Growing…

Winter Trees at Sunset

 

To live is to grow, when we stop growing, we stop living.

Some one once asked what inspires me to write, and I told this amiable fellow, ‘life inspires me to write and when I write, I grow, I keep learning everyday!’

Life is full of mysteries and wonder, that is why writers would always have inspirations to write. I read everyday and I write everyday! Our lives would be mundane if it’s static. When asked as an old man why he still practiced six to eight hours a day, one of the world’s best violinists replied, ‘Because I think I’m getting better!’ And I think that’s the attitude we need to cultivate, the desire to be the best in whatever we do.

When I read some of my earlier works, I laugh, because I saw through my mistakes, and I quickly improve on it. I am not the same writer I was yesterday, because today, I learnt how to write better. Life is progressive, death is static. If we don’t want to learn, what the hell are we living for then?

Growing takes time… we spend our whole life growing.

When Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an old man, an admirer asked him how he was able to write so beautifully. Pointing to a nearby apple tree, he replied, ‘that tree is very old, but I never saw prettier blossoms. The tree grows a very little new wood every year, and out of that new wood those blossoms come. So I try to grow a little each year.’

What a decent man! I want to be more like Longfellow, grow like a tree, throughout my lifetime.

I hope you’re enjoying your weekend, and as we head into a new week, I hope you will have the courage and patience to learn new things, to grow like an oak and impact your world!

If any of you, my friends, recently bought one of my books, do leave a review at Amazon, or if you haven’t, do support a writer who loves the written word and click on my sidebar. ‘Tales Of Five Lies’ is less is than a dollar or a pound, ‘The Feet Of Darkness,’ is also available worldwide, online and in bookshops… My upcoming supernatural thriller, ‘Cydonia Rise of the fallen,’ will be released before Christmas. 

It’s a pleasure being your friend and I value every one of you dearly. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and have a beautiful week!

Much love, always!

🙂

 

The Life Of A Writer!

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My first novel, ‘The Impossible President,’ was published by Regency publisher in Nigeria, I invited the wife of the former Vice President then, Mrs Titi Atiku, and some governors’ wives and they came. It was a very big book launch and I made some cool money, sales was good, I sold out of my first print run! However, that was in Nigeria. When I decided to finally call the UK home, I got pregnant with my second child… she gently slipped into the world with no fuss, she is a quiet pleasant girl.

My daughter gave no fuss which gave me ample time to hone my craft, so I began work on the ‘The Feet Of Darkness’ and got in contact with Author House to see what they’ll do to help. I had a nasty experience with them! I wasn’t the only author, I think there were others like me who were fleeced off their hard-earned cash and hung to dry. Author House agreed to publish the novel and despite the fact that it was a first draft, unedited, they rushed me to complete it, they promised it would be edited! It was part of my publishing package. I did and sent it off and when the novel came out, I wasn’t happy with the result and I blamed myself for my gullibility. Things moved on rapidly and I licked my wounds to concentrate on something else but the novel stayed on my mind.

Two years later, I finished work on another novel, ‘Cydonia, Rise Of the Fallen’ (Arrow Gate would release it by summer) but ‘The Feet Of Darkness,’ sat comfortably on my shelf! Finally, I decided to re-edit and sent it off to various publishers before Arrow Gate snapped it up.

Good news? Yes, you can imagine my dismay when Amazon now placed it beside the kindle edition and the problem is, I don’t like the first edition, if I had my way I would remove it from amazon, I tried to but Author House claimed they can’t help me. To make things worse, I don’t get a dime when they sell the first edition of the paperback, the money probably goes to Author House (I’d cancelled my contract with Author House by the way)

This was the cover of the first edition, though it looked okay but mistakes abound in it! Well, I’m glad I got that off my chest, I can’t wait for the new paperback edition…

Much love friends!

🙂