With the benefit of hindsight, I never should have scheduled a book release for a day when I would be totally exhausted from a trip to London to see a band! The Day The Earth Turned Book 1: Summer is finally here and went live yesterday. The moment it went live I was sat at a bus-stop outside Waterloo Station, after a brilliant gig by The Black Keys at the 02 Arena in London. To get there, we had to catch three trains then opted for a pleasant 43 minute walk alongside the river Thames. Once inside the arena, my husband and I grabbed a pint and settled down to enjoy the support acts followed by the band. We have loved this band for a very long time so it was a huge deal to get tickets and their performance was mind-blowing. We loved every second and it was well worth the stress of getting there and back!

After the gig ended, we had to race back to Charlton station to catch the last train there, to get us to the last train at London Bridge, knowing we had already missed the last train at Waterloo which would take us home. We stupidly thought we could just hang out and rest at the station until the morning train came at 5.30am but no, they chuck you out. With nowhere to go, we wandered around the streets of London, taking in views of The London Eye, Big Ben, the houses of Parliament, Downing Street and more…. We walked for hours but then ended up back outside the station with more hours left to kill….

I looked at Amazon and realised my book had been released! Yay!! And I’ve done a pretty good job of promoting it so far in the run up. I’ve posted various blogs about it, made numerous quote and review graphics, secured a good amount of ARC reviews and even organised my own blog tour!

But launch day fell a little flat because I was so tired….

After finally getting the train at Waterloo, we attempted to nap but were soon disrupted by a delay at Woking. The delay meant they then decided not to stop at all the stations between Brockenhurst and Bournemouth so they could make up the time! Never mind the fact that we needed to get off at Christchurch where our car was!

We swore quite a lot but there was nothing we could do and thankfully my mum came and picked us up and drove us to our car and we were home by 8.30am just in time to take our youngest to school! Phew! I walked the dogs and then collapsed on the sofa. I picked up my phone with a feeble attempt at pushing my book on release day, and I was so thrilled to see that lots of my fellow indie authors had already been posting and shouting about it!

Yay other indies – they are the BEST!!!

I had some early reviews too and I just about had the energy to share the posts and thank people and then I fell asleep!

It’s been a busy week and I should have organised some sort of Facebook launch party as I have done in the past, but I was too worn out and to be honest, I’ve never found such things particularly useful for selling books. Mostly, you end up giving away a few for free and then people don’t remember to review them.

Anyway, all that aside, I am very proud of this book and I’m thrilled to bits with what people are saying about it so far!

Here are a few review quotes:

“What I loved about this in particular are the characters, who are so well drawn I felt I knew them straight away. Chess – dealing with her grief not just for her parents but for the future way she saw her life that will never come – having to put her feelings aside to care for her little sister. Reuben – loner, victim of bullies but standing strong, bubbling with anger, but practical and compassionate. Gus – glad the adults have gone, but choosing to take control as soon as he can. George – independent, determined to go it alone, forced into a situation he couldn’t have envisaged – This book is terrifyingly believable.”

“Seriously good! A strange apocalyptic world where the adults have (almost) all been wiped out by a series of diseases and the children have to find a new way to live and survive and have divided themselves into gangs with their own territories and their suspicious outlook about others.
The absolute brilliance of this is the fact that it is not a million miles from what you can imagine as reality, especially after the unprecedented effects of covid 19 and the extreme measures we all faced ourselves with. The unsettled feelings intensify when the children in the story go back to nature and try farming the lands and making use of the animals but then nature seems to take advantage of there being fewer humans about and pushing back to the point of being sinister and the aggressor.
The story is expertly compelling and terrifying at the same time and it is definitely thought provoking and humbling – I absolutely cannot wait to see how the story progresses, although obviously with trepidation! – Terrifying but absolutely brilliant, thank you.”

“Where did I find it: having read this author before, and it was a post apocalyptic story, I jumped at the chance to have an advanced copy.

What I liked: the whole concept for this genre. It was different. Having children in charge changed things as they see life differently. In places the story is dark, mentioning things I didn’t want to dwell on. All the while I felt glued to the page eager to know what would happen next. Other things added to the suspense – not all adults died, and something sinister was happening with nature.

What I didn’t like: that this is a brand new book, which means I have to wait for the next one. I can’t wait!

Overall: this is a brilliantly conceived story. I love things that are slightly different to what you expect. There are several different elements to this story and I constantly wanted to answers. What was really going on? What did it mean? This is a book you need to read, and it will be a hot contender for my book of the year. I absolutely loved it.”

And the book is available here – paperback coming soon!!