Last week’s post took a detour, not least because life has been hectic but I also wanted to share the love (and good karma) I was feeling. Yes, my next book is almost ready for promotion and the release date is set for July 6th, 2013. Of course no writer achieves this single-handedly, hence the ‘love’ I was feeling from some great friends who read early drafts and give me feedback. Also a fab bunch of reviewers who have joined in to share some pre-release info in June! There’s more to come on that in the next few weeks, but today I’d like to introduce you to Ceri:

That brings me onto my next topic. I spend a third of my week having fun with a very active and bright two and a half-year old. It helps keep me sane and also gives me a break from the keyboard, but it is tiring and reminds me that young mums work VERY hard. When it comes to sending out positive karma I like to think I’m sensitive to other people and am understanding when strangers have ‘off days’. You never know the reason behind the mood. However, one rather elderly man decided to park next to me in the supermarket car park as I was about to get out. Of course there were no child parking bays free. He parked so close that I could barely get my passenger door open enough to lean in, let alone lift out a toddler or even my handbag. I smiled at him and tapped on his window (I was sandwiched in the nine inch space between the two cars, shuffling sideways and I couldn’t bend my legs to drop to eye level. If he’d moved forward two inches he would have hit off my wing mirror). He wound his window down and I said ‘Would you mind just reversing up so I can get the little one out. I’ll only be a moment.’ What followed was a string of verbal abuse. He shot backwards out of the space and parked elsewhere. The reality of the situation was that he wouldn’t have been unable to get out of his own car anyway, as he was rather portly. On reflection I decided he became upset because he realised that and felt embarrassed. Note to self: if no child bay is available, drive around until you can find somewhere to park where someone else can’t restrict the passenger door!

Whether it was sheer luck, friends, a happy reader or karma – a message on Facebook alerted me to the fact that The Quintessential Gemini has been nominated for the eFestival of Words Best of the Independent eBook Awards 2013. I was thrilled, but when I saw the other nominees it was a bit of a ‘gulp’ moment! Having recently interviewed the incredibly successful Steena Holmes for Lifestyle emag and adoring Talli Roland, who is a role model for so many new authors, I felt over-awed! Just to have been nominated is an incredible ‘first’ for me as a writer and a HUGE thank you to the person who put my novel forward. Good luck to all of the nominees in the next round!

Best Chick Lit/Women’s Literature

When Horses Had Wings by Diana Estill
You Wish… by Terry Tyler
Secrets & Lies by Tracy James Jones
The Quintessential Gemini by Linn B Halton
Live from the Road by P.C. Zick
Aunt Sally & More by Flick Merauld
The Pollyanna Plan by Talli Roland
Fall of The Misanthrope by Louise Wise
Finding Emma by Steena Holmes
A Different Witch by Debora Geary
Angel by Mary E. Kingsley

The Quintessential Gemini now proudly sports its’ new badge and I have to say that it was such an amazing boost. Having recently celebrated the fourth anniversary of sitting down to write the first word of my debut novel, Touched By The Light, this was a very proud moment!

If that wasn’t enough excitement, the novel I released in January 2013, Never Alone, has also been floating in and out of the top 100 Paranormal romance charts on Amazon.co.uk with the highest entry at no. 51 and briefly entered the Amazon.com top 100 at 98, too! Again, an author friend emailed me to let me know and suggested I put it on ‘special’ to keep the impetus rolling. It’s advice like that which makes all the different to someone who is still very new. And yet at times I feel like I have been doing this forever, simply because it’s been four years of working every single day that I don’t have a family commitment, and often working late into the night. I’m not complaining, it’s par for the course, but when something does ‘come right’ the thrill is unbelievable. So if you are one of the people who downloaded Never Alone recently – virtual hugs to you! The support from friends, family and readers has spread the word and I’m touched. It’s on special at 77p/$1.20 until the end of May, or longer if demand is there – click here for the buy links: https://linnbhalton.co.uk/never-alone-promotion/

Another ‘first’ that delighted me was a visit to WG2E – a website I’ve followed and admired greatly for quite a while. D.D. Scott is one of the founders and a celebrated author in her own right. Click on the screen short to read the interview in full

