A little history

The girls have persuaded me that I should reiterate why I seem to be able to write books almost as fast as Barbara Cartland. First, I have to make clear that 'the girls' are the characters in my books. I've taken to letting them speak for themselves on their Facebook pages. You will either think this is cute and quite good fun - or that I'm potty. Either way, I've been able to fight off feelings of schizophrenia - for the moment at least.
So, lots of book, so little time. I began writing quite a few years ago, basically just to see if I could. About four or so years ago I decided that maybe I could get stuff published, make a fortune, and retire to the Bahamas. Then began the submission process with lots of rejections, until about three years ago around this time, just before Christmas, I got accepted by a publisher called Little Acorn Press. Flushed with sucess, I continued writing. 'Lisa' expanded to a trilogy, and 'Saskia' spilled over into 'Saskias' and then 'Valley of Light'. As these new books were finished I sent them to LAP one by one and got back very encouraging messages - but the original books didn't appear in print. Eventually it began to be obvious that all wasn't as it seemed. It also became apparent that there were others in the same boat I was in, books submitted but nothing published. We all gave the benfit of the doubt and continued to wait, apart from a couple of writers who got cross and wanted to cancel contracts. At that point it all got a little ugly, involving Trading Standards and even the police at one point. Thankfully, I managed to get contracts cancelled and all the rights to the books reasigned to me. Despite having burned fingers, I tried again. This time the books are out there for everyone to read. Because I'd continued to write while waiting for the original publisher, I had a backlog of books more or less ready for the off. I've 'released' them quite slowly really, but still rather quicker than would have been the case if I'd been writing from scratch, so to speak. The upshot of all this is that it will now take longer for each new book to appear as after 'America' (almost done) I have to write the things first.
And the fortune and the retirement plan to the Bahamas? Still waiting and hoping.
Ian B.