It's been a while since I've posted, but I do have an excuse. I've just finished a 'tidy' draft of my next book. 'Tidy' rather than 'finished', because it's not finished until I've found a home for it.

It's a very different book to Mr. Nobody. For a start, it's aimed at a younger reading age, 7 years+. It's also mad. There's a reason for that. I wrote it to appeal to my youngest daughter's crazy imagination, and I surprised myself.

I thought writing for a younger age group might feel constrictive because of the language and the plotline. It was just the opposite. I let my imagination go for it, and really enjoyed writing it.

I've had some crazy conversations about the book with people, while struggling with plotlines, or trying to get the action and dialogue just right. My favourite moment was at my regular writing group meeting. We'd discussed some beautiful poetry, hard-hitting historical fiction and an intense short story, then we turned to mine. An earnest conversation followed on how exactly a worm might walk...This week, I started writing the next in the series.

It will probably be a while until it's available to buy. I'd like to have the second in the series ready to launch soon after the first. I'd also like to see if I can interest any agents before going down the self-publishing route.

Mr. Nobody is still piquing interest. This week, I had a request from a primary school to come in and read and chat to the children on World Book Day. Another copy of Mr. Nobody has been dropped off on a Cumbrian peak as part of my Extreme Reading venture (http://www.extremereading.co.uk), and my Amazon reviews are growing. I've been asked if I'm going to write a sequel to Mr. Nobody. Possibly. I definitely want to write another book aimed at a similar readership, but I'm not sure yet if that will be the start of something completely fresh, or a new adventure for Katie.

In the meantime, I know that there are at least three in the current series I'm working on.

These days, I tweet more than I blog, so if you'd like to follow my progress, please follow me on twitter: 
http://www.twitter.com/nataliegord

So, I have told all my friends, family and colleagues and I'm hoping that at least some of them are also telling their friends, families and colleagues about Mr. Nobody. I've contacted some book reviewers and I know that at least one of them will review my book on their blog, on Amazon and Goodreads within the next 8 weeks. I'm in 2 local papers and in 7 towns around Cumbria. What next? How do I keep the momentum going?

The answer? http://www.extremereading.co.uk

It all started when a friend sent me a photo of her son reading Mr. Nobody on top of their camper van. I thought maybe I could start a twitter campaign for people to post pictures of themselves reading their favourite book in unusual places. That fizzled out. Then a discussion one night with Adrian, my husband, came up with the idea of extreme reading. 

This weekend, 5 copies of Mr. Nobody will be left at the top of 5 family friendly Cumbrian peaks, with the idea that they will be read and passed on. You can find out how it works here: http://www.extremereading.co.uk

It's fairly easy to self-publish. It's less easy to self-promote. My hope is, that if this takes off, next year I can promote another new book by a new author. So if you are someone who has found a copy of Mr. Nobody on a peak and you're wondering what to do next, please read and take back to a peak anywhere near you and spread the word. Thank you.