Are you 'Hilary'?

Another recycled blog.   It's the end of August 2013, I'm back at the CAB and 'Severe Discomfort' is still stubbornly avoiding commercial success.  But those of my colleagues who've read it have a few questions...  (Contains no significant 'spoilers')


Would you buy a used book from this woman?

Apologies to the spud geeks who were expecting a post on the subject of this year's especially colourful new additions to the tater plot, but another 'plot' entirely has stolen their thunder, as I've unexpectedly won a useful little bit of publicity for my books, with an impending article on the 'Big Book, Little Book' review site, as this link will show...
http://www.completelynovel.com/articles/selfpubsunday-promotion

A big 'thank you' to the Completelynovel team for giving me this chance!

I say 'unexpectedly' advisedly, as I'm actually pretty hopeless at conventional self-promotion.  Okay, so I'm on Facebook and Linkedin, and I write a blog or two, but what 'image' do I present?  On here (http://sarahhoneysettsgarden.blogspot.co.uk/), I celebrate my failures as much as my successes - crap carrots, saucy-shaped rather than prizewinning potatoes, crops ravaged by caterpillars and slugs, while my most read post isn't about anything I've grown at all, but the accidental narcotics that sprouted up in a friend's garden.  While other people select professional smart-suited head and shoulders shots for their Linkedin pic, I've been using the one above of me in tatty overalls scraping peeling paint and rust off of the roof of a narrowboat.  It's a nice photo of me, with a bright, cheery smile, but when it comes to promoting that professional image, I'm wondering if it's ideal for someone not specifically seeking work renovating canal boats! 

And I'd be surprised if it works that well as the public image of an author, which is a shame as it's the one I've been using for CompletelyNovel and Amazon.  To be fair, I do have the outline of a narrowboat-based drama sketched out (with my Stoke-based Geordie feminist Daphne Randall taking the helm), but until that's more than the scrawly contents of a notebook, the current 'image' is an epic fail, and that day is some way off as I haven't finished with the Solent Welfare Rights Project gang just yet (though I do have a 'cunning plan' for releasing their next adventures sooner rather than later).

The original stories are picking up a small but select fanbase at work, which is both encouraging and occasionally disconcerting.  A couple of days ago a colleague asked me quietly, "Are you Hilary?".  I didn't know whether to be flattered - as Hilary is intelligent, assertive and 'really rather' glamorous - or to 'Plead the Fifth' as they say in the USA, on account of her (ahem!) inappropriate use of National Trust membership!  In fact, I've had a quite a few raised eyebrows on account of the 'naughty bits' in the second book, which isn't what anyone expects from me - but isn't not judging people by appearances a key theme of the books?

But no, I'm not Hilary, though as we're both 'ladies of a certain age' who've worked in benefits advice for the same amount of time and were students in coalfield cities during the Miners' Strike, we do share a few opinions and a little bit of history, though I share a lot more studied 'history' with fellow medievalist Tom Appleby.  There's common ground between me and some of my other characters too: when I stood on the Milton Road End terraces at the old Dell cheering on the Saints, a young Toby Novak could easily have been at my side, while the way Vaughan James' garden quietly invades his kitchen is something we share. 


A little more literary.  Sarah at Tate Modern (with tea, and Jon's hat)

The closest match, and the one I own up to in the preface, is Sally Archer, who has a great deal in common with my younger self, including spectacular clumsiness, an interest in everything and a knack for passing exams, awkwardness about her height, a truly dreadful singing voice and a carbon footprint significantly smaller than her actual footprint - I do indeed possess a pair of size 10 safety boots!  But my Dad was a train driver not a builder, and has great financial sense too.

 

There are times when the truth is stranger than fiction, though.  A west country newspaper recently told of a man wrongly taken to court by the DWP for benefit fraud when a medical report showed his right leg had recovered from an injury, and they took this as evidence he had lied about his mobility difficulties - completely overlooking the fact that his left leg had been amputated! 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-23771631

Meanwhile, in a real advice centre somewhere in North Staffordshire, I wandered into one of the staff loos yesterday and found the previous occupant had left a book called 'Quiet Enjoyment' sitting by the pan!  It's a housing law book, in case you didn't guess, though if anyone is after a title for a book set in a Housing Advice Centre...? 

Still, better 'Quiet Enjoyment' in the WC than 'Severe Discomfort'!