Ten Pound Note is out now

It is very exciting to announce that Ten Pound Note, my second novel, has now been published on Amazon!

It does feel slightly surreal to say that I have published two books but thats where I find myself.

In the end, despite the extensive submission to 80 or so literary agents, I went for the self published approach, it was either that or wait for who-knows how long before I got the book out into the world and available to readers.

I am really proud of Ten Pound Note, its the story that has been running around in my head for the longest time, even longer that War Inc. which was the first book. Years ago I decided to try to write War Inc. first because I was so keen on the idea for TPN that I didn't want to mess it up by trying to write it as my first attempt. And on balance I think that decision was a sound one. War Inc. took 14 years, was very complicated to write and caused me a lot of stress and angst. TPN on the other hand, was written in six months and benefitted from a more structured and well planned approach.

Although I had many of the characters and the passing of the note loosely planned out, I didn't have all twelve defined and I didn't plan them beyond their main theme (gangster, drug dealer, stripper etc). Coming up with each of their personalities and their back stories was a lot of fun. Working out how they get the tenner and why they pass it on, as well as giving each of them their own story, was a challenge. But somehow it came together and ideas seemed to bloom when I needed them.

I did have an issue with the end of the story, I knew how I wanted it to wrap up and close the circle but none of my ideas seemed right to me. As I got closer to the end I was starting to worry, I even ended the story on character 11 at one point, I wrote "The End" and started the process of re-reading and editing. It was only when I got to the end that I realised it wasn't right and I needed to end it the way I had always envisaged. And as luck would have it, the perfect method for constructing the ending I wanted come to me and it ended up working perfectly.

A few people have read the book already and I have had some really positive feedback. Granted these were friendly readers (friends and family mostly), but its still encouraging to hear good feedback. I want to get the book into more hands now and to build up some credibility through reviews and ratings on Amazon and Goodreads.

Its so nice to have the book out there finally, I just need to work out what to write next now!