THE REVIEWS ARE IN ... and they're brilliant!

"Couldn't put it down ... it's such a great story, so well written and the story line so engaging." - Miriam

"Loved where the title came from - almost cried at that bit. And how funny are you Hariklia!!!???! Dora was back, like a bout of herpes - ouch. Hehehehe well done, I enjoyed!!! Thank you!" - Karen

"Just want more...great reading!!! Just finished Chrissie and George story...need another book about Mrs Mavros in Greece." - Trinh

"I was gripped from start to finish." - Hil

"Loved it. Some great characters beautifully written." - Lucie

"I loved it, absolutely loved it. I felt completely immersed and believed every word." - Jean

But here's the thing: all this feedback is from friends and people I know. Which is great, but what I really want to do is to get my book out to a wider audience. Like a child leaving home, my book needs to travel beyond the borders of my neighbourhood.

It has been thrilling to be finally published, but my small independent publisher (Clouds of Magellan) does not have a publicist or a marketing department or even a budget for advertising. That's where you can help.

I would like to place some ads in the media, to draw attention to my book. I'm thinking, "Readings Monthly", "The Saturday Age" and "Frankie". It isn't cheap, the amount I'm asking for will pay for one small ad in each of these three publications.

Please help me set my first book out into the big wide world.

ABOUT MY BOOK

"All Windows Open", the novella that opens Hariklia Heristanidis's first collection of fiction, is a witty, faced-paced romance set in Melbourne. It tells the story of Chrissie Triantafillou, a Greek girl growing up in the 1980s. Chrissie is self confessed shallow person. She's a bit of a princess, has no sense of smell, been cursed by her mother, and is passionately in love with her cousin George.

But relationships between first cousins are strictly taboo in the Orthodox community; and anyway Chrissie has a boyfriend, and George has met Dora while travelling in Greece, and is engaged to be married. Even so, Chrissie can't help fantasizing about George and wonders whether he might harbour inappropriate feelings towards her too.

There is guidance from Mrs. Mavros, the coffee-cup seer, and there is interference from her neighbours Mrs. Xanthos and Mrs. Evans. And just when Chrissie feels most alone and does not know what to do, something happens.

Seven short stories make up the remainder of the book, where we meet a variety of other interesting characters: Elizabeth, a sticky beak at open house inspections, Steve, a collector of household gadgets, and Eric who is divorced, drunk and living in a London share house.

SHORT TIME FRAME

I have given my project  only 40 days to succeed, which is probably a little foolish. But I would like to get the ads in the media before Christmas. I think it could be a popular, not-very-expensive Christmas present. 

If you would like to help me (and score a fabulous book at the same time!) please do so sooner rather than later. That is, don't be like me and procrastinate.

PLEASE KEEP IN TOUCH

Follow my blog What She Said - and travel through time with me. Here I post diary entries (from my own actual personal diaries), that were written on the same day (date and month) that they are posted, but from any year from about 1970 to the present. 

Like me on Facebook and let your friends know about my project. The more the merrier!

I am also on Twitter, though I don't really know what I'm doing! But feel free to follow - we can get lost together!

Email me with any feedback, questions or just to say Hi. [email protected]