DESCRIPTION: “The novella My Mirror Self, and I is an intimate exploration of a young woman’s struggle with breast cancer and depression. Described as “powerful”, “compelling”, and “uncompromising” by readers, this story puts you inside Cassie’s head as she tries desperately to find a way out.
Cassie is a small town girl with everyday dreams: a happy marriage, a fulfilling job, and eventually a family. In eighteen short months her life and hopes slide from her grasp – her marriage to David is failing, and her career prospects are fading fast. Already struggling with her isolation as depression tightens its grip, she is devastated to discover she has breast cancer…

Now Cassie has to choose. Does she let her downward spiral continue all the way to the bottom or can she find something – anything – to fight for and make her future worth living?

This novella touches on themes explored in books like Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, but it is written in a style more akin to Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads, combined with Victoria Hislop’s The Island.”

—o—

It’s been several months in the making, but I’ve finally managed to self-publish my first work. Anyone who thinks self-pubbing is the easy option either isn’t doing it right or they’ve lots of help. There’s been plenty of hard graft, as a researcher, writer, editor, graphic designer, typesetter, HTML programmer, website builder, chocolate eater, and to come: promoter and marketer. Anyone who’s been keeping an eye out won’t have seen me online as much, and this is why.

Self-pubbing is satisfying though, and not as solitary as some may think: thank you everyone who gave their precious time and valuable insights. The story is much improved from earlier versions because of your input.

I didn’t know how it would feel to have something actually finished and available. Am I overjoyed? Am I struggling with negative feelings as I have nothing to work on? I don’t know how I expected to feel but the most obvious emotions are a sense of the surreal, as technically (depending on who you talk to) I am now an author as well as a writer. There’s a huge sense of satisfaction, of seeing something worked on for so long come to fruition. Excitement? Anyone who reads writer’s blogs knows that most eBooks don’t set the world on fire, and sales figures for many writers range from meagre to ‘not bad’.

I’m more ‘cautiously hopeful’. I’ve always known Cassie wasn’t mainstream, and I hope some readers will appreciate the character focus, where I’ve taken the story, and why I’ve made some of the choices I’ve made; there’s at least two blog posts that could be written about that alone, but I can’t write them today.

I was up until 3am attempting to get the website online before this blog post, only to be informed by the host site that although the files should all be there, it can take the internet another 48 hours to get all the signposts in place so that people can actually access the web page. Currently writerandauthor.com points to my old author website. The link may be live (or broken) by the time you read this. There should be an extended free sample available there when it goes live (hopefully – the Amazon Kindle’s limited 10% doesn’t give a prospective reader much to go on).

I’m hoping at least some readers will be moved by what I’ve written, but I know not everyone will enjoy a piece like this. If you do like it, I’ll make a brazen request that you tweet it, ‘like’ it, and review it all the way into the Top 100. (I am available for blog interviews, discussions, opening supermarkets, and guest speaking at bar mitzvahs and weddings).

My Mirror Self, and I is now available on Amazon Kindle via:

Amazon.com

and

Amazon.co.uk

It was a challenge to write, it’s challenging to read – I will find out over the next few months how a writer fares when they walk a road less travelled.