A bit of an experiment

I often say that my writing to do list should be written on wallpaper as I always have so much I want to do. Since the sequel to The Only became two sequels, I'm now working on three books concurrently and whilst wrestling with the first sequel (and it was wrestling until I realised I'd written half of two books!) I wrote another stand alone book. To release these books in order, it should be the sequel next, the sequel's sequel and then this stand-alone. But I got tired of waiting and I've had quite a few (nice!) comments that you are too.

And so I give you

Isn't it gorgeous? Another fabulous cover by Lisa Bonar – wait till you see the back!

I'm trying an experiment with this one as it's jumped the queue so as not to confuse those people who don't read my blog. You can read chapter 1 on www.wattpad.com, just search for Sync Your Heart or look for my profile where I'm under my Twitter name originalkaren.

Sync Your Heart will be out on Kindle and in paperback – my original plan was to release this after I finished telling Maya's story. That is, of course, unless you and Shay shout louder! So do let me know what you think – I'm really looking forward to seeing the feedback.

Editing, editing, editing ...

So I blinked and a quarter of the year whizzed by – did it happen to you too? I cannot believe on Sunday it is the longest day of the year for those of us in the northern hemisphere and the shortest for you southern guys. Here in Britain our summer has generally only just about got going by the time we reach 21st of June so seems all wrong that as we finally have warm enough temperatures to go out without wearing a jumper, the nights start drawing in but that's food for thought for another blog post.

Since I last blogged I have been busy, busy with edits which explains why the world has been passing me by.  During March I spent a lot of time reading – all research, you understand, and not just an excuse to buy more books, but of course I did that too! It was fabulous reading like I did when I was a teenager, all the time, and I read five books in a week. Since then I have done editing, editing, editing. This is my favourite part of the writing process: first draft is like putting clay on a potter's wheel and editing is like moulding the clay into something beautiful that you want to look at – first draft is for no one's eyes but mine!  It's where I get to lament "I really wrote that?" and also to be amazed that "I really wrote that!"  For me, it's a long and extremely messy process and that's when I forget what colour my desk is as it becomes progressively buried in heaps of paper.  There's something daunting in writing a number one on the first page when I know I have another 300+ to go but it's also fun because that's where I can really make it shine.

 My work in progress is off with my lovely test readers and I'm back editing the book I'm working on concurrently. It's a good job I like this part of the process, although it's clearly showing that I'm not so keen on clearing up my desk – I really must get to that as I'm currently working in a space the size of an A4 sheet of paper!

The Only comes to life

So, not quite hot on the heels of my interview with Lisa, the lovely artist who did the cover of The Only, here is an interview with Connor Guyler of Simulated Film who did an amazing job shooting the book trailer. It's been something really quite special to see scenes which have been in my head for a couple of years suddenly coming to life in front of me and I'm thrilled with the result. 

Welcome, Connor, so let's kick off with which medium you think tells a better story, film or words, or do you think each has its own merits?

I think that it’s difficult to pick between the two mediums as they are so different. A good example of a film uses images to propel the storyline whereas a good novel uses descriptive language to build an image in someone’s mind. There is more scope in film to create a good story with access to sound; however, I think that some filmmakers have become complacent and have forgotten what it means to create a visual piece. They use dialogue to explain story rather than images, believing that without any exposition the audience won’t be able to figure it out. The audience is more intelligent than people think, and I believe filmmakers need to put more effort into taking dialogue out of their screenplays to create a better work of art. 

How easy is it to distill a story of (in the case of The Only) 95,000 words into a minute and a half?

I think the difficulty depends on what you want to include in a trailer. I didn’t want to give too much away about the storyline but wanted to delve quite deep into the backstory so I found it not as difficult as creating a trailer through snippets of dialogue from the storyline. I then wanted to pick either scenes or images from the book which I think represent the mood that would be present during all these events happening.

With that short amount of time to get the message of a book across, what do you think are the most important elements, and how did you choose what scenes to include? 

With a trailer, in a way, you want to create a storyline in itself which gives some of the information away but not enough for people to know what happens without reading it. In the case of The Only, I found the back story absolutely intriguing and something that is a very real possibility so I definitely wanted to dedicate the first half of the trailer to exploring what events have led up to the start of the book. I then wanted to show the protagonist’s motivation for the decisions she makes in the story; this led me to include the scene of her dropping a bottle of medicine to represent the decline of Coralone, as this is the catalyst for all the events in the book. From then I included various images which I think represent the state of the UK during the time the book is set and a small preview of an extremely important scene with the flare. However, without reading the book, the viewer wouldn’t have understood the importance of this scene.

