Introduction
This collection is a collection of seventy stories, each 280 words. They were inspired by the first picture seen on my Twitter feed on a given day.
43. New Book
Gaynor opened the package as quickly as they could. Why did they always have to make them so difficult to open? Then at last there it was. She'd seen the cover before but it looked better in the flesh. What a clever design.
She opened it randomly. She recognised the words. They were hers. Yet they seemed to have been written by women else now that they were single-spaced and a 8" by 5" book. It even smelt good.
The launch would be in ten days’ time. The local bookshop had ordered fifty copies. Her sister Suzy was baking a cake to look like the book. She was supplying some wine and other nibbles. She had a brand new frock and she'd invited over 200 people. They'd never all get in. Someone would come, though, surely?
She sniffed the book once more and them put it down. Now she had to work on social media. She knew she mustn't say "Buy my book, buy my book". She'd got to think of all of those ways of enticing people to read without explicitly saying that they must buy the book. She had a few guest blog posts to do. That might start the ball rolling.
What if she got bad reviews, though? Or no reviews? Which was worse, bad reviews or no reviews, or even perhaps the thought that people were only posting good one because they were her friend?
Why had she done this?
Her phone rang. Sally. Gaynor's tummy flipped. She knew Sally had started reading the book the day before. The Kindle version had come out earlier.
She accepted the call.
"Fabulous," said Sally. "Absolutely yummy. Well done."
About the author
Gill James is published by The Red Telephone, Butterfly and Chapeltown.
She edits CafeLit and writes for the online community news magazine: Talking About My Generation.
She teaches Creative Writing and has an MA in Writing for Children and PhD in Creative and Critical Writing.
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