#author #emotions #elves #Christmas #bookmarketing #selfhelp #autism #anxiety #mentalhealth #caring #hospital #family #homemade #bookevent

Hi all how are you? It has been a busy week here so much to share

Niki and Jake

I got home from picking Jake up from school to find My Niki at the door playing the Kazoo she grabbed hold of my arm pulled me into the kitchen and proudly pointed she had surprised me with a bunch of roses. was such a sweet gesture. It really put a big smile on my face.

we have been up to all sorts of things since last weekend starting with a big bake off with the kids, was great they both came and took turns joining in. was lots of fun too and tasted great.

The kids loved baking.

The kids had a great week at work and college this week, although Jake has had a change of heart about what he wants to do going forward from a Marine Biologist to a Fire Fighter he is still young and many things can change before he does his exams. we are just going with what he wants and get him to research what it will take. It is perfectly ok to not know and change your mind at that age I happy whatever he eventually chooses.

Hayley

Wednesday was work with Hayley her day out of her choice, she picked Christmas shopping and a trip to the local garden center to see their Christmas display and visit the cafe.

The garden center even had a selfie area .

We went to our local mall for shopping trip, this years decorations are lovely they even have their own Elf and talking post box where you can post letters to Santa, she brought a few of the presents she wanted to get so she was very happy she also brought a make your own Elf.

We visited some of the little Christmas decoration shops to, they looked stunning , the Christmas music playing in the back ground it certainly makes shopping so much fun.

There was elves everywhere

Hayley making her Elf, she also used her magic painting book so a crafty afternoon.

Our Tom

A green Header for this one Cerebral Palsy awareness

Tom is affected in all four of his limbs and as he grows he has had to have many procedures done, Botox in his legs, a peg in his tummy to administer fluids and medicine. he also has seizures. this week he had a major op to place pins in his hip. he is such a trouper and a brave young man, no kids should ever have to go through that.

He spent the day on Monday with his mum dad and big sister at London zoo for a day of fun before his op. his little sister was on a school trip for a couple of days so was not with them. his dad drove them to hospital,He went in on Monday night to prepare for his op first thing the next day helped them settle in and returned home with his big sister mum stayed with him.

to say we were all anxious for this to go well and him be home is an understatement, it is not easy seeing someone so young have to under go such a long major op five hours to be precise. we were all a little on edge.

The op was a success, now to see if he could spend an hour in his wheel chair, an important part of him being aloud home, because of traveling home in his chair, they was going to let him home yesterday but he was a bit uncomfortable so they did another X-ray to check and decided to not let him home

He was a bit sick when they took him out of his chair, and put him on the bed.

We have all been phoning to chat to him and his mum, and sharing positive messages and posts to keep them positive and to show they are not alone up their in the hospital, I must admit I was a huge bag of nerves, waiting.

He woke up in a good mood this morning and managed to spend an hour in his chair so they allowed him home, now the recovery begins his not allowed in his walker for a while, short time in his chair. bless him the journey home took a lot longer about 2 and a half hours but he didn’t complain. his other carer is there for tonights night shift.

So these post I think are important to share to show what families truly have to go through and the affect it has on everyone in the family, parents siblings grandparent and other family members . you actually find out who really cares by their actions on the tough days. Their is a whole heap of people that love this little boy and watch his journey, he brings this smile and love and innocents to the world of many people. and also a whole heap of personality.

Book Marketing

This is on going , I am having to really adjust so much, i have met some awesome new friends sold a few books, got creative their is a lot of positive things, and i know it takes time to build reader lists and connections and really get your work out their for people to read.

There is a downside though, those 1 or 2 people that get through that really are not the kind of people you want in your life, the kind that send porn to your inbox or don’t understand boundary’s. so now I am being a little more cautious on who I add especially on Facebook . Now I am thinking I will have to try and focus my attention on only linking through my author page where my kids and family are not on, that is my one concern safety. I see how easy it is for people to send the wrong kind of messages through. a big reason why I wont use watts app and hangouts because if someone isn’t respectful in a normal message there not going to be respectful in encrypted message. disappearing messages are just not a safe thing especially for kids.

