The end of the year

Happy New Year to all my visitors. 

As far as the blog is concerned I’ve done very badly – but I have spent a lot of time tweeting and face-booking to increase awareness of  both books. December was a good month in many ways, but I always find the shortening days difficult and with a visit to the UK during December, a large chunk was taken out of the month. Any good intentions of working on the blog or anything else come to that were cancelled with our constant round of visiting friends and family.  We had our first Christmas on our own since 1989. Although we spend 24/7 together this quiet time was particularly special.

I don’t make resolutions but I have several ‘good intentions’ which I will do my best to keep.  I need to work on my new manuscript, working title 'Seeking Solace', written during NaNoWrimo in November where I achieved over 54K words in the 30 days. It would have been more if I’d backed up my work properly. I lost 18K by being careless. I’ve a children’s storybook to finish and I’d still like to compile my poems, with suitable illustrations. Plenty then to keep me busy in 2013.

I've done no more to the blog's appearance. I can tell by my stats that I have lots of visitors but I am failing somewhere because I have no extra followers. MUST DO BETTER. 

Updating My Blog

I have spent most of the day 'playing' with the layout of this blog. My first comment on my home/landing page was - boring! I think it still is. Tomorrow I'll try adding more to it to improve its appearance.

I have added a few more gadgets but it needs several more hours work. For those who are visiting for the first time there are some interesting posts to comment on and photographs to enjoy.

At least I've achieved my one promise. To post on the first of the month.

ENJOY.

Copyright on Pictures and Text

Unless otherwise stated the text and photographs on this blog are the copyright of Penelope S Hellyer and should not be reproduced in any way without the prior permission of the owner.

Gay the Botanist

 

I love this picture of Gay just before she married Arthur. It says on the reverse,' taken at Lord Portland's pond'. This was nearby where she was teaching at the time. She gave up teaching when she married Arthur.

Financial Times article by Robin Lane Fox

Thank you Robin Lane Fox for such a great article in the FT 3rd November; about Arthur Hellyer, me and my book The Haphazard Gardener http//:www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1781764131


The link to read the article is - http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/0dfeb3fc-1e82-11e2-be82-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2B9HNQOiS

Promotion, Promotion.

I didn’t manage to post at all in the interim. Promoting two books takes much longer than I had realised but I’ve had one piece of excellent promotion via ‘The Society’ Magazine (October issue) published by The Argus newspaper for The Haphazard Gardener. Link here - http://www.theargus.co.uk/yourargus/society_magazine/features/9983300.The_Haphazard_Gardener/ 
It is a great two page spread with lots of pictures and a well written article.  Thank you to Katy Rice.

I have gathered more followers on twitter and a couple more on facebook; all good for self-promotion and an excellent piece of news that came in last week - Robin Lane Fox has written an article in the FT about The Haphazard Gardener and Arthur which was published on the 3rd November. It is a great article - http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/0dfeb3fc-1e82-11e2-be82-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2BFlHpv2u. This news I would normally have shared at the beginning of December.

I get hundreds of page views but very few people follow but I note it happens on other blogs too. Or there are lots of followers but only the same few ever comment. I have often wondered why that is? But if you do call by and read maybe you could click 'like' either on my amazon product page www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1781764131 or my author page www.facebook.com/TheHaphazardGardener.
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/Alice-ebook/dp/B009OCG21 for my debut novel or www.facebook.com/AuthorOfAlice

This month extra posts will be impossible. I am into the 4th day of NaNoWriMo which I’ve registered for again this year.  Last year I managed the 50K words in 23 days.  This year I’ve attempted outlining more thoroughly and working out how and where the story might go. However on Day One – my writing hand was already making its own decisions.

 

A Quick Update

I didn’t manage to post as often as I would have liked but it was a slight improvement on the month before. Eight days in the UK takes me right off my tracks and last month I’ve been focusing on Alice; taking the advice I’ve been given and adding a couple more chapters.

The book is selling reasonably well given the limited amount of promotion I am doing. But both Joanne Phillips and Patsy Collins have featured me on their blogs which has increased my traffic but not the number of followers. Thanks to you both.

Jane Risdon invited me to join the Garden design, plants and nature group on Facebook. There are some lovely photographs on this page. She hoped that the extra coverage would create even more interest for the book.

I will try to pick up the momentum during October and will post more old pictures later in the week.



Viburnum to the left and hawthorn to the right. The east terrace garden.

I have had some lovely feedback and a two further reviews for the book on Amazon.