I have to say I love seeing that scene on the screen - it gives me goosebumps every time! Do you think book writers make good screenwriters or do you think it's a different skill?

I believe that there is always the ability for writers to transfer their skills to screenwriting, however they would just have to learn to be less descriptive, and learn to think about a screenplay as a set of instructions for everyone else to follow. Screenplays are very direct and to the point so that everyone who reads it is on the same page and knows exactly what is happening in each scene, whereas novels leave a certain amount to the imagination.

How important do you think it is for the writer to be involved in a visual production of their story?

I think it’s almost essential that the writer be involved because, ultimately, anyone who has read the book will want the film to be as close as possible to the storyline and often important scenes are left out or changed in an unforgiving way because there hasn’t been the input of the author. Also, because everything in a book is left to the imagination of the reader, the director/producer etc may have a different take on how the main character looks, for example. If you look at two of the most successful novel to film transitions, Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, both J.K Rowling and Suzanne Collins were involved with the films. With J.K Rowling making sure that the production was predominantly British and giving input throughout the creation of the films, and Suzanne Collins co writing the screen play of The Hunger Games. Most people regard these films as great adaptations and shows the importance of the authors input.

I'd have to agree with you there, I loved both the book series and the movies of both of those! What book would you like to make a trailer for and why?

Anything that’s science fiction because of my huge love for sci-fi.

Maybe I should write a sci-fi one next then ;)  And, finally, one for fun - if you were a superhero, what would be your super power? 

I think controlling time would be the best, as you could be anywhere and everywhere all the time. You’d never make a mistake because you’d just go back in time and fix it and you could jump into the future just to see what happens. I’m sure everyone would be intrigued by that. If I couldn’t have that I’d love also to fly.

I'm absolutely with you on the power over time!! Sadly our time has run out today but thanks for answering all my questions and for doing such a great job on the trailer. 

Connor can be found here c.guyler@simulatedfilm.co.uk and his website is www.simulatedfilm.co.uk  And if you want to catch the trailer again, you can, right here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpMKn693JrQ

Judging by the cover . . .

Are you having a great week? I am but then I'm still excited from the launch of The Only in paperback (and am likely to be for a while yet!). I've had so many comments about how lovely the cover is and what a great job the artist did that I thought it would be cool to interview her to find out how she does it. 

Let me introduce you to the lovely Lisa Bonar :

Hi, Lisa, it's so great to have you on here 

First of all, thanks so much for having me on your blog, Karen! This is quite the honor!

So let me ask you, do you read much or is it the artwork on a book that you love?

Well, I do love the artwork, but yeah, I’m a reader. I read on my computer, my Kindle, my phone, and heck…I have even been known to read actual hard copies of books, ya know, like old school?

A girl after my own heart! What type of books/genre do you like?

Here’s where I suffer from a bit of schizophrenia. I like a bunch of different genres. My favorite books are Jane Eyre, Sense and Sensibility, The Prisoner of Azkaban, Kilmeny of the Orchard by Lucy Maud Montgomery, and Midnight by Dean Koontz. (See? Schizophrenia!)

I’ve also read and enjoyed several books by indie authors. A couple of standouts are 2012: The Final Revelation by Lisa Flaus,, and The Only, by…oh wait…you know who. Seriously, I really liked your book, Karen!

I'm very happy that you liked it! :) How did you get into designing book covers? 

Well, funny story. I have, myself, authored two books, and had such a great experience (this is sarcasm here, folks) getting the first cover done that I was inspired.  Actually, I used a designer who was recommended to me by my publisher, and she just wasn’t getting what I wanted. I had to all but get into a cyber-brawl with her, (she was in Germany, I was in the States, so it wasn’t practical for me to punch her in person), in order to get the cover I was looking for. I had some experience with Photoshop from doing ads and graphics for past business ventures, so when it was time for book #2, I opted to do my own cover, which turned out to be a far less painful experience.

That’s when I realized that it might be helpful for me to offer my services to other independent authors, who may not have a graphic design background, or a budget of hundreds of publishing house dollars to sink into cover art. I offer most front cover designs for $35 USD and full-cover (front, spine, and back) designs for $60.

