Six down! Working on number seven

My new book, A Season, and A Time, is now up and running.    http://www.amazon.com/Season-Time-Southhill-Sagas-ebook/dp/B00DCZSHUA/     It is another baby boomer novel, of a year in the life of a sixty year old woman.   No six of the Southhill Sagas, all set in Surrey, where I lived for many years. Each book stands alone though characters do reappear.

This means I am on target for my goal of two books completed a year.  I started writing novels in August 2010 (I had written lots of things before then but never a novel), so with number six in the bag, I am in fact slightly ahead of target.  You might imagine I could have a rest from writing for a couple of weeks but it doesn’t work like that.  The instant Season was off my hands I hauled out the previous one, the one I had put on the back burner when Season came along, and got going.   It really isn’t that I want to put pressure on myself – I just feel the need to keep writing. 

I may have mentioned reading what I am sure is an apocryphal story about the late Graham Greene – to the effect that he wrote 500 words a day, then stopped, even if in the middle of a sentence.   It seems unlikely – he would quite likely have been writing by hand, and would have had to manually count the number of words.   But as a discipline it would be quite extraordinary.    

But, truth to tell, I am writing because I enjoy it.  And I never think of it as a book, but as a story.   When I write it is because I have a story to tell.   I don’t like the marketing side one little bit – I hate having to try to sell things, my writings least of all.  In fact I think it is comparatively unusual for people to enjoy both the creative side and the marketing side.  But with self published eBooks the author has little choice.   So I do try to promote my kindle free days on whichever sites will take them, and  to get my books onto various websites.  it is a slow and tedious process and after that I need a break. 

So I get back to my characters, to see what they have been up to in my absence and where they want us to travel to today.   Much more fun!

Till next time J

Onwards and upwards!

So, I have gone through my story, three (!) times and hopefully picked up all the errors.  One blatant one was where I referred to the main character, Rhona White, as Rhona Black - what was that? some sort of mental aberration? Perhaps subconsciously related to being brought up in South Africa, where we are all colour blind these days.  

Now I wait while the book goes through the review process.   I remember so clearly, when I had finished my first book, that I was desperate to keep writing - life felt so flat without a story to tell. Now at least I have a story to go back to, one that was put on the back burner while I wrote A Season, and A Time.  

It's quite strange -  I would never have realised before I started writing but writing is actually a powerful aphrodisiac  - seeing one's thoughts and feelings appear in print is like no other feeling. 

So now, whether or not anyone wants to read what I am writing, I will carry on.  It's fun and just possibly that's what it's all about! 

Till next time :)

Finito!

I have finished the first draft  of my book, A Season, and A Time, so am somewhere between shattered and elated.  When I feel I am in the home stretch I tend to pull out all the stops so I have been writing over 3000 words a day for the last ten days or so.   Which leaves me feeling a little drained.  I have no idea why I put so much pressure on myself but I can't help it - the story just builds up the momentum and like a snowball carries me along with it. 

When I started this book, in March, I had no idea of the turns it would take.  I started as usual with a basic story line and the characters (I spend ages pondering about my characters - I can't write in their voice till I feel I know them intimately), as well as the ending, which in this case was a true story from my own experience, and the title.  Not for me something called a working title.  If I don't have a title I can't tell a story.  Yes, I know I'm a bit strange - I wouldn't be a writer if I weren't!

Then after I start I just let it happen, and often my characters surprise me - they often impress me too.  Not really surprising as all my books seem to feature a strong woman as the main character, or at least one of the main characters.

Of course now the hard work starts - I need to read the whole story, out loud, pretty much at a sitting, for consistency and continuity and at the same time proof read, for those inevitable typos that slip in.  If  someone could come up with a spellcheck which can differentiate between from and form they would make a fortune!  I have found that for me the best way of proof reading is to make the font large, so that any typos literally jump out. 

The joys of self publishing - in traditional publishing there would be editors doing this work - although I have found mistakes recently in work published by some of the top publishing houses in the world, so even that wouldn't be fool proof. 