 At the moment my  head is full of angels; Ceri’s journey: Angels has required a lot of research and I’m already working on part 2 of this three part series, Ceri’s journey: Truth. The thought processes required are quite intense. I do find it difficult at times to break off from a long explanation about how angels administer their good works, in order to clean the house ready for a viewing! Whilst it is a story about the pursuit of love, the subject matter will make readers think about how this life might slot into a much bigger picture. So I’ll leave you this week with one thought:

Until next week, this is one Gemini signing out to get on with some work… Thanks for dropping by and sharing my personal journey.

Another CRAZY week for me with hardly time to draw breath, not least some thoughts about moving house… and the excitement of that thought is quite a buzz, but first:

A trip to the London Book Fair meant a fab day out with friends and fellow authors Mandy Baggot (who is also with Sapphire Star Publishing) and Sue Fortin. Thrilled to meet up with fabulous authors Sue Moorcroft, Christina Courtenay and Henriette Gyland for a quick chat and a welcome sit down after visiting the Choc Lit stand.

Attended some great talks, including a fun and informative one with Mel Sherratt and Tim Cooke, who talked about their self-publishing success with Amazon KDP.

A fun, although tiring, day – included meeting up with Helen Hart on the Silverwood Books stand and admiring WWII fiction author Harvey Black’s new covers. Another brief rest and a cuppa to put stickers on our books for the ‘Books On the Underground’ scheme, the brainchild of Hollie Belton. These trademark stickers tell recipients to take the books donated and read them at home, then put them back on the tube to spread the reading love.

Fellow Sapphire Star Publishing author Dana Mason handed me The Sunshine Award, a lovely sunny flower that bloggers give to other bloggers “who positively and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere”. She is one amazing and talented lady and I was thrilled to ‘receive’ my flower badge. Visit Dana’s wonderful website http://danamasonromance.com/the-sunshine-award/.So now I have to answer a few questions:

Favorite Color: Green – light green, dark green, pastel, vibrant … you get the message!
Favorite Animal: My cat, Mr Tiggs of course! He’d be very upset if I didn’t nominate him.
Favorite Number: Five. Fives and multiples always feel comforting, although no. 13 is my lucky number.
Favorite Non-alcoholic Drink: Apple juice, or any juice to be honest.
Facebook or Twitter: I stumble around blindly on both – so 50/50.
Your Passion: Feeling fulfilled by surrounding myself with things that matter and making other people happy (when I can…).
Giving or getting presents: I’m not big on presents – but giving, always.
Favorite Day: Any day I can get a bit of a lie-in, which isn’t often.
Favorite Flowers: Roses, especially the old varieties that have a wonderful perfume.

And now I nominate 12 author bloggers whom I love to visit:
Patricia Sands http://patriciasandsauthor.com/
Bonnie Trachtenberg http://www.bonnietrachtenberg.com/bonnies-blog
Sue Fortin http://lovereadinglovebooks.wordpress.com/
Kit Domino http://kitdomino.wordpress.com/
Sheryl Browne http://www.sherylbrowne.com/
Nicky Wells http://nickywellsklippert.wordpress.com/
(I know you’ve been nominated already, but you truly deserve it)

Janice Horton http://janicehortonwriter.blogspot.co.uk/
Emma Calin http://www.emmacalin.com/Welcome.html
Stephanie Keyes http://www.stephaniekeyes.com/the-blog/
Miriam Wakerly http://miriamwakerly.blogspot.co.uk/
Anneli Purchase http://wordsfromanneli.wordpress.com/
Melanie Robertson-King http://www.melanierobertson-king.com/wp02/

In contrast, my fun days with little Bill included digging up the garden several times over and filling up a watering can with soil, then tipping it back out. Just for the fun of it. It was nice to enjoy the sunshine and whilst it wasn’t ‘hot’, it wasn’t unpleasant being out in the air and wrapped up warmly. A few games of kicking a football around the garden and then back indoors to get out ‘Bob-Bob’ (Bob the builder) toys. We assembled at least half a dozen different train layouts for Thomas The Tank and numerous building block towers that were knocked down within seconds. Sort of puts the rushing around I do into perspective. Simple pleasures are the best!

