I must be good

 Better than Average

According to my good friend and editor, Julia, who knows a lot about publishing. A self-published writer can only hope to sell about 250 copies of their books, so my 1,000 e-book sales for the Forgestriker series were way over the odds for sales.

On another tack, but remaining on topic; I must be good as two writers I had contact with attacked me online to keep people from reading what I wrote.

The first instance came in 2012 when the book shown above became an award winner. A person I used to chat online to, decided that my work was so exciting she had to sabotage it by trashing the book on every book site she had contact with, a little puerile for a lady in her mid-60s don't you agree. But, people do odd things when they feel threatened.

The second incident occurred about eight years ago, here in Bristol, against my better judgment I decided to tackle my phobia of public speaking head-on. I hadn't spoken in public since my college days, and then only in an exam.

To say I was apprehensive about the evening is putting it mildly, I was terrified, but the evening at the book club went well, and my talk was well received. What followed can only be described as a witchhunt, followed by a kangaroo court.

Because I reposted a Facebook post against dog-fights, the leader of the group took it wrong, and said I was in favor of the horrendous activity - as an animal lover I abhor these crimes - but, he would not believe me and started a hate campaign against me. After being invited back to the meeting, the next thing I heard was the group wanted nothing to do with me. I was tried, and convicted with no opportunity to defend myself because of the actions of one man.