Till next time :)

Sobeit, folks

I am more than half way through my book and haven’t been sparing a thought for my blog  but there are a couple of odds and ends I want to share.   One is the word sobeit.  Is it a word?  Should it be written as three words, so be it?  I found myself using it in my current story and when I tried sobeit, thinking it would be like albeit, my spell check got all upset.  So I spelled it in three words.  Then I looked it up – apparently sobeit is a word which dates from1575 and albeit from 1385 (according to dictionary.com).  But sobeit looks silly so I decided to leave it as three words.

The story I am writing is about a woman, in England, who is doing a lot of dog walking in winter.  So obviously she wears wellington boots, a term which is always abbreviated to wellies.   But does my spell check accept this? Not a chance – at every opportunity it changes the word to willies.  My daughter finds this hilarious, to her the word is plural for a vulgar term (interjection – why do men feel the need to give names  to  their private parts?   One of those weird things no female would ever consider doing, or can really understand  - but for many women that goes for football too) but I am of a generation where the expression ‘gives me the willies’ to denote a spine creeping feeling, is a normal term.   Not to mention the strange but beautiful group of Wilis (one L, no E) in the ballet Giselle.  They always puzzled me  a little as they are described as girls who were jilted and died before their wedding days.  Well they must have been pretty feeble sort of characters – I am so glad we are made of sterner stuff these days!   BTW I am not criticizing Giselle – it is one of my favourite ballets – I saw it not too long ago at Maynardville, our local (Cape Town) open air theatre set in wooded parklands – you could not imagine a more perfect setting – also perfect for A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  But I digress.  And just in case I have readers of my daughter’s generation I shall do a thorough search when I have finished and make sure no ‘offensive’ words have slipped through.

Till next time J

Back again, doing what I like best!

After all my whingeing and whining I have started a new book, putting the two that I was trying to work on simultaneously on the back burner.  I will get back to them in the fullness of time but not now. 

Now I am having fun; I’m excited about my new book.  It’s about a sixty year old woman whose husband leaves her for an OLDER woman, someone he plays bridge with.

Now I don’t always notice these things, preferring to give people the benefit of the doubt, but I do know that some of the clubs where I played bridge in England had all sorts of goings on.  I heard of someone who left his wife for his bridge teacher, and someone else who was found dead after a heart attack in his bridge partner’s house in the middle of the night –  which as you can imagine created a huge scandal, his wife knew nothing of it,  but apparently the relationship was common knowledge to ‘those in the know’ whose number did not include me.    Now I play at several bridge clubs in South Africa and I haven’t noticed any ‘extra table’ activity but that’s not to say it doesn’t happen.

Anyway I am enjoying writing the book – as usual the characters take on lives, voices and personalities of their own and I just write it all down.   I think that’s what I find so exciting about writing – watching the story unfold.  

One of my little (?) peculiarities is that I can’t write unless I have a title first.  Not everyone is like that – my daughter was half way through the second draft of her book before she thought of a title.  But not me - so I can tell you the title of the book I started last weekend – it’s ‘A Season, and a Time’.  You will probably recognise the quote – it’s from the Bible, King James Version, Ecclesiastes,  Chapter 3 – ‘To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven’.   To those of my generation it also has the words Turn, Turn, Turn but that doesn’t have any biblical origin, it was strictly added by  Pete Seeger when he made it into a song (which I had on an LP when I was a teenager).

I have some of my completed books available as freebies on Kindle over the Easter Weekend and am supposed to be trying to promote them but really I’d far rather write my new one.  I know I am supposed to be trying to sell books which seems ludicrous really  - the sort of people who write fiction are not the same sort of people who are successful marketers.  So I have made some half hearted attempts at listing them on various websites and will now go back to doing what I enjoy!

Till next time J

Block? Is this what Writer's Block is? Where is my muse?

I have come to the shocking realisation that tomorrow is the last day in February and I haven't really settled into a writing routine yet.  I don't feel inspired so I make excuses and do other things to keep myself busy - it's extraordinarily easy to keep busy when there is something one feels one should be doing.   My current book is not even a quarter through yet I am doing very little writing - I know what the next part of the story line is but find I am not inspired to write it.  Sometimes I sit down, knowing I only have a short time and write a couple of pages but this isn't how I normally write.  With my first three books I sat down at my computer at every opportunity and felt compelled to get the story down, as though it would slip through my fingers like water if I didn't. 

