"194 Radio City - The Heart of Liverpool" book cover

Here is the final cover design. The ticket stubs, diary, letters and newspaper cuttings are all mine, collected during my teenage years as a mad Radio City fan. The large picture is of DJ Dave Eastwood with a crowd of kids (me and my friend Sharron included - Sharron is at the front on the far right and I am half hidden behind her!) which appeared in the Wallasey News in about 1978 following his appearance at an "Easter Eggstravaganza" at the Floral Pavillion in New Brighton.

Ready for Publishing at Last!

OK guys - its all complete! The cover is finished and I am really happy with it - I feel it truly encapsulates the spirit of the story. The book, as you know, has been edited and all the photographs decided upon, so its time to move on to the last stage: the publishing process.

Now I have to admit to being new to all this "Print On Demand" (POD) stuff, but from what I can gather via Lulu's website, it can all take a little time, so I must ask you to be patient. I will keep you informed as to whereabouts in the process I am, and of any hiccups I encounter along the way, so if any of you out there are thinking of using a POD publisher, you will hopefully gain a little insight into what happens.

Along with all this, I will also write (or will have written for me) a press release, and will begin contacting various newspapers, bookshops, tourist information centres, radio stations etc, to get as much coverage as possible. Anyone out there have any experience of this? Again, its all new to me.

And of course, keep coming back here to see where I'm up to. You will read it here first!

Book Cover

Well, I have been focussing on the book cover this past week. My hardworking and talented designer, Lin, has been sending me rough drafts of how the cover could look and it is all very exciting. She has had loads of ideas and it has been very difficult to decide - but I think I have reached a decision. Everything seems much more real to me now that the final editing process has been completed and I can visualise what it will all look like.

All I can say now is..... WATCH THIS SPACE!

Fire and snow

What a week! We had a chimney fire in the middle of a blizzard 2 evenings ago, so we had to phone 999 and a flashing fire engine with 6 firemen turned up and spent an hour putting it out. What stars! I did have one of those moments, you know when someone says "In the event of a fire, what one thing would you rescue from your house?" and all I could think of was the computer/completed 194 book! Even I think that's a little sad!!

The snow looks like it will be staying around for a bit, and the car has decided to pack up again this morning, so my two boys have had another enforced school holiday and we are in effect stranded. And that of course means that the book publication is once again in limbo, but not for too long, I hope.

Unless, of course, the power decides to go off.....