And amazing designs you do, too. And I have to say that working with you has been brilliant, totally pain-free and the cover has turned out so well, I'm as proud of it as if I'd designed it! So tell me what elements make for a great cover?

I think the elements that make a great cover are the same elements that make a great advertisement. After all, your cover is the glowing neon billboard for your book; it’s what makes people want to check it out in the first place, so it has to command attention. Whether it’s an “in your face” color scheme, a vivid and bold image, or a line of text that inspires curiosity, something has got to make readers pick the darned thing up, already.

You also may have noticed that I like to use eyes a lot. Eyes are great attention grabbers. Also, contrasting colors and shades tend to make things pop as well.

How do you decide on what to put in and, perhaps more importantly, what to leave out?

Most of all, I want to make sure I am creating designs that are what the author wants. Most writers have at least a basic idea of what they want on their cover. They just need someone with the technical or artistic experience to put their vision together.

That said, even though design is technically an “art”, there are some hard, fast rules. One of which is simplicity. Once I’ve finished a design, I go back and turn each element off, one at a time. This shows me whether I have something that just isn’t needed.  It’s like editing a book. If a word or phrase isn’t necessary, no matter how in love with it we may be, it has to go.

That's really interesting - I never thought about it like that before. Can you talk a little about the process of designing?

It’s funny, but the process of designing parallels the process of writing in a lot of ways. It starts with an idea that gets developed and expounded upon. You try a bunch of different ways to put things together; some stick, some don’t. In the end, you edit, and tweak, and fine-tune your little heart out, and hopefully you end up with something you love.

What do you think about the saying 'never judge a book by its cover'?

Hehehe, is that a fair question for a cover designer to answer? ;) I think you CAN judge a book by its cover—or at least a little. The mood of the book is often reflected in the cover, or it should be. If an author (or publisher) is creative with their cover, I’ve found that the book is likely to be creative as well. Does a boring cover equal a boring book? Not always, but unfortunately I may never know. I rarely even pick up the books with boring covers. Even when I’m shopping for a classic on Amazon, if one copy has cover art and another (of the EXACT same book, mind you) has a “text only” cover, I’m more inclined to buy the copy with the cover art. Maybe it’s just me, but I kinda doubt it. Covers are important!!!!! End rant.

When you choose a book to read, as an artist, is it the cover that you go by, at least initially rather than say the title?

Well, after reading the above you’d certainly think so. However, a title can be a powerful “design” all by itself. For example, say that two book covers have nothing on them but the title in red on a black background. One is called, “Understanding Mathematical Equations, by Prof. Charles Schwarz” and the other is called “The Black Fallen”. Which would more likely capture your curiosity? Sometimes the title is the design.

And here's one for fun - if you were a super hero what would be your special power? 

Hmmm, I’d want it to be something totally random, like the ability to turn ordinary objects into chocolate, or the gift of always knowing the color of my enemy’s underwear. Gotta keep those super villains on their toes!

Ha, ha, I'd love the ultimate power of chocolate! Thanks so much, Lisa. I'm really looking forward to working with you on the next part of Maya's story :)

If you want to know more about Lisa, you can check out her blog here http://www.iabookcovers.blogspot.com where she showcases some of the other fabulous covers she's designed or email her at statementshome@yahoo.com

Which one are you?

Are you a diehard physical book person who wouldn't dream of reading anything on an e-reader, ever? Or do you love the ease and convenience of an e-reader and can't be doing with carting hard copies of books around now you don't have to? I must confess I thought I was that in the first category until my husband gave me a Kindle for Christmas a few years ago. My first experience with it abroad really sold it to me - I'd downloaded the first of The Hunger Games and it was so good, I rushed up to the wifi area in reception to download books 2 and 3 to finish while we were away!  The down side for me with my Kindle is that I'm sadly very clumsy when reading in the bath, so I haven't quite reconciled myself to not be reading it while having a good soak! Note to self to investigate waterproof covers…or the new waterproof Kobo! But I love physical books too - yes, I'm one of those who smells new books and find it virtually impossible to get rid of the books I've read which I'll never read again and which are taking up all the space on my bookcases. It seems, like many people, I guess, I'm in the middle. So imagine how excited I am to be able to announce that The Only is now available in paperback from amazon! And a crackingly lovely paperback it is too.  Ta dah!! The artist has done a wonderful job – isn't it pretty?! There's something really special about holding a physical copy of your words in your hand, seeing it as a real, tangible thing. To get a flavour of what it's all about, check out the book trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpMKn693JrQ And the even better news – the edit on the sequel is going really well so watch this space!

