June 8, 2010
Another year has passed….
I can’t believe it is almost a year since I updated this blog! It must be because I have been so busy writing, writing, writing… This is my problem: no sooner have I completed a novel than I want to start another. And once I do this I neglect to work on publicity for the previous one, and become completely immersed in the next. A Phoenix Life will be coming out soon – I have just approved the cover design. As soon as this novel was in the hands of my publishers – Pegasus – I was into my fourth. I completed it about two months ago, and it is sitting waiting for me to do something with it.
I did write a short story - Ekpe - which I submitted to a short story competition, before my fourth novel took hold of me. I was actually pleased with this story, set in Calabar, Nigeria, and it has made me excited about the idea of more stories. I have one up my sleeve to be set in Cyprus during the days of EOKA.
My fourth novel is entitled Throwing It All Away and has a very different feel to my three earlier ones. It is not divided up into chapters, but rather has sections under the heading of locations. And whereas my other novels featured a protagonist with whom I could totally identity, this novel has a main character about whom I am very ambivalent. It also spans a much longer time frame than the others, starting in the 1920s and ending in 2010. The novel follows the fate of Estelle Terry from her childhood in the fictional east coast town of Seacroft until she is one hundred years old. Her life is a roller coaster ride, plunging from the heights of the excitement of wartime London to the depths of poverty and despair, as she works as a cook in the kitchens of Cornish hotels during the hot summer seasons of the late fifties and early sixties, and exists with her two children on national assistance for seemingly endless winters. I am very excited by this book. I just wish I knew how to find an agent or a publisher who would promote my work for me, ie. to get published rather than self-publish. But at least my books are being read by a few people, so even that makes it worthwhile. And there is no greater thrill than to see my creations in print and my name out there in the big wide world of the internet!
So look out for A Phoenix Life everyone, and Throwing It All Away when it eventually sees the light of day!
At the moment I am resisting the urge to start writing again as I feel I need to spend time trying to find ways of publicising my work. I have ideas buzzing in the back of my head, but I will not let them take over, at least not yet…But I am sure that it will only be a matter of days, if not weeks when the muse visits me again, and insists that I start writing whether I like it or not!
