill leaves)
2pm: after all the excitement, it must be time for a nap
3pm: Twitter launch for The Secret Life of Carolyn Russell which may very well be compromised by Elon Musk’s new rules about only being able to read 300 (or is it 500?) tweets in a day
4pm: put the first words of new novel on a page (the provisional title is The Regifting of Pauline Reader)
5pm: now it really is time for a glass of wine (or perhaps champagne is more appropriate)
6pm: go for a run
7pm: get ready to attend an evening concert offered by a local community choir. (This has absolutely nothing to do with The Secret Life of Carolyn Russell but I might be able to give out a few promotional postcards)
8pm: give out promotional postcards and hope this won’t annoy the organiser
9pm: tuck into after-concert snacks as I’ve forgotten to schedule dinner
10pm: early night?
If you’d like to find out what I’ve been banging on about in all the recent The Secret Life of Carolyn Russell posts, please purchase a copy here.
the writer is a lonely hunter 
Congratulations! Looking forward to reading it. x
Thanks, Beryl.
Many congratulations! 💐 (That may or may not be rendered as a bunch of flowers for you and Carolyn.)
Love the flowers! Thanks, John.
Hi Gail!! Congratulations on the release of your new book. How thrilling!! I just ordered my paperback copy and I’m looking forward to reading it! Here’s wishing you all the best of success 🙂
CONGRATULATIONS GAIL!! Very well done indeed. Really looking forward to reading this one – I just love the cover too! Have a wonderful day, and I look forward to retweeting this afternoon!! love Cathy xx
Thanks, Cathy.
It landed on my Kindle in the early hours of this morning!
Good to know – hope you enjoy it.
Congrats! I’ll be reading soon!
I hope you enjoy the novel.