Goodness! I have been so busy that I have completely forgotten my blog!

So, what has been happening in my life? Well, a friend and I went out to Bulgaria to stay in our apartment in Kosharitsa, a small village with a holiday complex near Sunny Beach. Great weather and a fun time was had by two blokes on the loose. With a pint of beer for about 60p and a quadruple Gin and tonic costing less than £2, it was great fun!

At the beginning of July my wife and I went back to the UK for the marriage of our beautiful daughter on 4th July! A good time was had by all and we returned very happy to have Joe, our daughters new husband as part of our extended family. I am very pleased to say that Joe is a fellow Geek and we can happily speak Klingon to each other about new operating systems, Android stuff and general techy things. Wonderful!

Lovely reception at Cockliffe Hall in Nottinghamshire, the weather was kind except that it rained for the evening guests which meant that we had to eat inside but that wasn't a problem.














The well had been running a bit dry for my next book. I had a few ideas scuttling around but couldn't tie them together to make a coherent story. So, in the meantime, I decided to create my first 'real' book using the Amazon Createspace platform. I decided to publish the 3 stories that featured my new character, Julia Moriarty as a trilogy in paperback. I found it quite easy to do, the three word docx. were combined into one and then the front papers were created.

   Julia Moriarty is a flaming red head so I needed a suitable image for the front and rear covers. I searched Flickr for a suitable image as it is a great resource for public domain images. I found a fabulous image that really matched my idea of Julia Moriarty. It was made using an iPhone app called "Average Face" which gives you a single image as a kind of compilation. In my case, the average of 12 images of auburn haired ladies, Beautiful! The book cover was created using GIMP, the free Photoshop type program for the Mac and the stories and the cover sent off to Createspace. About 10 days later I had a delivery of the printed proofs and so The Julia Moriarty Trilogy was born! It is now on sale as a paperback at Amazon for $7.99  Have a look here...  http://www.amazon.com/Sherlock-Holmes-Julia-Moriarty-Trilogy/dp/1500943029

I wasn't happy with the 2 black borders at the sides of the image as when the book was produced, it was not always precisely trimmed and this made the image not precisely central. To avoid this, I removed the borders.

With the new printed book on Amazon and a few copies given away to friends, I looked at what else to do. I had had an idea for a modern crime story but then I thought I might adapt it for a new Holmes story. The result of this was my latest Kindle story, Sherlock Holmes and The Bulgarian Watchmaker. Julia Moriarty doesn't feature in this one although I have purchased a domain for her and created a new web site www.juliamoriarty.com  Here I can promote my new books and also showcase the books in the trilogy.

The Bulgarian Clockmaker which was published on all the Amazon sites on the 5th November, includes a very strange custom that I found whilst I was in Bulgaria. This has has become a key element in the climax to the story. I won't reveal any more, you will have to buy the book! http://www.amazon.com/Sherlock-Holmes-Bulgarian-Clockmaker-Gillman-ebook/dp/B00PAT9OGM

Alex says that she thinks that it is the best story yet... we will see!

Last week I discovered Fiverr as a resource. It is a great place where folk offer their services in so many different categories for $5. I used it to promote my book on Facebook and I have definitely seen an increase in sales. I also purchased an intro video for The Julia Moriarty Trilogy and I think it is great. I uploaded it to You Tube and I have included it on Julia's web page. See what you think..

I think it is breath taking and only cost me $5 for the guy to customise it for The Julia Moriarty Trilogy. Brilliant!

Anyway, I'm sorry to have neglected the blog for so long. Do have a look at www,juliamoriarty.com as you can read the dramatic first chapter of The Bulgarian Clockmaker.

Dick xx