The next book event is next Saturday really looking forward to this a Christmas book event just perfect place for my little Christmas Book.

The link is below for details and if your in Brighton and Hove next week end pop down and see some of the books on offer , you could even grab a copy for a stocking filler.

https://www.facebook.com/events/353245958594094/

Here is the link for the Ebook if you cant make it to the event and want a copy

Paperback is available to order through many online outlets

AMAZON , BARNS & NOBLE, FOYLES, WATERSTONES, BOOK DEPOSITORY, ABEBOOKS, FISHPOND,BOL, and BOOKLOCKER either order for delivery or some places let you order and pick up in store.

If you choose to grab a copy you want the Second addition booksELF publishing the original is only available for book signings now.

Wishing you a beautiful night and many thanks for reading

Much love Faye xxx

#author #emotions #elves #emotheeomotionalelf #bookmarketing #bookgroups #digitallearning #socialmedia #autism #anxiety #mentalhealth

Hi everyone hope your week has been a great one , so much to say today haven’t posted for a few days as it has been truly busy here.

You got to start somewhere you never to old to learn new things , I guess it is an important thing to learn given the kids have already no how, in fact they help me.

The thing is I am pretty serious about learning everything I can the publishing industry about so I can publish more books and learn to format layout and design myself. The one thing I would obviously save up and invest in is a good camera, an editor, my Niki has a digital drawing pad intuous which she designed Emo on. I have know doubt she wants to be involved with the further books to help with some of the illustrations.

Book groups

I have joined a few over the last couple of days , spoken to other authors seen the kind of illustrators out there. It is nice speaking with others on their own publishing journeys. some groups are a mix of author’s illustrators, type setters. book promotion sites, where you can share your work. It is great though that they have rules to follow so everyone’s work can be seen.

There seems to be a big thing we all have in common as authors, that’s wanting reviews left. many of us looking to get readers and sales many asking for advise on marketing their books. I feel less out of depth now and more proactive on teaching myself to do it.

I have even got a chance to go on a online radio to talk about my book, I just have to call and book a slot. I would have been real nervous about it before but it is much easier now since I appeared on the local one when the save our school campaign was happening here.

This is the most important time for marketing Emo the Emotional Elf with it being a Christmas story, I am going to accept what ever help is out their, it is already November time is moving so quick. what sales i make now could give me the much needed reviews to get more traction to it.

I thought about which online influencers may take a chance on it if I get a free copy to them, but they would defiantly have to be someone who has maybe suffered with anxiety or mental health, be or know someone who is autistic. because I think they have a valued opinion to offer. even if our stories are not the same or our journey’s. It is quite an awkward thing to do though how would you even begin to approach them, to ask if they would read.

Why can’t social media all have the same layout for post’s there is sizes for instagram posts , instagram news feeds. Facebook headers , WordPress headers, twitter feeds.

It’s the same pretty much for ebook’s different platforms have different requirement’s for them to be able to upload and work on their systems. different pixels for photo’s to display. Fixed layout or variable layout now this caused me a huge issue when ebook went out and part of the reason it is only on Kobo still working on that one. Bleed lines see i am slowly catching up on some of the terms you have to get used to if you self publish.

Royalties, Percentages , standard industry whole sale, distribution, print cost, returns. Stock whether to get a bulk lot yourself or print on demand.

Agents do you get one or not, long term goals are you a one book wonder or many book author.

Do you have what it takes to never give up, even when you see slow progress, even when your so tired because your updating all your social networks talk to people, when to do start press releases, approaching media and schools. not to forget book signing events. See I have already learned a lot .

I don’t intend to let the set backs I have been through put me off continuing as frustrating as some parts have been, I am really enjoying this new side of me

Blogging Journey

Am I glad I have found WordPress when I first started I wrote with no structure like one long sentences with the odd full stop and comma and missing capital letters. I read my posts now and although it is still pretty basic punctuation and still the odd few mistakes that I often notice after i have published it is becoming easier for me.