I had a fab day out with my brother buying furniture for the lovely little cottage he’s been renovating. We filled half a van within about an hour, which is pretty good going. Oak framed mirrors, stools for the new kitchen, oak side tables and some lovely garden containers. Then off to check out scatter cushions for the new sofas that are arriving in a few days. Of course, with browsing, travelling and a great pub lunch it was a whole day, but we had fun. That’s what put me in the mood for thinking about a new project of our own… seems Lawrence has now caught the moving bug too (although we LOVE Byre Cottage and have only just finished renovating it…) but we’re viewing some properties this coming weekend. So who knows?

I hope your week was fun, productive and full of the joys of spring too!

How was your week? Mine was another week of mad variety…
When the latest edition of the RNA Romancematters magazine came through the letterbox I settled down with my coffee… and spluttered!

Standing in between the lovely Liz Fenwick and great friend Mandy Baggot, I recognised that face! It was the annual RoNA awards that we attended in February and my first time at an RNA event, so I was very glad to accompany the talented Lady B. There were faces I recognised and the atmosphere was amazing. Of course, Richard and Judy were there presenting the awards and Jane Wenham-Jones was the enthusiastic compare for the evening. The wine did flow and the nibbles were mouthwatering – but it was all about the award winners and Sophie Kinsella received the RNA’s Outstanding Achievement Award. A night to truly remember!

It was a week in which I joined my great friend and fellow author, Richard F Holmes, for Cultural Cocktails on Blog Talk Radio with the bubbly and wonderful host, Janice G Ross. It was two hours of fun and I love listening to Richard’s life story, which is uplifting – aside from the fact that he’s an amazing medium and healer.

Janice is, herself, an author and she writes about social issues and personal experiences. Her debut novel series is entitled Damaged Girls.

It’s about the type of life many of us might not know exists, and which many of us might not WANT to admit exists. Find out more about Janice on her website: Cultural Cocktails and follow her on Twitter: @JGRWriter. We covered astral travelling, spiritual growth, psychic experience and much, much more! There was a LOT of laughter and two hours flew by… Janice is threatening to invite us back!

If you have two hours spare, here’s the link to the show : http://www.blogtalkradio.com/culturalcocktails/2013/04/06/saturday-cocktails

Not quite on a par with the RNA event, but still huge fun is the Arlingham ‘Love My Books’ club, which meets once a month in the local village hall. Julie sent through her wonderfully penned piece about it for me to forward to the local parish magazines. We don’t read set books but instead talk about a ‘topic’, which was ‘a fictional character you either love or hate.’ It ranged from Hercule Poirot to James Bond … One thing I will say is that if you don’t have a local book club, do start one up as it’s a great way to meet people and you won’t believe where the conversation will take you … I’m still recovering from the meeting in which we discussed the Vagina Monologues – the laughter almost raised the roof!

A week of very diverse emails – from an unexpected offer of a ticket to The London Bookfair, to should I ‘paint or varnish’? The answer was paint of course. It’s a small space within an old cottage and keeping everything white will ensure the space doesn’t feel closed-in. I discovered a previously over-looked email from Linked In congratulating me on being in the top 1% most endorsed in United Kingdom for Creative Writing. I immediately felt an ‘oh dear’ moment as my conscience tells me I don’t spend enough time getting to know my way around many of the social media website I’m on. I might have a presence, but that doesn’t mean I really understand how it all works or use it to its full effect. So thank you to anyone who endorsed me and sorry if I’ve left someone out… I try to reciprocate and hope I’m doing it right, but one day I will sit down and suss it out properly!

