How time slips away

How time slips away. I am now into my third week in the promotion of my book. My publicists have been concentrating on magazines last week and have had a good response. They have asked for copies of the book and photographs. This week they are concentrating on radio stations and television.
Socially it’s been a desert with only two evenings of frivolity. One at a bar called Madison’s. I call it the flaming torches bar as the flames never seem to extinguish. They have music every night and they also have a restaurant. It was a Sunday and the band was rather on the ancient side playing Jazz. However, they were great musicians. Mike who I am staying with, had a female friend along and we danced.
Later we went to the Five o’ Clock Club where we were treated to Karaoke rock. The band seemed to be playing for themselves completely drowning out the singers. It was a strange mix.
My other enchanted evening was when Mike and I went to the Flamingo Bar for happy hour and had fantastic hamburgers and wine. It was a very elegant place and some interesting people at the bar. There would be more evenings of debauchery if I had more cash but staying in America for five months is a feat financially in itself.

My First US Promotional Trip

These are exciting times for me embarking on the promotion of my first and second books. I am working with a promotions company based in New Jersey but have offices in New York, Los Angeles and London. My first book ‘An Unconventional Life’ is now on Amazon with five stars which hopefully will help with sales. My second book ‘A Smouldering Flame’ is out on Lulu.com and will shortly be on Amazon also. Both books are on many internet sites.

I arrived in the US a few days ago and have made contact with my promotions company, my campaign began yesterday. They tell me for the first week they are concentrating on magazines as they take longer to organise.

It is somewhat a nerve racking experience never having done this kind of thing before but after spending so much time and effort on writing the books they deserve the best promotion we can give. I am working with the company for six weeks and possibly longer. Will keep you posted on my progress.

"An Unconventional Life"

"An Unconventional Life" my first book was an attempt to keep sane when I was unable to continue my tennis career for a year.This was a blow having just reached the quarter final of the European Veterans Championships in Austria. Although initally I tried to include true events into my book when working with an experienced college for three months after I thought that I had finished the book, I was surprised that she advised me to take out most of the true passages as the imaginary chapters were more interesting. However, broadly speaking, there is still a lot of truth there; wrapped up in my imagination.I became so involved with my story that I continually lost track of time, finding myself still at my lap top late into the night.Writing this book has changed my life, there seems more purpose in what I am doing nowadays. I am always wondering as I finish one book where my imagination will lead me next. To order a copy please visit the Jonathan Clft website.

Tennis and laptops

As a writer I spend most of my time sitting down at my computer. So I decided that I must do something physical to ensure I had enough exercise. I had played tennis from an early age but pottering around on local tennis club courts were not challenging enough for me. Being an Aries person I have always charged ahead with all sorts of projects and always tend to take on more than I should be able to handle. So I entered the arena of the veteran’s tennis circuit world wide. If anyone thinks the circuit is just a bunch of old guys with bandages on their knees continually leaving the court to pee, think again.

You become a veteran at thirty five years old and your age groups change every five years. Consequently you are always playing with guys of about your age. After playing a few world ranking tournaments I was informed by a friend that I was in the world rankings. This was a catalyst for world travel to every tournament I could conceivably enter. However, among my tennis racquets there was always my laptop. I do massive amounts of writing at tournaments.