News / Journal

July 2009

Finally! The first draft of ‘A Sister’s Gift’ has now been sent off to my editor and my agent, so I can relax for a few weeks. Or, more accurately, catch up on everything else that’s been long-neglected while I was writing it (like website-updating!)

Here are two pictures of me and my dear friends Penny and Max, enjoying ourselves at the Harper Collins Author party earlier this month. I wish I’d taken a photo of the yellow-green-and blue Murano glass chandelier that hangs over the reception desk at the Victoria and Albert Museum – it always reminds me of a spectacular arrangement of party balloons.
What else have I been up to? Earlier in July I did my first meet-the-readers event where I received a very warm welcome from everyone at Staplehurst library. The actual business of writing is a solitary profession. I don’t send off partial manuscripts to anyone and work pretty much on my own till the first draft is completed. Then it goes OUT into the world for all the editing stages, and finally onto the shelves. But once out there, apart from any reviews or comments posted up you never really know what people have made of it till you talk to them. So the animated feedback I got at Staplehurst was both illustrating and very welcome! Now I’m very much looking forward to meeting the readers at Lenham library come summer’s-end.
With ‘A Sister’s Gift’ at first draft stage, my mind is naturally turning to what the next one might be about. It occurred to me that – though ideas abound everywhere, the news, magazines, online and in every day life – an idea needs to have a special ‘something’ to it, not just in terms of cleverness or originality, but in terms of a magical ‘pulse’ that can keep interest going through the whole journey. I’m not just talking about for the reader, but for me as the writer, too! You can write an entire synopsis but if it lacks that pulse, or heartbeat (whatever you want to call it!) then the writing will be flat.

For ‘A sister’s Gift’, although I’d written a synopsis and I pretty much knew exactly what I wanted the book to be about – ie Surrogacy and with a local flavour as it’s centred around the Charity that looks after the historic Rochester bridge, nonetheless, something vital was missing until I happened upon an old historical manuscript of mine. Written maybe fifteen years ago, it was pretty dire for the most part, but one particular scene stood out for me and grabbed my interest immediately; it was a scene where it became apparent that the two sisters - both very different women - had fallen in love with the same man. In that moment, I found the ‘pulse’ for book three, and judging by the reactions I’ve had so far, I suspect (and hope!) my readers will feel the same way too.

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