But it's not really a block - it's more of an apathy.  When I was writing Rock-a-Bye Baby, which was my fifth novel, it actually started as my third then I wasn't sure how to proceed so put it on one side then I woke up one morning with But a Dream in my head and hastened to write it down, which I did within a month.  It was only much later that I went back to Rock-a-Bye and just wrote it.  I know that when I have the characters and the basic storyline the rest just comes as I write it.    It may sound ridiculous and pretentious but the characters tell their story, often surprising me in the process.  The ending of Fisherman's Dream wasn't at all what I had thought - but that's what came out and I was happier with it than with my first idea.

So it must just be laziness.  The trouble is I need a deadline and it needs to be a tight deadline otherwise I prevaricate.  I have set myself a deadline of finishing the first draft by the end of March - so have frittered away January and February - come March I will need to write around 1500 - 2000 words a day.  It's not such a lot when one gets down to it.    It all boils down to discipline, I suppose.  It's never been my strong point!  I think back to my schooldays - Monday morning in the train wasn't really the best time to be doing my weekend homework.    Too easily distracted that's me - now I really must take the dogs for a walk before going to my bridge club, perhaps tomorrow I'll get down to some steady writing, after doing the washing, weeding the garden, going to my aqua aerobics class and of course the dogs always need walking!  

Till next time :)

Age, yes I said the word, related issues

I have been a bit quiet of late – my time seems to have been otherwise occupied.  Recently I have been more of a Baby Boomer who writes fiction, rather than someone who writes Baby Boomer fiction.   I have been getting to grips with issues that concern our age group like hearing loss and the different types of hearing aid available – something I knew nothing whatsoever about.  Not for me but for my husband.  His hearing has been deteriorating over the years, particularly on his right side where he suffered a rugby injury in his youth.  Over the last few years I have frequently suggested he get his hearing tested, as have our two adult daughters but he has prevaricated.   Admitting to hearing loss is presumably acknowledging that one is getting older, which none of us seem prepared to do these days.  (When my mother was in her 50s she wore suitable clothing for her age, skirts and little jackets which she called a costume – the thought of my late mother in the nowadays ubiquitous jeans is mind boggling).   We all jog, exercise, go to the gym, do whatever it takes in an effort to deny the inevitable.   But I digress.   The way I got Colin, my husband, to get his hearing tested was, I admit, devious.  A hearing aid company came to my bridge club and did a presentation.  They invited members to fill in forms with a chance of winning a full hearing assessment.  I filled in the form in Colin’s name!  So they called him and made an appointment.  Now he is trying out hearing aids – a free trial.  He finds them a bit obtrusive but I find they make a huge difference in my life (I hadn’t realised I was having to raise my voice so he could hear me, also we can have the television on so much more quietly)  so I can only imagine what a difference they make to him - he is amazed at the birdsong from our little garden as well as able to have a normal telephone conversation.  He still isn’t sure if he wants one or two hearing aids so is trying combinations.  I thought naively that perhaps just one in the weaker ear would suffice but that didn’t work nearly as well as just one in the better ear.   Now the big issue is not hearing so much as listening!  He’s had an excuse over the last few years – he has always said he didn’t hear when I knew for certain he wasn’t listening – well there are no more excuses now! 

Another age related issue is of course eye sight.  I have tried eye exercises, though not as faithfully as I should, but still find I need glasses for reading.   So partly why I love my kindle, aside from its portability and the ease of downloads, is that I have increased the font size and don’t need my glasses for reading anymore which I find great.  I don’t know why they don’t use this as a selling point.  My sister recently bought a kindle for an elderly friend who was having trouble reading due to macular degeneration for this very reason.  

I was reading recently that John Grisham hates research – I have to agree with him I’m afraid.  I also have the fear that what I have read, even from several sources might not be 100% accurate so I far prefer writing about  things I have experienced myself, either first hand or from close observation.  So the issue of what they call ‘age related hearing loss’ might well crop up in one of my future books.

Till next time J