Time with the little ones? Well this time it was three of them – aged 4, 2 and nearly six months. It’s a mega 7 hours travelling time so we have to set off early – 6am, as we make the journey to North Wales and back in a day. Whilst we had seen a few snowflakes in Gloucestershire, we were very surprised to see large areas of the countryside covered in what must have been quite a snowfall. It made for some wonderful sights, but as we drew closer to Rhyl it petered out and the sun appeared! We had a fabulous day –  chaos ensued of course, but everyone managed to get fed, played with, and passed around for cuddles. With two boys and a girl, I think Lily (being in the middle), is going to be a tomboy. As you can imagine, with that age-span it’s toy heaven with everything from rattles to a fort. So plenty of crawling around on the floor. And a heavenly lunch of homemade beefburgers made by four year-old Charlie! Seasoned to perfection.

Guilty pleasures? I cut back on the chocolate again, well summer is coming, and concentrated on some late night pinning on Pinterest. Two new boards – Great things to buy:

Following an exchange on Twitter I found a great website offering some colourful and fun storage solutions. You choose your design and your style – try it, it’s fun and a great solution whether it’s for the kiddies rooms or to pretty up your office space! Check them out on Twitter: Stakk Home Storage @Stakk2012 and their website: http://www.stakk.co.uk/shop/ . Get the kids to choose their own!

Then there was Naturally… I’m a great believer in having crystals in the house for their healing and calming properties. I recently purchased two new ones to put at the head of our bed. The master bedroom is a converted hayloft and a beam literally runs the length of the room directly above the bed. Now Feng Shui followers will know that’s not good karma. So the crystals help divert any negative energy created by the fact that the beam more or less ‘divides’ the bed lengthways. I’m happy to say it’s working and there’s no negative energy at play! That was my inspiration for my ‘all things natural, beautiful and uplifting’ board – so check it out if you like crystals, herbs, healthy and natural things…

I thought I’d also reflect on ‘life lessons’ I’ve learnt this week:

Lesson 1: Saying ‘no’ isn’t a bad thing if saying ‘yes’ means you can’t do something properly because you are over-loaded. People who care about you will understand.

Lesson 2: Children look at life quite simply; maybe there are times when we need to do the same.

If you want to tell me what you’ve learnt this week, maybe we can share the advice – this is my year of working smarter and not harder and I have a LOT to learn…

Well, the ‘hard’ full moon of 27 March came and went. Angry planets in opposition are never a good sign so, yes, there were a few complications but life is never straightforward, is it? Often it’s a case of lending a listening ear, adjusting the plan, or picking yourself up and dusting yourself off. A hint of sadness remains for a couple of problems I heard about, but with which I couldn’t help, only sympathise. Being a Gemini isn’t always easy when you want to fix every problem you come across!

This week involved a lot of finger puppet theatre – how many unique voices can YOU create? It was Miss Red Riding Hood in a squeaky, girly voice and the three pigs ranged from gruff, to extremely gruff. With an audience of one, a two and a half year-old, you would think it would be easy, wouldn’t you? But no, this little one takes things very seriously (aside from our session on the bouncy Castle at Cheeky Monkeys, when I had to bounce equally as high) and is quite discerning when it comes to the ‘right’ sound. I did much better when it came to reading Thomas the Tank. Train voices seem to come naturally to me…

Easter was a mix of family things and work. With a ‘to do’ list the size of a neatly wound toilet roll, there was no slacking and the bonus was that I had someone there to make me coffee whenever I began to flag! Easter eggs and fun were abundant, but I also managed to fit in two very long work days. Loveahappyending morphing into Loveahappyending Lifestyle Magazine was a major change for the whole group. I felt a bit like Bob The Builder ‘Can we do it?’ and everyone replied ‘Yes, we can!’ Well, six weeks after the changeover and the articles keep coming. The variety of content is amazing, but developing the website and bringing the sister website, the LLm Bookshelf, more in line with the new logo and ethos all takes time. To celebrate the changes, our March Newsletter featured an interview with best-selling author Daniela Sacerdoti and wonderful book reviewer DizzyC. I’m now lining up the next interview due out on 27 April 2013 – exciting!

I began work on the Lifestyle downloadable emag, which will be available three times a year. At the moment it’s still the biggest task on my ‘to do’ list, but I made a start and am working on the first cover. It’s a brave new step, so I’m going to do three covers and will be canvassing opinion.

