Destiny Calling - Now out in Paperback!

As an author best known for adult non-fiction work, people are often surprised to learn that I have written a children's book as well. Having already appeared in eBook format, I'm pleased to announce that Destiny Calling is now available in paperback for just £5 including shipping! 

Aimed at 8 to 12-year-olds, Destiny Calling is a funny, poignant and searingly honest tale of friendship, disability, class and family life, which been compared to the work of Jacqueline Wilson and has received glowing reviews from parents, children and teachers.

Beth, the 10-year-old protagonist of the book is a normal British girl living with her annoying older brother and parents, except for one difference - the family have all had to adapt to Beth's dad being in a wheelchair. This part of the book was inspired by my work as a carer for people with disabilities, especially those with spinal cord injuries.

Dad was in a car crash. I might as well say that now because you'll probably work it out sooner or later. I don't like talking or thinking about the crash, but I suppose I should explain why he's in a wheelchair, otherwise you might think he was one of those people who was always in a wheelchair, but he wasn't. His legs worked fine until the crash two years ago and now they don't work at all.

The characters of Beth and her brother Jez came about from my observations of children dealing with disabilities of a loved one. Adults' first reaction to wheelchairs or physical deformities is to become awkward, stiff and pretend everything is normal. What I liked about the children I met was that they had not yet acquired that ability to mask their reactions to disability. They were completely natural around their loved one and simply treated the wheelchair as another piece of furniture to climb on, hang off and mess around with. It showed me how much we can learn about breaking taboos from children's unfiltered attitudes towards subjects that adults see as off-limits.

Dad can't come into a room quietly or pretend he's not there. . . You can always hear the spoke things on his wheelchair turning or the clank of it going over the doorway.

"Hello darlings," he said, opening his arms. Jez was first into them hugging dad climbing into his lap. Even though he's 12, Jez still loves to climb all over people and with dad he's always got an excuse that is fair though and when I want to sit in his lap he tells Jez to get down. Jez doesn't argue with dad. He cried more than I did when dad was in hospital.

As I clearly remember myself, the hardest part about being ten years old isn't family life, it's school and the horrendous task of trying to fit in. Fearing her classmates' stares and questions about her dad, Beth has withdrawn from socialising and now silently watches her peers having fun without her. The arrival of new girl Destiny disrupts the quiet world that Beth has built for herself; lacking in fear or self-consciousness, Destiny is so different from Beth that she's the perfect person to break through Beth's self-imposed loneliness.

She spent every lunchtime with me, and even when the other girls came over she wouldn't leave me talk to them. She'd chatter away to them perfectly friendly, but would keep one hand on my arm or elbow linked through mine to show she wasn't going anywhere. The girls would hover around, asking her questions sometimes saying a quiet hi to me and finally give up and scuttle back to the group. Every time one of them walked off and she turned back to me, I felt like I'd won a little prize.The prize of being better to spend time with than all those whispering, staring girls with their perfect dads who weren't in wheelchairs.

Destiny opens up a whole new world to Beth, showing her life beyond her comfortable middle-class existence. She becomes the first person Beth confides in about her dad's disability, and Destiny's irrepressible confidence gives Beth the strength to start coming out of her shell again. When the two friends discover an X-Factor-style wish-granting show called Destiny Calling they hatch a plan to appear on it: not to get famous, but to make Beth's dad better...

You can get your copy now for just £5, by:
- using this link
- sending the money via PayPal to catherinescott24@googlemail.com
- emailing the same address for details of how to make a BACS transfer.

So what are you waiting for?!

More things I've learned as a writer

After a summer spent trying and failing to get my children's book, 'Destiny Calling', to reach its target on Britain's Next Bestseller, and hence win that elusive publishing contract, I'm bloodied but unbowed and have decided to cut the middle man and publish it as an eBook. I'm pleased that my book is finally out there, as the BNBS campaign generated a lot of interest in it and I'm glad people can finally satisfy their curiosity and read it. However, this would not have been my ideal route. I didn't want to only put my book out digitally, as I feel that this discriminates against those who can't afford or aren't interested in purchasing an e-reader or a tablet. It leaves those who prefer physical books (still a pretty strong market) out in the cold, and as my book is a children's book, it's not going to be accessible to those kids whose households don't have e-readers and tablets.

