Namaskara fellow traveler,

The writer’s journey is a long one, as I think you will appreciate, having followed mine.

 It has taken a little under three years, from starting to write Bella & Rami to get to the eve of publication. This isn’t necessarily very long for a book such as mine. Nevertheless, it is a significant quotient of time in a person’s life. Long enough for major life events to happen - to fall in love, to fall out of love, to start uni, to finish uni, to start a job, to leave a job, to have a baby, to have two babies(!) - you get the idea.

 In truth, my writing journey has been much longer than three years. I was an avid reader and writer of stories from a young age. My grade six teacher wrote in my end of year school report - “Good luck for the future... I expect to see your name in the papers in ten years’ time, as a journalist or an authoress.”

 Well, it has taken a little longer, life demanded other things from me, but it is significant that I kept that particular report and carried it with me through the decades. In publishing Bella & Rami I feel like I have kept a promise to my younger self.

 But back to the present. I have spent the last month doing all sorts of things that I never thought I would do:

 I have created author’s pages and “claimed” my book on major book platforms, such as Amazon, Goodreads and BookBub, overcoming many technical hurdles on the way.

I have wrapped my head around “metadata” and finally understood where Bella & Rami fits in the book universe: contemporary literary fiction with romance as a key theme.

I have organised my Australian book launch in collaboration with Elthambookshop, a respected independent bookstore run by a discerning bookseller.

I have teamed up with MissBookThief to organise my Indian book launch in Bangalore, and flow on to various literature festivals.

I have seen the first book review of Bella & Rami published by Readers Favorite (five stars!) See here

I have watched with fascination as Bella & Rami has started to popup on all sorts of bookish sites, and seen it described increasingly in the words of those who have read it.

I have reached out to more or less everyone I know and told them about the book, and had the considerable pleasure of responding to the many messages of support and encouragement that have flowed from that outreach.

All of this and more, has been enormously rewarding, and I wouldn’t have missed it for quids.

Thank you as always for being coming with me on my writing journey. I hope that it has been of interest to you, and perhaps encouraged you to follow your own creative impulses, whatever they may be.

See you after the Australian launch.

Isobel

 Photo by FAISAL AHMED on Unsplash