Whiplash

I watched a really good film recently – Whiplash, have you seen it? It only had a budget of $3.3 million which, in the scheme of film-making is tiny, and was shot in just 19 days but it's garnering attention. I won't say much about the plot because I don't want to ruin it for you but suffice it to say that there are no fancy visual gimmicks, there's just story. And the story is driven by the two main characters colliding. I've heard lots of authors give talks and the most notable quote about characters that I remember was given by Lee Child, the author of the Jack Reacher series, who said that plot is like a hire car – it gets you from beginning to end – but it’s the characters driving that car who move the story forward, they’re what/who the reader remembers. And this was certainly true for me in this film. But the film also resonated with me on another level (and it's hard to write about this without giving away any plot!) reminding me that anyone who achieves anything in their chosen field bears the scars of getting there – the knock backs, the fails, the sacrifices, the disappointments, the sheer damned hard work, the hours and hours of practice and the stubbornness of keeping on getting up each time you fall down and trying again. These scars may be invisible to those watching from afar but everyone putting their head above the parapet to try carries them and so deserves our admiration. If you get the chance to see Whiplash, do, it's an excellent story.

Not Orange but Happy

For those of you not living in the UK, a little explanation is needed. One of our mobile service providers used to be called Orange and they offered their customers a free cinema ticket every Wednesday. They launched this with a funny ad where the marketing team brainstormed what to call the promotion that happened every Wednesday, from a company called Orange, like clockwork, and they came up with… Orange Wednesdays.  For eight and a half years I've been juggling a full-time job, four kids and husband (actually they've all been around for longer than eight and a half years!) fitting writing in at the margins of my time which, as you can appreciate, hasn't been much time and therefore not much writing. For all sorts of different reasons I've now been able to reduce my working hours in my day-job to 4 full days per week which gives me one glorious day – Wednesday – to fill with words. And what does this have to do with Orange? Well, I've christened this day my Happy Wednesday because on Wednesday I'm so –er– happy, filling my time with words planned, words written, words edited, words proofread. I've only had a few and I'm in no way used to being off on a workday but the sense of freedom at the possibilities of what I could achieve each Wednesday morning is enough to make me jump out of bed grinning like a mad woman! That huge pile that is my writing to do list is actually looking like being achievable – 2015, it's going to be a great year!!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

It's that time of year when we've all been looking backwards at the highs and lows of 2014 and forwards to the great year we're all going to have in 2015, kind of a time to put things into perspective.

It's been a big year for me with lots of firsts, lots of travelling and a significant birthday so lots of celebrations. I've also, as you'll know if you read this blog regularly, had a big setback in the form of a monster case of RSI which has certainly been challenging. Plenty to reflect on.

But, you know, I got to thinking about my special moments of this past year and although some of the big ones were pretty spectacular – watching shooting stars from the top of a sand dune in the Sahara was very cool and watching my daughter at her first red carpet premiere in LA was really special – those kind of experiences are the exception, rather than the rule. Life is generally made up of smaller moments, crossing something off that to-do list, having a meal out with friends, remembering to exercise (always a challenge, that one!) And, bearing in mind what the trek to Everest Base Camp taught me, acknowledging and enjoying those is really living life to the full.

The start of a squeaky New Year is full of possibilities that we can achieve in these coming months what we didn't manage to last year – it's an exciting time! So, I'm looking backwards to go forwards,  building on the parts of my work in progress I didn't mess up, revising and editing like mad currently. I may not actually have said the words 'my New Year's resolution is . . .' but it amounts to the same thing and it means I can dip into my chocolate drawer without feeling guilty.

BOSFOK

So I started a blog post which went like this:

I've posted a lot lately about inspiration and passion and dedication. But what happens when you don't feel any of that? What if it's all just going wrong?

I'm currently halfway through getting comments back from test readers on my work in progress. This has been a real Frankenstein of a book and I know that in the words of one of my testers "there's a great book in there" but right now it's hiding itself quite successfully. I know exactly how this has happened – I conceived the book as one thing but, for one reason and another, was persuaded to write something else so the plot became too unwieldy and convoluted. Cue rewriting the second half of the story and the first edit spent trying to stitch them both together. I'm still having plot problems and trying to force square pegs into round holes and it's been making me miserable. Inspiration and passion are nowhere. Instead I've had to fall back on sheer stubbornness and shouting BOSFOK at myself – that's quite therapeutic! It isn't actually swearing, it stands for "bum on seat, fingers on keyboard" (pen in hand while editing actually, but BOSPIN doesn't give quite the same punch).

