Blog Tour - and a road race
Last week I ran a 10-mile road race and finished, well not quite last, but somewhere near the end. The course was tough - two hills in the first eight kilometres followed by a long stretch looping around the island and back into town. I was running with a Sanctuary Runners T-shirt - this is an organisation which seeks to unite locals and people seeking refuge, through running together. Even though I ended up walking much of the final kilometre - 16k altogether - I was very proud of my finisher mug and since that day I have had my coffee in it every morning.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that finishing that race profoundly shifted something in me. I have finished many things - books, knitting projects, work projects - but somehow completing this has had a revolutionary effect on my self-confidence. I feel calmer about day job work, and my anxiety about sales of White Feathers (I’m doing great with reviews this time round but miserable with sales) has dissipated. I don’t feel anxious about hustling, or worrying about failure. We are all a long time dead and even if you do sell a good few, or get a multi-book deal, much of what is created now will be forgotten in a generation, or sooner. What matters to me now is to move people’s hearts, à la Princess Diana, and feedback I have received from people on the blog tour has convinced me that White Feathers has the power to do that.
I’m not stressed about it any more because I know that so much of it is an illusion: sales, publicity, festivals, hype. But heartrate, GPS, the running app don’t lie about the sheer work I did to run from the start of that race to the finish. OK, maybe GPS sometimes can be spoofed by the Russians, but I doubt Putin and his mates are that violently interested in my running route.
And about the blog tour - there will be interviews and spotlights and excerpts to tempt your tastebuds - just go here to see. Or follow the Coffee Pot Book Club on Instagram or Bluesky. (It’s also available on Elon’s Bin, but every time I go to that place the first thing I see is either the bin proprietor, or somebody screeching hate about Muslims, so I will personally give it a skip.) Here is the first post.
Anyway, have a great day - and remember sometimes it takes completing a race to realise that…it isn’t a race :)
