
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).