JO. B. CREATIVE

Author & Multi-Disciplinary Artist

Sunday, 20 July 2025

JO. B. CREATIVE!: I'M DOING IT FOR THE MONEY

JO. B. CREATIVE!: I'M DOING IT FOR THE MONEY: I'M DOING IT FOR THE MONEY! The money doesn't matter. It's just a hobby, isn't it? You're not taking it seriously, are y...
Posted by at No comments:

I'M DOING IT FOR THE MONEY

I'M DOING IT FOR THE MONEY!




The money doesn't matter. It's just a hobby, isn't it? You're not taking it seriously, are you? 

Yes it does, no it's not, and yes I am. 

People can be patronising in this author business. Maybe not intentionally but they can be. There are millions of would-be authors out there, all vying to be published and selling. Some are brilliant and deserve all the acclaim they can get, others don't quite 'cut the mustard' and don't make a single sale, or sell a couple of hundred copies if they're lucky. Personally I'm delighted to report that I'm doing rather well. 

Now that I'm on the cusp of finishing the third novel of my epic western trilogy Alias Jeannie Delaney, I'm taking it all very seriously. I always have. 

Writing, self-publishing and marketing has been an immense journey of extreme highs and dead weight lows. The highs are fleeting moments of happiness. The lows are crappy. PA hubby reads out a brilliant review (never read your own reviews) and my world becomes multicoloured for half an hour. When advertising on Amazon or Facebook he reports the growing sales numbers daily, bearing in mind that our budget isn't bottomless. When the advertising isn't working for whatever reason, my world is doom, gloom and disaster. As hubby says - finish Book 3 and marketing a complete trilogy might make a difference. Who knows? After all, I've had mentions and interviews on blogs and YouTube (below) on the first two for which I'm extremely grateful. 

I haven't done it for the fun of it, although - I hasten to add - when something does go right, I'm on a high. Not a cannabis high - just a normal high. I had to write the trilogy. The story itself at any rate. The fact that it ended up a trilogy was incidental. It never was a hobby. A hobby is a relaxing departure from daily life. This isn't. That's not to say that, as I just pointed out, I've never gained satisfaction from it because I have. As an artist I illustrated Jeannie in the dim distant past, even at school between exams in the common room in the late sixties (updating those images with graphics software recently, the results are invariably amazing) and learning those computer graphic ropes on route is rather satisfying, I find). Then I discover that readers are enjoying the story tremendously, and that's been a massive uplift. 

I don't know when it stopped being a hobby, if it ever was. The story had been in my head since I was a teenager. Since the days when I was irritated by the lack of decent roles for women in westerns during the sixties and seventies. Invariably wallflowers, victims or martyrs. I had to write the story that I wanted to read. I was a budding wild western woman - intriguing for a UK gal in the first place - and re-enacted the role of a gritty cheroot chompin', gun totin' female gold prospector. I relish the role 🤠 just as my protagonist Jeannie relishes being the fastest gun. 



KITTY LE ROY & DOC JACK COLTRANE

Years later my long suffering soulmate hubby (quack doctor Jack Coltrane to my Kitty Le Roy) and I indulged in wild west living history camps and made quite a name for ourselves among the buckskin brigade. However, my mental health took a dive and I had to remove myself from camps and take to steampunk instead. Steampunkers are known to be splendid to one another. I can do that! 


STEAMPUNK PIRATE KITTY LE ROY


Years later I've discovered and have been told that I am Jeannie Morgan. I created her as the person I wanted to be - an OTT protagonist who is everything to everyone, the answer to my emotionally neglected upbringing. I woke up one morning years ago to see our cat poking his head into our wicker washing basket. Blearily, I mumbled: "Jeannie - get off the basket!". She's always in my head. Always. 

I wrote  Jeannie's journey from birth to the age of forty-five - half a lifetime. I wanted to write the life story of a Calamity Jane character (most people know who Calamity Jane was) and the 




notion of actually doing that started when hubby and I were in our first home and, hugely embarrassed and red faced, I showed him my illustrations. I could keep it a semi secret no longer, and I hid under a pillow next door. He said: "She's sexy!" and "For goodness sake write the damn story!". So I did. It's only taken over forty intermittent years. 

I didn't actually start writing and typing until the birth of our first baby, over forty years ago, typing on a manual typewriter one-handed while bottle feeding our daughter. Shows my determination. I had post natal depression and it helped keep life tolerable. I advanced to an electric typewriter, then a computer and now a laptop. Funny to think of all that advancement - snail mail and library visiting research, and now AI. Wow!

The plot of Alias Jeannie Delaney had to be credible. Properly researched. I wanted a fair bit of humour to add texture to the narrative and as a counterbalance to no-quarters-held blood and guts. I could write - I always came first or second in English Language in school exams and I had many anecdotal articles published in various UK periodicals. I was more than capable, and the quality of my writing improved in leaps and bounds. So much so that my editor called it 24 carat writing, and she should know. She was the first professional to endorse the writing I'd kept under wraps forever. 

I wanted the narrative to contain elements of  Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Little Big Man. The humour of the former and a life story in the latter. I wanted a classic western starring a charismatic tough n' rough pants-wearing cowgirl who's the fastest gun west of the Mississippi, and she does everything the boys do. My closest role model is Sharon Stone in The Quick and the Dead. Jeannie was, and still is, way ahead of her time. Apart from the obvious, the difference is that she possesses bags of style in both appearance and personality. 

My PA hubby is my marketeer. The first two novels were published on Amazon two years and one year ago. I've accrued over one thousand three hundred and seventy readers and approaching fifty 5 star reviews and ratings. That's brilliant for such a niche subject. Marketing involves creating artwork on graphics software. I've become quite proficient. 

A friend suggested I place an advert on the notice board in one of our local towns in Hampshire. Bless her but no - Jeannie is bisexual, the story contains graphic (mostly tasteful and relevant sex scenes), and it's a western, so there's a fair amount of violence and blood. I don't think the majority of middle class Brits in this part of our world would go for it. Having said that, hubby's old boss, a delightful man in his eighties, loves my story! Who'd have thought? I warned him about it but he still went for it. Both he and my friend, plus many others in the western hemisphere are waiting patiently for Book 3. 

All I need to do now is plough through the second stage of editing with hubby and our allotted reader, come up with a title for Book 3, and create a cover based on one of my illustrations for my designer to work on. 

Small tasks, you understand. It'll take a while and God knows how I'll feel emotionally when I'm done. Let's not worry about that just yet. 



                                                                  YOUR ESTEEMED AUTHOR 
               





ALIAS JEANNIE DELANEY - THE STORYLINE     


Dynamic pants-wearing cowgirl Jeannie Morgan is the fastest gun west of the Mississippi. Upon discovering that her sexuality is as fluid as a miner's whiskey & both men & women enjoy her magnificent lovemaking, she feels as though she's been trampled by a cattle stampede. 

She's born in vibrant New Orleans in 1865 & strongly rebels against the upbringing of a Victorian girl. The family head west where she finds her true calling on her Pa's ranch. She also discovers with relish that her skill with a gun is lethal. The explosive combination of her tomboy beauty, her powerful  charisma, her sexuality & her lethal gun all go against her. People are calling for her dismissal & even her death. Will it be a case of kill or be killed?

IF YOU'VE READ & ENJOYED THE STORY SO FAR, I'D BE INCREDIBLY GRATEFUL IF YOU COULD LEAVE A POSITIVE REVIEW ON AMAZON. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

P.S I'M ON ROUTE TO THE 2ND STAGE OF EDITING ON BOOK 3! 





Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)