3 Days to Launch and I’m Scared
I’m not going to lie… putting book 5 out into the world is scaring the hell out of me.
I write what I call ‘living memoir’. I write ‘humour’ for the most part. Someone, and I wish I could remember who, said the ‘Rosie Life’ series is like ‘reality TV in book form’. I also read a writer say: ‘When you write you are very vulnerable. You stand on a stage and say this is how I feel does anyone else feel the same?’ … Book 5 is making me feel very vulnerable.
I knew what was going to be in Book 1 and 2 of ‘A Rosie Life In Italy’ as I already lived it before the books were published. I wrote Book 3 while it happened and I had book 4 up for pre-order at the end of Book 3. I had no idea what was going to happen in Book 4. It turned into a book about my mother’s experience of Italy.
Book 5 was the same. I put it up for pre-order at the end of Book 4 knowing certain things: I was grieving for my Dad and someone I loved dearly had been told they had incurable cancer.
But incurable is a very general word. After all life is incurable! We are all going to die and none of us know if we have 40 years, 5 years or a bus could run us over tomorrow.
When I put Book 5 up for pre-order I knew I was going to be going through emotional unchartered territory and to have to write about it scared me. I knew this book had to have an ending and I didn’t know what it was going to be… I knew the ending I didn’t want it to have.
Putting Book 5 out into the world of my lovely readers scares me. Some of my beta readers have said it is the best book I have written yet, but that does not give me comfort. I am scared it will go against my readers’ expectations. Book 5 includes lots about Italy as I got to know it more, and lots about its bureaucracy and navigating the Italian health system. There is some renovation but not as much as the other books, so that is why it might disappoint and that is why it scares me—Book 5 includes more of my personal life than the other books.
These books are my living memoirs. I don’t know what is going to happen. And I didn’t know what was going to happen in Book 5. It is a little different than the rest but I do hope you will enjoy Book 5 as much as the rest of the series. I will be anxiously waiting on your review to hear what you think of it.
Three days to go!
