I genuinely don’t remember learning to read, although I do remember the first word I couldn’t read – I was showing off at school because it was all sooooooooo easy and the teacher said in that case I should read out the story of Jack Sprat.

I was 4, and pretty full of myself, and whipped through it until I got to ‘between them both they licked the plate clean’.

“No”, said the teacher, “it doesn’t say plate. It says platter.”  Whatnow?’  There were words I didn’t know?

And now a few years (okay, decades) have slipped by and there are still, nearly every day, words I don’t know.  They still set off my inner four year old.  What does it do? What does it mean? Is it a better word than the one I knew? Is it a word I want to be friends with?

Reading was (and is) my passion, although I couldn’t quite understand why a book could say anything, and nobody minded (fairies at the bottom of the garden? Good story) but you couldn’t tell people there were fairies at the bottom of your own garden because they said you were telling stories. Duh, YAH. But they didn’t seem to think me telling stories was a good thing.

I puzzled it out eventually. Once you write it down, then it becomes a Story and people nod and smile and tell you what a funny little imagination you have.  The first Stories were in crayon. Then pencil. Then pen. Then typed.  I thank the powers that dictate our lives that I was born in an age that would eventually include the word processor and even, in fullness of time, the electronic book, although we had to wait a while for that.

Turns out there are quite a few of us looking to be patted on the head and praised for our funny little imaginations. In truth, I sometimes wonder if there are more writers than readers. It was obviously time to sit down and puzzle out how to get a few more pats.

I’ve put out two books without any proper promotion at all but the third is coming out end October so anyone with promotion tips, or who can point me in promotional directions, please let me know. In the meantime I’ll pass on the ones I come across as I work through my pages of notes, and try things out.

Here are a few goodies found so far. There is a great site for selling short stories, Alfiedog.com  (click here to link) (take your imagination for  walk)

I’ve been accepted but damn and blast hadn’t known to switch off my ‘Kindle Select auto-renew’ option so it will be November before The Passing of Mrs Parker Woodburn is available there. But hey, I’ve tried a few of the stories already and they’re ideal train-commute reading, highly recommended.  I’ll be keeping very good company.

Another lovely site is First Chapters,( click here to link) where you can post your first few chapters, cover, author bio, etc.  It’s a co-op site,  you promote the site as well your chapters and so does every other writer who has had chapters accepted. Together, at least in theory, we reach millions – in reality, a couple more pats on the head, eh?