Perseverance , Persistence, posting regularly helps to build your audience. learning and updating the way the site works having add on’s, and upgrading as you develop into a more confident blogger.

All though my blog is still probably one of the smaller ones out there, slowly it is building.

So lets share stats to show how by persevering can help.

View’s visitors Blog posts

2017 198 118 23

2018 2030 1116 124

2019 5645 3925 180

The other great thing is that it shows where your visitors and views come from and we this blog has had visitors from 75 different country’s. I find that so amazing just wow. it is a great thing to be able to share and teach your kids about the different country’s and our Jake choose geography as one of his subjects, so this may be a great learning tool for me to talk about other country’s with him.

The sharing of your blog on all your social media helps and having a direct link up, it helps you understand when you are engaging with people who kindly take their time to click your blog links and visit.

So these stats show which sites they are coming from to visit.

so what have I learned about this that I must be doing something right, there have been search engine clicks from Google, Duck Duck Go, Ask, my author amazon page, LinkedIn, Twitter instagram is a little more of the difficult one as you limited to point people to the link in your bio.

Then their is your # are you using the correct ones, not enough or to many. You don’t realize to you look at your mail on each of these sites just how many people you have spoken to over that time, that’s in direct or private messages.

I like to right as if I am talking to one person, I read too other peoples posts if I get a chance to comment I do, more often then not I get called on phone or the the kids call and need something. So please don’t think I don’t read other’s blogs I really enjoy them. That’s it for for book talk .

Amber warning I am completely changing subject now .

Jake and Niki’s transition back to school this week went pretty smoothly although I must admit that first day back on Monday we overslept and made it with about 2 minutes to spare. That is cutting it to fine for my liking, but was used to the holiday’s and hitting the delete button on the alarm it becomes instinctive. Plus it was nice and warm and cozy under the duvet.

Tom’s wheel chair issues.

Tuesday I got back from school run and got a call from Tom’s mum bit of an emergency with Tom’s wheel chair the front wheel was broke , and she needed a lift to his school to take a spare frame. now this is where it gets complex, we take the spare chair frame out of the garage it has a missing part still maybe they had a spare part for the handle. we get there and they condemned his wheelchair as unusable and dangerous the front wheel had a severed screw. They couldn’t fix it because they don’t have funding for it, because the frame is a privately funded one. They did have a part for the handle of the spare frame.

But would need the local authority to come and service it, the frame which is privately funded needed to have it’s own service team to come and fix it. This has to be overseen and go through Tom’s solicitor who is in charge of Tom’s fund he received in compensation from his birth injury’s. see i told you it is a complex situation. I wonder what would happen if that old frame has been got rid of, what would of happened to Tom with out his wheelchair he is reliant on. things take time to sort he wouldn’t of been able to travel home from school, because he comes home in a disability adpted taxi.

He needs to sit in his chair to eat, because he has swallowing problems, and all though he is peg fed his meds and fluids, he does when he chooses eats food normally even though its blended. Still the school got in touch with the local authority wheel chair service , and his mum got in touch with his solicitor. Tom found it all very funny and i think he was surprised I was at his school.

while I was at Tom’s school I had a phone call from Jakes school, I still get that split second of dread even after all this time. I think they know this because they said “it isn’t anything to worry about,” they just wanted to know if I read over his EHCP review and am authorizing them to send it off to county, I asked if they had received it, but they weren’t sure. As soon as I got home I checked my emails to see if I did infact send it, as I added more bits in the parent’s section

I forgot to attach it to email , had to resend and phone it through to tell them, I resent. At least that’s done for another year. Jake told me he has been assessed now for exam considerations and he now has provisions in place. this is the bit of his review I spent the most time on, as anxiety can really affect his ability to do the tests.

