Well, my split personality is now complete!
While I continue to write romantic comedies and magazine
short stories as Vivien Hampshire, the brand new ‘other me’ is now writing too…
and as Vivien Brown my books will
tackle more serious themes and in a much more tense and gripping way.
First of all, an update on ‘How To Win Back Your Husband’ by
Vivien Hampshire. My first rom-com novel was published as an ebook in January
and I held a great online launch party on Facebook. Friends, readers and
complete strangers dropped by and joined in the fun, helping me to celebrate
and taking part in some light-hearted games and competitions. I had pens specially made, with the book’s cover printed along the side, and these made lovely prizes, as well as promotional tools. The book sold well in the first few days, but sales are dropping off now, so while it’s still only 99pence, a few more buyers, and reviews, would be very much appreciated. You can view it, and buy it, from Amazon by clicking right here.
On the short story front, my output has dropped quite considerably while I have been concentrating on novels, but ‘The Sky Blanket’ was published in The Peoples Friend Special in January. This one was inspired by a fantastic knitting project that my friend Sally told me about last summer while we were both enjoying our Writers Holiday in Fishguard, Wales. You simply knit one or two rows every day, matching your wool to the colour of the sky. Result: a unique striped blanket in all manner of blues, whites, greys, pinks, etc. No two ever the same!
My story ‘Star’, giving a young girl’s view of the loss of
her dad and her mum’s remarriage appeared in Woman’s Weekly on 10th
January, and I then sold them a twist-ending story about an old lady enjoying the
tennis at Wimbledon, fully expecting them not to use it until June, but no… it
appeared in the March issue of their Fiction Special. They have since bought
another of my stories, all about the importance and meaning of names, but I am
still waiting to find out when it will be published.
A fun story about all the superstitions tied up with
weddings was my first sale to My Weekly in a long while, and that one will
appear in the magazine on 20th May. In other news... On 15th March I put on my 'competitions co-ordinator' hat and attended the SWWJ Spring tea, where all the Society's prize winners received their trophies and cheques from the fantastic judges. Here's me with Sylvia Kent who took all the lovely photos on the day. Find out more on the SWWJ facebook page or take a look at their website here.
So, moving on to the biggest news of all…
I am now very proud to announce that ‘Lily Alone’ by Vivien Brown will be published, first as an ebook on 15th June, and then as a paperback on 5th October. You can read all about it and pre-order a copy by clicking here.
I am absolutely thrilled with the wonderful cover that Harper
Collins have commissioned for this book. To me, it captures perfectly all the
poignancy and heartbreak of a tiny child who finds herself left alone with only
her teddy for company. If that cover doesn’t draw readers in I don’t know what
will!
Re-connecting with the fiction editor at My Weekly has turned
out to be a very timely and rewarding experience as she has booked me to write
a short story for the magazine to tie in with the publication of the paperback
in October. It will be my first ever short story written as Vivien Brown, and in
that one I intend to use a couple of the characters from the book and reveal a
little of their past as a taster of the main event. I’m not sure what will
happen in that story yet, but I can’t wait to find out!
