Allyson R. Abbott's Blog: Allyson. Writer on the Road

Touching Ed; A real life romance; Abby, Ed and Erectile Dysfunction.
Especially written with 'Boomers' in mind.

also available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo and SmashwordsTouching Ed

I am really sorry for anyone who has been here to check out my blogs. I have decided to move to Blogger instead so I can blog from an App on my phone. It just makes it easier when travelling.
My blog address is Hope to see you there.
Thank you for checking me out:)

It is amazing what a bit of sunshine can do. We have managed to avoid all the cold weather front that has swept down the USA, by staying as far south as possible. We drove north west yesterday through oil fields and being passed on the road by thousands of trucks; or so it seemed. Nobody appreciates that we are not in a hurry. Today we are in Del Rio, Texas on the Mexican border and it is 26C.
We pulled in at a campsite on spec and have decided to stay for a few nights. Last night we stayed up till 2am catching up on emails and internet jobs. It was so nice not having to go to bed early to get warm. That little bit of warmth has made all the difference to my writing.
I am now well into book 2 of The Silver Years Romance series, Managing Ed; which is a good job really as I have promised it will be available from May 2015.
So I really need to get on to it. But first I need to de-hair my legs as it is now shorts weather again.

Wow! we had a luck escape from the cold snowy weather. We were about to leave Nashville and head to St Louis, but it was feeling a little chilly so we thought we would check the weather. A cold blizzard was creeping down from Canada and was expected to get to north Texas. We do not like the cold, so we turned tail and raced down to southern Texas and are now in sunny Corpus Christi. I like being on the move, but it does not help with the writing and promoting work. Finding a good T Mobile 4G signal seems impossible down here. I need to sit still for a while to put a few hours in of writing. I am planning to have Managing Ed ready for publishing in May and it is only four chapters long so far.
Countdown to Love is still being downloaded for free and for some reason that I have not yet fathomed, it is doing very well all of a sudden on iBooks. I am going to start charging for it in two days, only .99, but it is part of my marketing plan. Touching Ed has not sold any copies yet, but I have Salsa or Die, coming out in a few weeks and plan to put that through the Amazon select programme to do a free promo and hopefully will tie it on to Touching Ed. It's like a chess game; working out the best moves.
It is very challenging, if not frustrating. Like playing chess without knowing all the rules.
Anyway, I read To Kill A Mockingbird this weeks, during my non-internet days. I bought it because of the sequel due out soon and I wanted to recap on the story. I had forgotten how brilliant it is. If you get the chance, do treat yourself to it.
Bye for now.

I think my timing is really bad. Here I am in Nashville Tennessee, with so many things to see and do and I am in a hotel room promoting Touching Ed, and Countdown to Love that have just been published.
I am trying to split the time. So spending hours in the daytime o the laptop and then in the evenings we do a little sightseeing, which may or may not:) include checking out the bars and clubs. Okay, it mostly means checking out the bars and clubs. We visited the B B King club/restaurant and I was a little disappointed that the music was not really blues, but more jazzy than I like. However, my mood soon changed when we found The Boogie Bar on Bourbon Street. They had a Blues jam session, which was rocking! Thoroughly recommend it.
Last night we went to the Bluebird café and listened to live contemporary country music: keep your eyes and ears open for Clayton Anderson, I think he is going places.
The evenings are definitely more happening than the daytimes. promoting books is hard work, although I do have a great mention on Rebels and Readers Blog page today and Cheeky Peeks blog for Countdown to Love. Being a Valentine short story needs to be promoted fairly briskly. I have had 400 downloads on Smashwords for it so far. That may not sound a lot to some international best sellers, but to me it is amazing that 400 people have taken the time to download my book and hopefully will enjoy it. That is what it is all about.

I went to the Grand Ole Oprey yesterday. It was awesome. Really enjoyed the music and the whole atmosphere. I had no idea that it was a live radio show as well.
We walked into Nashville Downtown today. What a lively town. With an ice hockey match also on in town, it was a little busy, but the place was buzzing.
Ok, I know I am supposed to be writing and publishing, but there is so much to see and do around here in Nashville.

Touching Ed is about to be made available as an Ebook. I am thinking of using 카지노싸이트 Giveaway option as a promotional point. I would be interested if anyone can tell me the best option for this. Has anyone entered a giveaway? How many books being given away is an attractive offer?
What sort of time length is the best.
Any advice would be helpful. Thank you

Grand Ole Oprey tomorrow night, so I am just brushing up on a few songs. I am so excited to be in Nashville. After leaving New Orleans, we travelled up through the Delta Blue country and arrived at a small house called Graceland. Awesome.

All this music and blues is interfering with my writing and I have not got any further than the 5 chapters in Managing Ed, the second book in the Silver Romance series. This series follows Abby and Ed on their journey of their frustrating sex life.

Hope to get Salsa Or Die published soon. Another very short romance story read-in-one-sitting, book about Pam and Jeff, who are both in their sixties.

Publishing and marketing is a new ball game for a writer. I need to spend at least a day getting to know all about the 카지노싸이트 site. There are lots of bits and pieces I have not found yet. I know they are there, because I have just read 카지노싸이트 for Authors by Michelle Campbell-Scott and she has given me some very good idea. I just need to sit still long enough with a good 4G signal to put them into action.

Tonight we are parking in a very classy campsite. Walmart in Nashville:) Not liking this cold weather though! I may be from England, but there I am not in a motorhome. At least there I can put more logs on the fire. Good job Walmart sell blankets.

After hitting the publish button for the Countdown To Love short story. I stupidly thought that I would then be able to carry on and complete the other books. I feel that I am in bits and pieces land. Not really knowing what to do next. What I did not realize though, was the amount of work that comes after the publishing excitement. The promotion work and the marketing is extremely hard; especially if it not something you are used to.
I have been very please so far with the response to Countdown To Love. It received another 5 star review. The short story's main character is Marie and in a review was described as 'one of the gals that won't let a man get a word in edgeways' which I thought was brilliant. When writing the story I had Hyacinth, from Keeping Up Appearances. and Margo, from "It's a Good Life' in mind. So I am very happy that my writing style worked.
On the travelling front we are, as the song states, 'going to Graceland, Graceland, Memphis Tennessee!'. Not happy about the weather though, forecast of cold and rain. I am hoping to get Touching Ed published this week. I need some reviews if anyone is interested please email me. In fact, I anyone is interested in reviewing any book please email me. I will keep a list and then let you know when another book is on the review cycle. Have a great weekend. Allyson

Okay, it's only a short story with a few pages; and please do not buy the paperback version because you will feel cheated, but it is my first born. There were no bells or whistles when I pressed the publish now button ( I really think KDP are missing a trick there), and it has been changed and tweaked so many times since that first click.
The writing of the book seems so much less stressful than the publishing and promotion of the same. It never occurred to me that it would be such hard and intensive work. Just finding out what is best to do is a minefield; there is so much advice out there and most of it contradicts each other. In the end you just do what you can and what you think is best for your book.
At the time of writing this first blog I am in New Orleans. I started the book in Oregon, so it has travelled thousands of miles with me. from the west coast to the east coast, down to Florida and now round the Gulf. I will probably be in Nashville when Touching Ed is published. That was started in Flagstaff, although notes were written in South Africa; does that mean its an international book?