Ah, book three. It’s not so much a question of ‘will it get finished’ as ‘will it ever get started?’
I’ve dropped right out of the habit of sitting and writing this summer. There are a lot of reasons for that. My physical fitness is back after years of being limited by a dodgy hip and subsequent surgery. There’s a puppy in the house to make full use of my time (and my resurrected walking skills) and we’re converting a barn on the farm to be our new forever-home, which is keeping me mentally occupied and absorbing every drop of my creative thinking juices.
I’m walking and riding and project mismanaging… I’m loving the time away from my desk. I’ve shed half a stone just by being more active (author’s bottom be gone!) and in my downtime, I’m reading lots of lovely books that other people have written. (It’s so much easier than writing one yourself).
I’m asking myself some deep and meaningful questions:
- Does it matter if you never write another book? (Answer: No, not a jot.)
- Will your finances be adversely affected if you give up writing? (Answer: No. The opposite is true, in fact.)
- Do you want your author’s bottom back? (I don’t need to tell you the answer to that one).
- Does anyone but you give a fig whether you’re writing or not? (Answer: Yes and No. A dozen or so people do. I was accosted this week at an Uncle Funk gig by a couple of
matesavid fans of my Draymere Hall Series who wanted to know when the next book would be out (Er, probably not this week). That happens surprisingly often and I’m always terribly flattered. But, contrarily, the Farmer is happy that I’m back in the real world; that there’s dinner on the table and the washing is getting done). - So… WILL THERE BE ANOTHER? (Answer: Hell, yes! Just don’t ask me why. Or when.)
I know there’s another book in there. In fact, I’ve started several…
- A tentative foray into detective stories with a nerdy (female) PI and a dollop of quirky love interest.
- A WWII historical Anglo-American romance set on a USAAF airbase.
- Another Draymere Hall romance (with Zoe as the heroine, you’ll have met her if you’ve read Brambles. You know, the one who worked with Hettie… one of Julian’s ‘volunteers’.)
- A brand-spanking-new contemporary romance series.
- A complete departure from any genre, with a narrator who’s already dead…
Dear Lord. What I need to have written is several K words of one book, not one k words of several. Is it any wonder I’m in a muddle?
I’ll pick it up in the autumn.
Oh, hang on, that’s today.
But the sun’s still shining and I must walk the puppy down to the barn. There’s a tractor parked up outside with my name on it and I’m riding this afternoon…
Maybe this winter, then. Watch this space (but not with too much anticipation).
I’m romanticising, of course, because that’s what I do when I’m not on a tractor or up to my elbows in nutrient-rich soil (read mud). I write rustic romance. I’m a rural authoress.
I’m no longer youthful, but when my cheeks are wind-stung and the feet are numb, I’ve still got a romantic world to escape to. It might be winter in Draymere too, there may be mud or even snow, but the characters warm the story (and me) with a wealth of diverting antics. My mind can romp alongside them for hours. Be it out in the fields, on a dog walk or while I’m cooking the dinner, you’ll probably find me at Draymere. I’m seldom present in everyday life.
Be it town, village or farm, we all fall in love, and we’ve all experienced passion, heartbreak and unwise attraction. The emotions play out no matter where in the world you live. But I write it rural, earthy and rustic.
I imagine he’s regretted saying that out loud, the piss-taking has been ruthless.
Sam Russell 