https://interactive-atlas.ipcc.ch/permalink/gYlTzjF6

On a happier note ,I have done a book reveal and it seems to have pleased quite a few people.
Generous retweets and comments on Facebook.
I am pondering if I should sling it on my rather retired Linkedin page too. Do these business types read? I used to, but rarely found a nyone else willing to talk about books with me on my travels.

The cover was made by the lovely Emily who immediately knew what to do with my clumsy proposel pictures. She knew what I wanted and any small changes were very quickly applied. You can find her at 99Designs and she comes heavily recommended.
This is what she made for me:

I was elated with my cover, only to be brought down to earth or lower by my editor’s report.

Mr Leggatt was very friendly about it and very encouraging but thinks I still love my “darlings” too much. I know I do, but he wants to make my possible publisher happy, and I am not too bothered by that.

The ending has to change. The editor is correct as I lost sight of my MC, but removing some chapters that are not moving the plot forward but are jolly to read. I will never understand.

Maybe because when I read, I am more interested in the worldbuilding and the characters than what they get up to. One does not have to exclude the other. Before I started writing, I never thought of MC or extras.

One of my favourite series is the Game of Thrones books, which has a fantastic cast and needs all your attention and memory powers to keep track of them, but for fast readers, they are a delight as I have to work for my enjoyment.

So I will take the main advice, where I can see he was getting a bit fed up with me not doing it right, and try to change those bits. The rest will stay for my own delight.

He does make me smile at some of his comments, where I can practically see him thinking, “for heaven’s sake, woman!”

Like when I let my MC admire her surroundings: She’s just been kidnapped. Would she be admiring anything or trying to escape?

The report is of immense help, and I was deeply impressed by the detailed comment throughout my manuscript.

If the book becomes a tiny bit accepted by more than family and friends, for a large part, it will be down to Mr Leggatt from the Writing Agency in the UK.

Worldnews for the moment is that like many times before, the Taliban has conquered the whole of Afghanistan again, after the USA suddenly decided it had enough, or maybe did not earn enough, from that poor country.
Scenes of people clinging to departing army planes, falling from great heights, mediaeval looking chaps in turbans and cloaks sitting down in the presidential palace or trying out the fitness centre are passing on our screens every day.
My thought goes primarily to the women there, who for the past 21 years have been able to go to school, chose their partners and work in good jobs. What will happen to them? The last time this happened, they had to go back to being worth less than a sheep.
Our world is going a bit faster to hell than I thought.
We see earthquakes, floods, fires, weather has gone crazy and viruses that strengthen the chaos.
Still not scary enough to stop people from multiplying like rabbits.
Last year the world population went from 7.4 billion to 7.8 billion. All the above will not lessen until we make that number go down. An unpopular thought, but there are ways to do this without all-out killing people or stopping them from having children altogether. In many countries, the number has been going down.

In the meantime let us try to keep everybody fed and provided with clean water.

Looking at the tables those ’70s hippies have a lot to answer for.

I hope the next blog will have a link to my book somewhere in it. Fingers crossed.