Still, there's only so much banging one's head against a wall you can do, and trying to get 'Destiny Calling' published the traditional way meant coming up against that wall constantly. I refuse to pay to have my book published as I still hold on to a quaint belief that writers should be paid for their work, not forced to pay others to put it out there. So for now, it exists digitally, and that will have to do. Apart from the art of compromise, here's another few things I've learnt during my journey to try and publish my book on the BNBS platform:

Timing is all

Looking back, trying to generate interest in a kid's book during the summer holidays perhaps wasn't the best idea. I thought summer was prime book buying time, which it may be, but at the same time it's not prime time to get parents, teachers or children interested in a book they can't even seen yet. Asking people to pre-order your book on faith is quite a request, and you need people's full attention when you're doing it. The tight networks of parents and teachers scatter during the summer holidays, and any word of mouth you might have achieved will be severely limited. You need a captive audience - now that school is back in session, I might have a better shot at one!

Look at who has the purchasing power

Another thing I don't think I quite appreciated was the difficulty of generating interest in a children's book when it's not necessarily children who are the ones doing the buying. Generally, you have to hit the parents and hope there's a trickle-down effect, but that's easier said than done. Some parents are engaged in their children's reading habits and will seek out and buy books that they think their child would like - others will just wait to be asked. The latter strategy isn't likely to get your new book ordered, because the child isn't likely to know it exists. The age group my book is aimed at (8 - 12 year olds) is one that's generally too young to be on social media, so any promotion has to go towards adults. However, this means that anyone who's not a parent immediately tunes out, and that you're relying on parents to sift through the 57 other demands of their day and take notice of your pestering on Facebook. It's quite a gamble.

Librarians and teachers are your friends

By far the most support I got during my campaign, both in terms of willingness to publicise my book project, and willingness to order multiple copies, was from librarians and teachers. These are people who know, love and support literature. They know the constant struggle to get children to read, and they also know what children want to read, and they will give you an honest appraisal. I got fantastic feedback from the teachers and librarians who read my book, and whether it was in the form of ordering 11 copies at a time, or flyering every library in the county, I wouldn't be half as confident in the appeal of 'Destiny Calling' had I not had their support.

People are flaky

This is a bit of a rehash of a point in my last post on things I've learned as a writer, namely where I say "Everyone says they will buy your book. The ones who actually do are worth kissing all over". However, it can't be stressed enough. People want to be nice, they want to make you feel good, so they'll tell you what they think you want to hear. However, I'd prefer some honesty any day over wondering how many people are just blowing smoke up your backside by saying they'll support your work. If everyone who said to me they were going to preorder my book had done so, I would've hit the 250 target no problem. I'm sure I've failed to honour a fair few promises in my time, but generally I try not to raise anyone's expectations on false premises, and I loathe the modern convention that disorganisation, lateness and poor memory are acceptable, even lovable parts of a person, rather than character flaws. Maybe some people forgot, maybe some had no intention of ordering in the first place but thought that was too mean a thing to say. However, hand on heart, I'd rather they'd just told me "Nah, I don't fancy it" or "I'm pretty useless, it's doubtful I'll remember" than earnestly repeating "I'll preorder it tonight, I promise!"

People are great 

For all the flakes who make you want to beat yourself unconscious with your own book collection, there is a silent and fantastic faction who would rather die than shout about their generous actions, but nonetheless go ahead and do it. The amount of people who I wouldn't have even considered as possible supporters of my book yet came out of the woodwork and quietly placed their order was both astonishing and heartwarming. People I've only met a couple of times, those whose contact with me might have been limited to running into each other at roller derby games, plus total strangers, even the lady who cuts my hair - they all came out swinging for me. They believed on total faith that my writing was worth their money, and they clicked that button and showed me some love. Now that my book is actually live, the amount of people who've already ordered it and are telling me "I'm on the train, reading it now!" is also incredibly touching. It's a kid's book and yet most of those who've bought it so far are child-free adults, which I find rather lovely.

It's an interesting journey ahead and I hope it results in some success, however modest, in getting my writing to an audience wider than just the fantastic people I'm lucky enough to know. So, to that end - here's the pitch.

To order my book 'Destiny Calling', a story of family life, friendship and disability aimed at 8 - 12 year-olds, GO HERE NOW. It only costs £2 and 10% of all royalties will be donated to Wings for Life, a charity seeking a cure for spinal cord injuries.