So the exam support is he can do his assessments in the base for now but exams will be in a quite room with small group of student, possibly the computer room , which is good because he also gets the use of a commuter to type his exams, so exam marker’s can read his work, he also gets an extra 30 minutes to be able to help him check his work. speaking to his actual lesson teachers after his review they were in agreement this would really help him. that is one big worry off Jakes mind now. It will really help to ease his anxiety a lot.

Next forms I have to do is Niki’s pip renewal which landed on my floor on Saturday and has to be completed by the 27th of this month, not my favorite form to fill in.

Hayley

Working with Hayley on Wednesday was fun, Hayley is so engaged with Emo and the elves.

we began the day early with her planning what she wanted to do, where she wanted to shop. She brought a folder to keep her receipts in, some tinsel some arts and craft stuff to do in the afternoon together. She found a deer dressed as an Elf, two small Elves ready to sit on the shelf next to her Christmas tree, she has begun her Christmas shopping. she wants to get it done early this year when it isn’t busy.

Here we are making homemade decorations she loves doing crafts a lot

She has a little habit when she is happy of rubbing her hands together, she gave the biggest belly laugh too.

Her reaction at the end was the best, I want to write a book so when she stays on Friday we are going to write another short story about her new deer elf, Then I will print it off to go with her other one about the three bears. we will also make it into a little video for her to watch like the you tube book trailer, reading and audio is important part for Hayley she may not be able to read or write but she loves books.

Today I took a bit of a marketing break and just had some chill time, making home made Greek Faki for my husband and Niki, it is nice to just take a short break to re focus.

It was yummy , any that is me finished for the night, i have been writing this for three hours.

Goodnight much love Faye xx

#author #emotions #elves #Christmas #Halloween #booktrailer #autism #anxiety #mentalhealth

Good evening, I hope you had a fabulous Halloween. Ours was amazing

Preparations begun the day before with every one pitching in to help, their was a few moments of anxiety when the first cut of Jakes pumpkin went wrong but he took himself off to calm down a little and i stepped in to get the difficult bit done it turned out amazing Jake coming down to help Finnish off and put some of the little details he wanted in.

Hayley was excited to join in with the pumpkin carving this year.

They did an awesome job, coped well with the sensory side of it by the end of it we had some wonderful pumpkins to put on display.

Jake’s Hayley’s Niki’s

We spent the prep day having fun decorating the house and capturing pictures too share.

The Elves not wanting to be left out got up to their own mischief they love a good selfie

Emo not being a big fan of spider’s still managed to have a smile on his face despite being caught in a spiders web.

The house began to take shape very quickly with my little helper’s. Halloween this year had a big change Niki was having 2 of her friends come to share it with us she was so excited and asked me to get some extra pumpkins for them to do when they came over for Halloween.

20+ years of collecting Halloween things to make it a special each year not only for our family but for other’s knocking on our door for their candy.

Our motion detecting witch that talks and cackles when your near, had the poor postman almost running out of our garden and had Jake in fits of giggles started Halloween morning off to a great start. I didn’t get to see it myself but Jakes interpretation of it was so funny.

Niki had her first friend arriving a little earlier then expected as she finished her appointment early. Niki come bounding in my room to wake me up and as if by miracle her bedroom was all clean and ready without me even putting one foot in the door.

Jake decided he didn’t want to dress up this year and didn’t want to take part just hover in the back ground , he isn’t used to having people he doesn’t know in his home his little safe haven but he coped well and sat at the table while we all ate together.

I had to dash to shop after Niki’s first friend arrived needed fresh bread for them to have they bacon or egg sandwiches. then it was their turn to carve their pumpkins before they changed into their outfits. One of Niki’s friends is also autistic and she didn’t want to touch the innards of the pumpkins but that was ok because i had some rubber gloves for her to use. Niki on the other hand is more of a sensory seeker even though she thinks it is gross she spent a good half an hour with her hands in pumpkin pulp.

The outfits of choice me Cat woman, because i am friendly and great to have around when your anxious.

