Dorothy Cottrell

My third book is supposed to be about Spain but, after writing over 50,000 words, I am still explaining why I ended up there in the first place. I have had a lot of world travels to describe as well. This summer I had a wonderful trip to Des Moines, Iowa to attend a wedding. I’m not sure if the holiday will make it into the book, I’ll see. I now have a second grandchild and a third one is due at the end of February.

Well, here it is. If you have accessed my website then you will see that my new book has been published. A link to buy it from Amazon will soon be on the site. I feel like sitting down and reading it again myself because I think it is so much better than the first one and I enjoyed reading it over and over while editing it. The ISBN number is 978 1 84748 299 0. So, if you would rather order it from a bookshop, you can use that number. It is not only about Miami; it includes my travels to New Zealand, Trinidad and Vancouver. All the things which happened in the school are true but I have changed a number a characters for a variety of reasons. Enjoy !

Last weekend I edited my new book for the last time. This one, which is called ‘Keeping the Dream Alive’, I really enjoy reading. Part of that is because it is set in Florida and it helps me to forget how cold it is here in Scotland at the moment. The other reason is because most of it is true, apart from the change of one character. It was difficult to live through at times but the book does bring back happy memories.

Happy New Year to you all ! Christmas and New Year were hectic this year but I did manage to spend a day on my own and I sat for over 13 hours, virtually non-stop, editing the edited copy of my new book, ‘Keeping the Dream Alive’. I am very excited at the thought of this one being published because I really like it. My mind is already turning to thoughts of the next book, the one which will be set in Scotland and Spain. What started out as therapy is turning into an enjoyable pastime !

The process has begun to publish my next book. As I do, the publishers seem to like the second book more than the first. However, the person who read it was surprised to hear that so much of it is true. I did change a lot of the characters but have tried to give a mostly true account of life inside and outside school. In about 6 months, you will all be able to judge the book for yourselves.

This morning I finished the 3rd edit of my second book and decided that it would do. It is what I wanted the first book to be – a story about a single woman who sets off to teach abroad and finds good times and bad times but the most important thing is that it is all so different from how she imagined it would be. I suppose Claire did learn lessons from her first experience and Dorothy learned lessons from her first book !

I am more than half-way through editing the second book and have added a lot to it so it is still growing. Two good friends have read the first chapter and they both agree that it is better than the first book. It really is a case of “lessons learned” !

I thought I would write a wee update about the second book. I have spent the summer – have we had a summer ? – writing my next book which is set in Miami. I got to the end of it about 10 days ago but am now doing the first edit and am adding bits to the story as I go along. It now contains 91,500 words. When I originally wrote most of the first one, a lot of it was fresh in my mind. This time, I have had to e-mail people and look a lot of things up. I have also had to keep a close eye on the dates I am writing about. I have to say I am a lot happier with this book, though, and I hope you will all enjoy it when you get to read it.

I wanted to thank all you lovely people who have read my book and have given me such positive feedback. The bad weather has kept me indoors lately which has been good for my second book which is storming along now. Thank you, too, to those of you who have ordered ‘Lessons Learned’ and thanks to everyone who is spreading the word about it.

I meant to say that my book can also be ordered from any book shop using the ISBN number. Don’t ask me why but it has a 10-digit one and a 13-digit one.

10-digit is : 1 84748 025 X

13-digit is : 978 1 84748 025 5