I found out on Thursday evening that I wasn't on the list of those who had made it through to the second round of the competition. Having invested huge amounts of time and energy into putting myself and the book out there over the last five weeks, I felt a bit flat at first. However the day after the competition results came through I suddenly felt very chirpy - as though I had an instinctive sense that the wave of energy that had swept through and galvanized me into taking all that action towards raising the book's profile had ebbed away, as it was somehow supposed to do. 

I feel very grateful to have had the opportunity to learn so much about the marketing and promotion of the book in such a short time, and feel only enriched and empowered by the whole experience (going on the radio, in particular, was an interesting trip!), and full of renewed vigour in terms of pressing on and finishing the book, at which point I'll be using these new-found strategies (bar the voting, perhaps!) to find an agent and/or publisher (hopefully some time in the not-too-distant future). I'd also like to thank everyone for their votes and interest in my project - the feedback has been invaluable, and has given me an enormous boost of confidence with which to carry on writing, and putting that positive message out there.

All of this feels very much like the beginning of my book's journey out into the world, not the end: so watch this space!! :-)