Lynn Roach
Published Books
Living in the Lap of the Gods (Oct 22) BUY ON AMAZON = https://amzn.to/3DctPXT
Who are you? Tell us a little about yourself...
My name is Lynn Roach. I live in a beautiful part of the world in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales. A very short walk from my house is the sea, the Bristol Chanel. When I was a small boy, my grandmother would take me for a walk down the beach and tell me stories that were told to her by her father, as he was a captain of an ocean-going ship. These stories led to me buying a yacht, where I followed my dream and went to sea, sailing across the Atlantic on a 40ft classic wooden yacht with no engine. My book “Living in the Lap of the Gods” is the story of my adventure.
Even today at the age of 64, I still walk down to the beach, find a rock to sit on and look for inspiration while I watch the tide go in and out. Looking out to sea, I still daydream of far-off places.
What book are you most proud of?
“Living in the Lap of the Gods”. There is only one book in me. Being dyslexic, to this day I still do not understand the difference between “where” and “were”. Writing this book took me years. I started to write my story in 2003 as handwritten notes. My handwriting is absolutely terrible. Add to this very poor spelling and no grammar at all, and the only person who could read my notes was my mother. Eight years ago, my mum typed out the first draft of my story. Between the two of us, I expanded the story. Mum read and corrected the spelling and grammar until we were happy with what we had. Confident I had the final story, I gave a copy to my best mate Bowmer, who trashed it, pointing out tense, first person, third person and a lot of other poor English mistakes which I knew nothing about, due to me being dyslexic. So, with the help of Bowmer and my mother, we corrected these mistakes over the course of two years, until I was happy with what I had.
What made you want to work with Rowanvale and be published?
In my trade as a toolmaker, I work to a very close tolerance of .001 of an inch. So, the job has to be right. Miss the tolerance and the job is scrap.
For me to publish the book, it had to be right. I had taken the book as far as I could, so I needed professional help. This is where Rowanvale Books came in. In the modern world we live in, if your book has spelling and grammar mistakes on every page, it will be trashed on social media. Rowanvale Books made sure my book was the best it could be, and I am very happy with the end result.
What is the best part of being an author?
The best part is people stopping you in the street or talking to you at the bar and asking questions about the book. I am lucky the book has been well accepted with a lot of 5-star reviews. The worst side of being an author is the waiting. Nothing happens quickly in the book world. You wait months for the book to be published. Then you wait for people to buy it. Then you wait for people to review it. Then you do some marketing and then you wait to see the results of it all over again. It can also be very frustrating waiting to see sales figures for the book. My book is available on Amazon as an eBook in 192 countries in the world, so it was a bit depressing to see I had only sold eleven books in the first quarter.
What's next for you?
More marketing to try to get the book exposed to more people via social media, the local paper and the yachting magazines, so hopefully, I will have sold more than eleven eBooks by the next quarter.
Living in the Lap of the Gods (Oct 22) BUY ON AMAZON = https://amzn.to/3DctPXT
Who are you? Tell us a little about yourself...
My name is Lynn Roach. I live in a beautiful part of the world in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales. A very short walk from my house is the sea, the Bristol Chanel. When I was a small boy, my grandmother would take me for a walk down the beach and tell me stories that were told to her by her father, as he was a captain of an ocean-going ship. These stories led to me buying a yacht, where I followed my dream and went to sea, sailing across the Atlantic on a 40ft classic wooden yacht with no engine. My book “Living in the Lap of the Gods” is the story of my adventure.
Even today at the age of 64, I still walk down to the beach, find a rock to sit on and look for inspiration while I watch the tide go in and out. Looking out to sea, I still daydream of far-off places.
What book are you most proud of?
“Living in the Lap of the Gods”. There is only one book in me. Being dyslexic, to this day I still do not understand the difference between “where” and “were”. Writing this book took me years. I started to write my story in 2003 as handwritten notes. My handwriting is absolutely terrible. Add to this very poor spelling and no grammar at all, and the only person who could read my notes was my mother. Eight years ago, my mum typed out the first draft of my story. Between the two of us, I expanded the story. Mum read and corrected the spelling and grammar until we were happy with what we had. Confident I had the final story, I gave a copy to my best mate Bowmer, who trashed it, pointing out tense, first person, third person and a lot of other poor English mistakes which I knew nothing about, due to me being dyslexic. So, with the help of Bowmer and my mother, we corrected these mistakes over the course of two years, until I was happy with what I had.
What made you want to work with Rowanvale and be published?
In my trade as a toolmaker, I work to a very close tolerance of .001 of an inch. So, the job has to be right. Miss the tolerance and the job is scrap.
For me to publish the book, it had to be right. I had taken the book as far as I could, so I needed professional help. This is where Rowanvale Books came in. In the modern world we live in, if your book has spelling and grammar mistakes on every page, it will be trashed on social media. Rowanvale Books made sure my book was the best it could be, and I am very happy with the end result.
What is the best part of being an author?
The best part is people stopping you in the street or talking to you at the bar and asking questions about the book. I am lucky the book has been well accepted with a lot of 5-star reviews. The worst side of being an author is the waiting. Nothing happens quickly in the book world. You wait months for the book to be published. Then you wait for people to buy it. Then you wait for people to review it. Then you do some marketing and then you wait to see the results of it all over again. It can also be very frustrating waiting to see sales figures for the book. My book is available on Amazon as an eBook in 192 countries in the world, so it was a bit depressing to see I had only sold eleven books in the first quarter.
What's next for you?
More marketing to try to get the book exposed to more people via social media, the local paper and the yachting magazines, so hopefully, I will have sold more than eleven eBooks by the next quarter.
