Home Page of Anne Ashby Writing Warm Fuzzy and Fun Stories

24 May

I am still waiting for the arrival of the print copies of "Worlds Apart". I know they have a long way to travel from New York State to Wanganui and it might still be some time before they actually arrive on my doorstep but the waiting is both painful and exciting. Until I get to hold one in my hands, I won't be truly certain I'm not going to wake up one day and find this dream of finally being a published writer isn't just that. A dream. But it can't be. No. This is the reality.

My WIP struggles to progress, although aided by one of my CP's I hope to shortly be enthused with new and innovative ideas to push this story forward. I think its a great theme which will draw more than a smile from readers - once I get it written.

I continue to maintain optimistic thoughts about all phases of my writing despite my sloth-like output right now. I accept my learning never ends, the hard slog never stops. Rejections cut deep, but I will never give up. I will take all these things in my stride as I leap tall buildings, fight isolation and loneliness in my quiet little office and turn simple words into (I hope) compelling reading. I am a writer, and that's what a writer does.

14 May

Well, the gremlins couldn't have chosen a less opportune time to crawl into the cyber-innards of my web server and play havoc. Just when I'm getting my name "out there" and encouraging readers to visit my website, it goes down for three days. I apologise to anyone who has made the effort during these days and thank you very much for not giving up. I understand whatever problems caused the outage have now been resolved and hopefully this will not happen again.

I've appeared on Romance Alley's blog this week. Call over and have a read about how I came up with the idea for "Worlds Apart" and why my New Zealand heroine is in Ellicott City MD

http://romancealleysuzannahsafi.blogspot.com/2010/05/gettoknowthebook-worlds-apart-by-author.html

I'd love for you to leave a comment, I'll get back to you if you do.

11 May

What an exciting couple of weeks I've had. Thank you to all my friends and family who have offered their congratulations and support. Knowing just how many people believe in me has made my road a little easier. I feel truly vindicated now when I call myself a writer. Very soon I will have copies of my book in my hot little hand and I'm sure my excitement will increase even further.

I'd like to acknowledge the work. help and advice of my amazing editor Maggie. She's made what was quite a complicated process so stress free for me. Not only with the normal editing and readying a manuscript for publishing but Maggie's wonderful idea of twiddling with the variances of US/NZ spelling involved quite a few humorous emails crossing the ocean and I believe some extra emails with the printers as they queried 'correct' spellings of certain words. Thank you, Maggie, you're a marvel and I look forward to our continuing working relationship cementing a great partnership.

Good news comes in threes. My second story "Devon's Dream" is progressing quicker than expected and could be available in the spring - that's my spring, so northern hemisphere fall.

I have almost completed my first set of edits for my third story with TWRP. "Time to Bury the Past" again finds an American hero battling for the love of his New Zealand heroine. This time the story is set in Auckland, New Zealand.