It's all a bit exciting...

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Just a quick hello after a madly busy few months. I'm very conscious of not updating the blog but hopefully you'll forgive me when you hear that so far this year we / I have...

a) renovated a house.
b) moved into new house
c) got my 3 book deal *faints*
and finally... drum roll ...
d) we are having a baby! Very soon! In a few weeks! *faints again*

I won't bore you with the details of the move, lots of you will have done it and know how stressful it is. We were looking for a house for a long time (as previously mentioned in this post) so it was great when we finally found a house with office space for two writers! It needed lots of work - but we're now at the 'picking curtains' stage, rather than the 're-wire and re-plumb' stage!

As for the book deal - well it's been interesting! Not least because up until now my two trusted readers have been my lovely agent Gillie and my friend and writing mentor Bernie McGill. Now I've had to expand the 'reading circle' to include all the lovely people at Hot Key Books, especially my editor Emily Thomas.

It's always strange letting new people read your work. Writing comes from inside you so when someone reads it I always feel a bit exposed - like I've laid down a little piece of my soul for people to pet or spit upon as they choose! I'll be writing more in the blog about the whole editing process - as well as a rather fabulous group of writing ladies who have kept me sane through finishing the book, submitting it and dealing with the ups and downs of negotiations and edits. Forget the A-Team - they are the PWA! More on them soon...

And as for the baby bit... Well, I'll be able to tell you more about that soon enough. For now my stomach is moving from side to side Alien-style which is half-endearing and half-freaky. All tips for juggling newborns and writing gratefully received!

Late night edits...

It would be fair to say that a late night working on edits is bad for the old peepers. I was up until one o'clock this morning trying to finish revisions so I could get the book away to Gillie. It really shouldn’t have taken that long but I found reading it so closely threw up lots of little tweaks I wanted to make. Happily I finally sent it to her and crawled into bed. The alarm this morning went off much too soon.

It’s a strange experience doing edits. On the one hand it’s easy to get defensive when someone else has read your book and suggested a particular paragraph doesn’t really add anything. An outside reader also notices your trademark peculiarities and quirks much more readily than you can do yourself. For example, one of mine is a love affair with the word ‘grimace’...

On the other hand it doesn’t help to become a raging perfectionist. Yes, there will always be little turns of phrase that seemed great at the time and now fall a bit flat. But at a certain point you have to step away from the manuscript and allow it to be prised from your sweaty paws. If you can’t take that leap of faith you’ll become one of those writers with ten unfinished novels lying in a drawer. Been there, got the t-shirt!

Reading a book is such a subjective experience. What I’m realising is that two people can read the same passage and have completely different views. It’s good to listen to some opinions you trust –but in the end you have to go with your gut.

Oh - and top tip: if you click on the picture link it will take you to a helpful page all about how to cover those black circles after a late writing session. When I think of my appearance this morning... It’s enough to make a girl grimace…!

Meeting my agent!

I haven’t posted on here since last weekend because I’ve been busy, busy, busy! It was an exciting week for several reasons! I went to London to stay with my friend Sarah and met her lovely baby son Daniel for the first time. But that wasn’t the only meeting I had – while I was there I finally had the chance to shake hands with my agent for the first time!

I sent The Watchers to Aitken Alexander because they represent my writing tutor Bernie McGill. I sent it off with no great hopes, knowing the doom and gloom stories and telling myself sternly that I should prepare for the worst. Luckily Gillie was very enthusiastic about the sample chapters of the book, which encouraged me to finish writing it!

We had spoken on the phone but it’s great to get the chance to meet someone in person, especially when they live far away. Gillie is lovely and made me feel at ease. She could see I found the whole experience a little unreal at first and apparently I’m not the only new writer to feel this way. After all, writing a book is such a solitary experience. It’s just you and the computer screen. It feels strange sending it out into the world and giving it a life of its own!

We had a very pleasant lunch and a good chat. It’s fantastic getting a chance to talk to someone who knows so much about the whole publishing industry. She gave me some advice about a couple of chapters which need ‘trimmed’ so that’s what I’m working on this weekend. They’re small changes but I can already see the difference – how tightening some paragraphs increases the pace and flow of the action.

Alas, I think I have procrastinated enough! Back to the grindstone!

Resolutions 2011!

It has been a busy week and I haven’t been near the computer as much as usual... But I am happy to say that the resolution gang met on Friday night and made our new resolutions for 2011. The funniest bit of the evening is always reading through the resolutions from the year before and seeing how successful (or unsuccessful...) we have been!

The resolutions fall under different categories. A random selection of my resolutions for this year are:

- Keep my office tidy.
- Bin all granny pyjamas!
- Do something nice for our first wedding anniversary
- Write the complete sequel to The Watchers.
- Go to Pilates classes.
- Reduce computer time – no more than 2 hours a day.

Because of this last one I am unfortunately going to have to reduce my blogging, at least in the short term. I am trying to finish writing the synopsis of book two. Things are also about to get busy at work. So for now time to knuckle down and get on with things.

Anyone else got any writing resolutions this year?

New Year, New Name!

This rather gorgeous picture struck me as a fresh image for a fresh name change. The blog was previously called 'Start to Finish' but I thought the title was kind of ambiguous.

So, for 2011 I'm changing it to *Notebook to Novel* - because of course this is what I'm hoping to achieve this year! Today I signed the agent's agreement and posted it off - so I am officially represented!

The blog hasn't been as writing-related of late, mostly because everything has gone quiet over Christmas at the publishing end - but I think things wake up again this week.

So, I promise that during 2011 I will keep posting honestly about the highs and lows of the winding road to publication - and any tips I pick up along the way will be passed on pronto!