Part of the holiday weekend involved some quality time with my lovely husband and a few walks alongside the river Severn, checking out the sheep and the first signs of spring.

Our ‘treat’ was to begin watching the boxed sets of Downton Abbey my other half bought me for Christmas. Our first session began at 9pm on Good Friday and it was hard to turn the TV off and not say ‘just one more’…

For me it was quite thrilling as I seldom have time to sit in front of the TV these days; there are just too many other things I want to be doing. So when it was live on TV I probably only caught two or three of the episodes. However, we did the same with ‘24’, ‘The Good Wife’ and ‘Lost’ – watching episodes back-to-back long after they had been aired. Not having to wait a week in between episodes is the ideal way to really appreciate a series. Sometimes ‘quality’ time is simply about sharing the simple pleasure of doing nothing and being entertained. We were both totally caught up…and now I have a Pinterest page for it, of course!

I spent a full day loading some new plugins to all three WordPress websites and finalising the static pages for both LLm and The Bookshelf. A call to have all our authors pages ready to go ‘live’ before the monthly newsletter on 27 April 2013, meant a round of sharing information/tips on how to use WordPress. I admit I’m no expert as I’m self-taught, but setting up three very different styles of website has helped me learn a trick or two. I’m always happy to share knowledge. I don’t see the point in everyone inventing the same wheel if there are shortcuts. For some of the authors and contributors it’s the first time they have used WordPress and it can be daunting. However, another round of fascinating articles went out this week and the hits have double since February, so we are all thrilled.

Manning three inboxes isn’t easy and it can be very time consuming. There are a lot of spam emails and requests to be featured on the websites. Wearing my author’s hat, I had a number of emails from very different people wanting to talk about personal psychic experiences. In particular, two people contacted me after finishing one of my novels (Touched By The light and Never Alone) to tell me how the stories had affected them. I never share detail that is given to me by other people about their personal experiences, but suffice to say for both of them there was an instant connection with some of the psychic elements in the stories. All of the experiences I include in my stories are based on things that have happened to me in the past because I think it then has greater meaning. Of course, I continue to get experiences myself and there are a few people I regularly talk to and share those moments with. It serves to remind me it’s not unusual and that helps. I might have crossed the line whereby I can say ‘I am no longer a sceptic’ but I always look at things sceptically. It’s habit. But there is a tendency to keep thinking it’s a vivid imagination, as some of the things that happen are very strange and often not witnessed by anyone else. Then, of course, there are the shared experiences and for those I’m grateful! It’s nice to know I’m not crazy…

A lovely reader who won first prize in the recent competition for the launch of Never Alone sent me a Tweet to say she had finished reading the signed paperback I had sent her.

It was a part of the ‘romance pack’ – pillow, candles and cut glass crystal tea-light holder, plus a pink heart placemat. So thank you to Johanna Whiting for a great review on Amazon:

S. Bellamywhiting reviewed Never Alone

31 March 2013

I received this book after winning a competition and I’m so glad I did as I couldn’t put it down!!!!!

It was gripping from the start, although I felt sorry for Holly, the main character, as her boyfriend Will wouldn’t win boyfriend of the year!!!!

Great UNexpected ending, definitely a re-read!!!! Congratulations Linn x

Of all the stories I have written, Never Alone is the one that stretches the reader’s imagination the most. There are lots of clues along the way, but essentially when you reach the end it becomes clear that the story isn’t quite what it seems. The way each reader will interpret how it plays out will, in part, be coloured by their own life experiences. I have really enjoyed the emails I’ve received from readers eager to tell me their interpretation, or admitting that they immediately re-read it to discover what they had missed. One lady asked me if she was ‘right’, and the answer is that there is ‘no right answer’. My own interpretation is probably a little too ‘off the wall’ to be a general opinion, but that was the fun in writing it!

I also penned two guest post articles that will be appearing in April when I visit some author friends and I’m planning a promotion for The Restaurant and The Quintessential Gemini – never a dull moment. I just wish there were more than 24 hours in a day…..

Have you started your weekly diary yet? Or maybe glanced at your stars…