Roughly a year ago I gave up my boring office job and released my first novel, Leda. I intended to take stock after one year and see how the old writing career is going. So how does it look?
I would like to be able to support myself entirely by writing but that still seems to be a distant goal. As well as looking after my niece I’m currently back at the office, albeit only temporarily to cover staff shortages. (It seems I am indispensable. 😉
On the positive side, out of a print run of 500 copies Leda has so far sold over 350. I think that’s not bad for the first year (a Christian children’s publisher agreed) and sales are holding up steadily rather than tailing off. Someone, somewhere must be buying this book.
Then the best news of all: I have a book commission from the aforementioned Christian children’s publisher. All being well my children’s biography of St Augustine should be published in the early part of 2014. So I may still be skint, but at least I feel like I’m getting somewhere in my impecunious career.
Coincidentally, the weekend that I am looking back on my year is also Chinese New Year. For this reason my latest collection of short stories, A New Year’s Trio, will be free for Kindle download from now until Tuesday.
It’s also my seventh wedding anniversary in a few days, a significant milestone but more memorable for me than for my husband, it seems, since he accidentally booked a boys’ holiday to Spain over it. Oh well, I suppose there’s always next year.
K C Murdarasi 
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