New book: new blog!

You would think that, as a writer, I would find it easy to write a blog.  But, the reality is, I find it really difficult. When I'm writing a book, I have a plot and characters who drive the plot but, with a blog,  I'm the character who drives my own plot. Eeek! No one to blame but myself if it all goes pear shaped.

When I'm writing a novel, very often my characters go off and do their own thing - totally off script. In Diamond Geezers one of my characters went and got herself kidnapped and, as I was writing it, I was thinking - Help! This was NOT in the synopsis. How on earth and I going to get her out of this? At the time I had a friend who was a script writer and when I told her she said, `That's brilliant because, if you don't know what's going to happen next, your readers certainly won't.' And, of course, it did all work out in the end and I've learned to trust my characters. 

Anyway, as I'm just starting a new book, I thought - why not start a new blog following the process of the book? Then readers can get a real time insight into how a book is created. No spoilers, mind! Like most writers, I won't tell you what I'm writing about until it's finished. That's partly a luck thing - I don't want to jinx it - but also, writers like to keep their plots close to their chest in case someone takes their idea and plagiarises it. 

At the moment I'm at the research and planning stage. And it's my favourite part of being a writer. I can justifiably sit and read all day - and call it work.  I also get to visit different places and learn new things. When I wrote Mimosa Fortune and the Smuggler's Curse I went up to Whitby and visited the Smugglers' Museum at Saltburn and then created a montage of images of Whitby using a present day map with drawings and maps of  C18th Whitby placed around it. I had it by my desk the whole time I was writing so that I could easily reference locations as I was writing. (Image above)

My new project however, isn't set in an existing place: it's an imaginary country in an imaginary world. So I'll have to draw up my own map and create a whole new culture. 

​I'm so excited! Watch this space.....



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