I know this funk is temporary. I'm right on the cusp of making it all work again, I just have to put in the hours to make it so. That's where being a Taurean and stubborn as hell is my strength!

And the great thing is that from when I drafted that I had a lightbulb moment: I got out of my own way and let the story flow and let the main character show herself how she really is and not how I was trying to portray her. Lesson learned in a very painful way! Now I'm really excited to rewrite the book, the only slight issue I have is that I have a very tight deadline in which to get it done. But I can do this (down time at Christmas, totally over-rated. . .) and am so excited to see this story exactly how it should be told.

Wishing on a comet

Unless you've been on a comet yourself over the last few days, you can't have failed to notice that the European Space Agency has landed a robotic probe on a comet some 300 million miles away from the Earth. This is pretty special for me because, in my day job, I work in the department where the British team who built the Ptolemy instrument (the one designed to analyse what the comet is made of in a bid to see if the commentary water is the same as that on earth) are based and it was amazing and brilliant to see them celebrating what, for some, has been 20+ years work with a successful landing. The best analogy for their attempt that I saw yesterday was that it was like 'launching a hammer from London to hit a nail in Delhi', although 'trying to land a fly on a bullet' was pretty good too.

You cannot fail to have been moved by Professor Monica Grady's overjoyed reaction when she hugged BBC's David Shukman (currently here if you haven't seen it http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30022765). This is true passion and dedication again – I seem to have been surrounded by a lot of it lately! It takes all that and more to get a space mission off the ground [pun intended :) ] and it takes an extraordinary amount of patience. Rosetta was initially due to be launched on the second Ariane rocket back in 2002 but when the first one exploded on the launch pad, it took two further years to ensure the second rocket wouldn't suffer the same fate before Rosetta could even leave the Earth.

Yesterday was truly inspiring and a huge achievement for mankind - the resultant leap forward in our technological prowess from this mission has been translated into areas such as healthcare and water quality. Our individual dreams might be smaller in scope but they may feel just as impossible sometimes. What's important is that for each knock back we get up and try again, from each setback we learn and hone our talent because then success has to be practically guaranteed.

'They' said what?

Following on from my ‘at the top of their game’ post, I thought I'd share with you this inspiring list.

Albert Einstein didn't speak until he was almost 4 years old and his teachers said he would "never amount to much." (despite the fact that his first words were "The soup is too hot." Greatly relieved that he had finally spoken, his parents then asked why he had never said a word before. Albert replied, "Because up to now everything was in order.")

The American basketball player, Michael Jordan, was dropped from his high school basketball team and went home, locked himself in his room, and cried.

Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper for "lacking imagination" and "having no original ideas".

Steve Jobs was left devastated and depressed aged 30 when he was unceremoniously removed from the company he started.

Oprah Winfrey was demoted from her job as a news anchor because "she wasn't fit for television".

The Beatles were rejected by Decca Recording Studios, who said "we don't like their sound – they have no future in show business."

Knowing what we know about those people now, those kind of facts are funny, aren't they? But at the time for each of these ’superstars’, the rejection must have been devastating (except maybe when you're four years old and not that interested in what your teachers are saying about you). How much easier would it have been for them to have dropped their dream and tried something else?

Persistence, that keeping on getting up when you get knocked back, that is the real definition of success. 

At the top of their game

I've been really lucky this week to have seen three people at the top of their game. Last Friday I went to London to see Matthew Bourne's production of Lord of the Flies and the show was preceded by a discussion led by The Daily Telegraph's arts critic between Matthew Bourne and Judy Carver, the daughter of William Golding, the author of Lord of the Flies. The production featured some professional dancers but the project's aims were to work with guys who had little or no experience of dance and performance. It was fascinating to hear the rationale behind the project and the changes that Matthew Bourne made to the story, not least of which was changing its location from a desert island to an abandoned theatre. This reimagining was really powerful and I was really struck by how he was able to take something that had been just words and make it so visual. Judy Carver's recollection of her father's manuscript thudding back through the letterbox each time it was rejected by a publisher is definitely something I could relate to – it was somehow comforting to hear that the author of one of the classic British novels struggled to become successful in much the same way that many authors do today.