They looked fabulous and for the first time we let Niki just go with her friends to trick or treat, I was so impressed by how they coped with that one Unfortunately the friend that was planning on staying the night felt a bad anxiety attack coming on so wanted to go home she was saying how she has been having night time panics lately, it was so great she was able to communicate what she needed. but they had a fabulous time together.

We totally understood as we have been there many times when the kids anxiety was at peak, you never know when it will happen so always best to just go with what helps you personally.

We had over 100 little visitors and I still have loads of candy left.

Niki’s friends pumpkins and the one she designed for her older brother Josh the ones with the giant nails in.

The kids that came were so very polite and looked fabulous in their outfits were so cute their may have been a few little squeals when the witch moved or the growling noise coming from under the pumpkin table but it was just a shocked squeal not a I am scarred for life one. once over the surprise they were a little intrigued to get closer. the baby’s were not affected by it and still had these beautiful little smile on their face.

The kids that came were so very polite and looked fabulous in their outfits were so cute their may have been a few little squeals when the witch moved or the growling noise coming from under the pumpkin table but it was just a shocked squeal not a I am scarred for life one. once over the surprise they were a little intrigued to get closer. The baby’s were not affected by it and still had these beautiful little smile on their face.

The moment that stood out the most for me though was this one little fearless girl that was in a group of kids with their parents she spotted our house as soon as she entered the other end of the green she waited for no one while the other slowly were walking around the to come towards our house she ran across the grass arms flying, witches outfit and long hair blowing in the wind you could tell this girl was excited and had candy on her mind. she reminded me of my Niki at that age confident sure of herself fearless. did she get a bigger handful sure that was an impressive attitude to have. A know exactly what you want a go for it.

I did have to pop out for a while though to pick Hayley up from her Christmas rehearsals and drop her home to her house, she was going out for Halloween at Karaoke. She got in the car so excited she won a prize for dressing up.

She really loves dressing up as much as our Niki does.

The evening after that was pretty cool too watched the Halloween movie with my hubby, he thought he could scare me a little but I waited till he went upstairs for a minute and snuck to the stairs and as he came down I squeaked that horn he has on the cup he got for his birthday and made him jump. The tables were turned, I have had years of him making me jump. So as not to end the night with a fright I sat with Jake and watched another good doctor show. he loves how the character portrays how autism affects someone both him and Niki really feel a conection to thius perticular characture.

So that is the End of my Halloween update and now we have officially moved Into the new month, my birthday month, it is time to take the next step forward in my book journey and share the book trailer with you all. Now I will say I am a little nervous to share it only because i prefer being behind the screen writing rather then talking, and I don’t have the best of memories for remembering lots of text at the same time so had a little help with cue cards. but I am happy with the end result and really thankful that my oldest Josh and my hubby helped me put it together.

Here is my book Trailer

#author #emotions #Elves #childrensbook #networking #authormeetups #emotions #autism #anxiety #Mentalhealth #selfhelp

Hi all, how have you been this last week?

I haven’t forgotten my fellow word presser’s just been spending quality time with family. My oldest son has just returned to his home after coming down for a surprise visit for his dad’s birthday.

It wasn’t such a surprise though as our Niki accidentally let the secret out when explaining to her dad who all the pumpkins on our side were for josh being one of the lucky pumpkin holder.

while waiting for Josh’s train to arrive I banned my Nik from entering the kitchen you can’t easily set up a surprise when someone is in the other room. Not an easy thing at all, still the kids helped I already wrapped the presents and hid them in a bag in the corner.

We all decided to give dad a break from the usual jokes and just got candles that said 21 as in dad sometimes acts like a big kid.

Our Josh arrived late Wednesday night, he just seems to get bigger each time we see him, although Jake is beginning to catch up with him in hight.

It was about 11 pm when we got back to ours thier was no way the kids were going to sleep till they saw thier big brother

Jake and Niki were super excited too, getting them to go to thier rooms was very difficult.

Thursday Last day of school as well as dad’s birthday we made it up in time so kids could have breakfast and see dad open the presents from them.

