Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! With Christmas just around the corner, this will be my final post of the year. I’d like to take the opportunity to thank all of my readers for reading/following me. It’s been great getting to know you, and sharing writerly/readerly news and views.
2015 was quite an eventful year for me. In March my first novel, The Forest King’s Daughter , was published by Pilrig Press. In July, I began writing book reviews for Lothian Life Magazine . In October, I helped to short-list a joint writing competition run by Lothian Life and writingclasses.co.uk (for those who may have missed it, the winners were announced last Thursday and the winning stories are now published: http://www.lothianlife.co.uk/2015/12/writing-home-short-story-winners/). Then, just a few weeks ago, I received my MLitt degree in Creative Writing from The University of Glasgow.
Whew, that feels like a lot! Of course, none of it would have been possible without the help of so many good writing friends, professors and classmates (you know who you are 😉 ). So, thank you!
One of the most difficult things for me this year was figuring out ways in which to promote my novel, which ultimately meant conquering my fear and distrust of social media. I couldn’t have done this without the help and support of friends and fellow bloggers (such as Ruth Hunt, Molly Greene and Belinda Pollard, among others) who readily gave me advice on taking the plunge and starting a Twitter and Facebook account. And, ultimately, it has paid off in more ways than one. Besides being a useful promotional tool, I’ve made new friends and connections via social media as well as discovering some great new books and authors whom I would never have known existed otherwise. It also helped put me in touch with some amazing bloggers who helped promote my novel, such as Alison Drew who ran a #BookBoost for my novel in October, Adrian Doyle of Englanti Editing who featured my novel and an excerpt on their website at the start of November, and others who gave of their time to interview me and offer me a guest post on their blogs. Thank you all!
And a special thank you for those who have read my novel, and reviewed it. (For those who may have read the novel but not reviewed it, could I give you a nudge and request that you consider doing so? A review need only be a few words about why you liked a book, or didn’t. Reviews are essential for authors).
I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season, and a great start to 2016!
Kendra Olson 