On Saturday I saw Hans Zimmer Revealed which has to be one of the best things I've ever seen (and I was in the audience for Jean Michel Jarre’s Docklands concerts!). I adore Hans Zimmer's music – it's mostly what I listen to while I write, the soundtrack of Inception is my go-to when I'm stuck and Time is my all-time favourite piece of music ever. He showed so much passion on the stage for music and the people playing alongside him, all so ridiculously talented, it was mind-boggling. It was quite something imagining him starting to compose a movie soundtrack, tinkering around with a few notes that become the theme that's interwoven throughout the whole film, growing from a melody of single notes to a piece of music so complex it takes a whole orchestra to produce it. The audience as one gave him two thunderous standing ovations and, yet, when he played the last few chords of Time, the silence was as absolute as if he was in a studio by himself. Epic, epic music and quite an emotional experience – according to Twitter, I wasn't the only one who cried!

Last night I was off to London again to attend a ‘posh publishing party’ to celebrate my friend Carole Matthews’ amazing achievement of her 25th novel being published. In a beautiful five-star hotel we toasted this extraordinary achievement in an industry that has certainly seen some changes since she started 18 years ago.

So, as you can see, I've had quite a week! But each event, as different as they were, reinforced the fact that Matthew Bourne, Hans Zimmer and Carole Matthews, are all at the top of their game not by accident. They are all incredibly passionate about what they do and about sharing it with others. They work extremely hard, going that extra mile every time, and give their all to achieve their respective dreams. Matthew Bourne talked about being bullied for choosing to dance and I know that Carole used to tie her leg to the desk to make herself sit there and write every evening at 9 o'clock after a full-on day at work.

Dedication and passion, they have it in spades. And if your dream is important enough to you, you do too.

Am I nearly there yet?

This week is the Frankfurt Book Fair. For those not in the know it's a huge event in the publishing calendar – probably the biggest. It's a place where all the individual cogs that make up the publishing machine get together and a week when books and authors make headlines with stories of deals and advances and the launching of new talent.

I had a mini-moment of excitement connected with the FBF when my agent told me in the middle of the day that my book, The Only, was being pitched right at that moment to German publishers ahead of the Fair and that it was "going down a storm" - those publishers properly heard my shriek of excitement all the way from Milton Keynes.

Sadly, frustratingly, they decided not to take the book on until a UK publisher did and they all decided I'd missed the boat with the genre. This was one of those creative industry rollercoaster slumps. So, back to the beginning for me, write another book.

Scarily that was three years ago. At the time I really thought that was it for me, I’d got there (wherever there was). That particular route, at that particular time, wasn't to be for me. However, that story got me representation by my lovely agent who believed in it and believes in me as a writer. Thinking about the statistics there where averagely successful agents receive 150+ unsolicited manuscripts a week and only take on a handful of clients a year, if any at all, reminds me that is no small feat. 

Carol Matthews, a hugely successful author and a friend of mine, suggested I put The Only up on Amazon, rather than leaving it in a drawer. So I did. And what a brilliant idea that was because it has brought me readers who love my story, which surely is the measure of success for any writer.

Phew!

Those of you who have read this blog before know that I have been working on a new book. On Friday, after real hard slog, I typed the immortal words "the end".

Although this has felt like the hardest book yet, I've actually written it faster any of the others (and have to remind myself that thanks to a mega-bout of RSI there were six weeks I couldn't touch a keyboard at all). I guess the most important thing is that I love it and can't wait for it to get out into the world properly :)

It's such an odd feeling, reaching that point when writing a book. It's not quite ‘the end’ of it for me as once I have comments back from the test readers, my agent, I'm sure, will have comments too. So the great news is I get to spend more time with these characters, and I think, when you get to meet them, you'll be glad to as well. But in the meantime the time pressure to be sitting at my desk 24/7 isn't quite as strong as usual, I may catch up with all the series on the sky box before the system deletes them for me, I'm off out twice next week on a school night (!), I could get used to this!

Having spent the last hour clearing my desk which, it turns out, is oak-coloured –who knew!?! - I now need to pack my bag for my day job tomorrow. That wouldn't be a lever arch file of editing sneaking in there, would it? Of course it is, back to the sequel of The Only tomorrow, I just can't help myself!

All ready for the next book . . .