Birthday morning his favorite thing the cup with a horn on from Josh , at least it is more tolerable then him dropping a baking tray he is always looking for ways to make us jump. Hayley and Dad joined us for birthday celebrations with messages and phone calls coming through out the day. It was such a beautiful relaxing day. He even had some surprise calls from his old radio and DJ buddies which was nice.

Friday School holiday’s begun

Except no one told my internal clock it can sleep in, 6.30 I woke up why cant it work that way on school run days I always sleep longer then I should. Friday is always a busy day for me nightshift day, the week i just have Hayley over night normally she would be staying at our house all night but as Josh is home there was not enough space, so we stayed here for the evening then went back to hers for the night. Friday is also food shopping day and bills day.

Friday was also different as Josh took Jake to town for brother time, Niki had her placement day before braking up for the holiday’s .

I also had a meet up with my beautiful author friend Sue, first time having a meet up that isn’t at an event, she gave me some great tips as well as having a girly chat too, you know most of my chats over the years have been with family mainly my mum or my mother in law so it was nice too speak too someone else, with a mutual interest in children’s books and self publishing just what I needed, plus she is super cool down to earth and easy to talk too, normally I would of been super nervous.

Saturday was another family do this time the christening of my cousins beautiful son Jermaine

Events take some planning to be able to attend, lots too think of for families with kids on spectrum the church was the easy bit because it was not a long event the kids coped well, little Jermaine was so smiley and calm through out the christening

My kids looked so smart, my hubby didn’t come this time wasn’t feeling up too it.

Jake and his cousin Holly were pleased too see each other

The party was set up so beautifully tables set with baby blue balloons and the center table all set with cake and and decorations a lot of time and effort went into that, a little book to record messages handed out as a forever reminder that people shared this special memory with the family

There was a disco, and food, Jake cant always cope with loud music so in my car which I parked as close to exit as possible was a blanket and pillow so we could pop out when it got too much, pop the classical music on and charge any devices that some how tend to run out of battery at the beginning of events, food the kids like or something they can take thier mind of music and focus thier senses, Niki’s is her phone and talking to Tom it helps her anxiety.

Jakes distraction this time was long division and colour coordinating skittles. They both lasted till half an hour before the end once Niki’s phone was getting low on charge that was when it was time to go. Josh had a great time up on the dance floor so did Hayley. Dad stood quite at the end of table with his beer and camera, that’s my dad though his a people observer .

It was Great to catch up with Family, and share this special day with them. It was also nice to finally give my cousins thier copies, thier opinion matters because one of the things raised in the book in the dedication section at the end of the story is Huntington’s which thier dad has so it has a special mention of him and his brother’s and sisters in there too.

Sunday was a chilled day for everyone, Josh went for a walk with both Niki and Jake before settling on sofa together. Then we had the last supper before he returned home ready for work on Monday.

Monday was a chilled day too Hair cut day for Jake his dad took him too barbers this time just for a scissor cut this time as he wanted to keep some of the length but get rid of the curls that had begun to sprout at the ends again. Hair cuts for Jake have become a positive experience lately and he eagerly lets us know when he wants it to be done again.

So that has been pretty much the busy few days now moving on to a new topic.

Book news and author networking

This week in the moments I have had spare i joined some author,illustrator, reader, book groups and started widening my contact base in this big industry. sharing some of the things that may help them reading about thier work and sharing some of the books that I thought were great especially for children. I should of done this ages ago , I have had more people ask about my book these last couple of days then I did before. I made it released for global sales adjusted pricing to take in changes in printing and other costs so that i make my money out of it too. Put aside the thoughts of the old digital foot print and re centered and focused on putting the new ISBN footprint out thier. The book trailer will be uploaded and shared just as soon as Halloween is over.

Coming up with differnt ideas for sharing book

Here he is Emo and his copies with new ISBN, it is also showing up more online with these numbers and the booksELF publishing information.

I guess that’s it for now though sorry so long today lots too share.

Much love Faye xx