Month: July 2016

Doing a free promotion is an odd feeling, giving away something you\’ve slogged so hard at for nothing but not only have Peace Lily and Speedwell benefited, my writer\’s heart was completely uplifted by the following review. Maybe I would never have reached this reader, had I not done the giveaway and I feel truly rewarded now.

\”5.0 out of 5 stars

Rarely do I read a book this good. Told from the point of view of Katy, a young English woman 
of working class roots, who moves from service as a maid in a manor house to marriage
 to working as a mechanic in France during WW1. The world changes incredibly during
 those years and this is an excellent recounting of those changes from a woman\’s point of view. 
Primary in the story is the love and marriage of Katy and Jem with strong secondary characters 
being brought in throughout the story. I bought the next book in the series within 5 minutes of 
finishing this one. The writing is excellent, emotional and descriptive, with well developed characters.
It is well edited, with no profanity or descriptive sexual scenes.\”

Having completely revised Daffodils, I\’m letting her go free today and tomorrow.
Book One of The Katherine Wheel Series drags Katy and Jem into the global arena of World War One and changes their lives forever.
Cheadle is a sleepy village in rural Wiltshire, England. Nothing much changes and little family dramas provide the only food for scandal and gossip. Then WW1 erupts into the lives of these country people, leaving no-one unscathed.
We meet Katy as a young maidservant, restless for more than domestic service can offer and reckless to a fault. We see her develop and mature, as life throws joys and tragedies across her path and the war lures Jem away. Another man tempts her to stay home but in the end she too signs up for the war and in doing so, finds her true self, and discovers that the only thing that really matters is, after all, simply love.

Peace reigns, temporarily at least, in The Plotting Shed, as I begin the re-write of The Rose Trail, after my editor, Tomas Martin\’s, insightful comments on the first draft.
His energy, acute observations and pithy criticism always energise and inspire me. I\’ve learnt to take the brutal truth on the chin, knowing it always bears luscious fruit.
Amongst these comments was one I treasure: It\’s the best first draft you\’ve ever written.
As I begin weaving some threads, some depth and a few red herrings into the story, I am astonished to find the seeds have already been sown when I wrote the first draft. This happens every time and never ceases to amaze me. It\’s as if my subconscious knew all along where those threads and strands should be and planted their genesis within the race to the finish that getting the story down entails. You have to keep up the momentum in the first draft. Yes, there is an outline, but that doesn\’t allow for the characters to run away with your carefully worked out plot and embellish it. Which makes for a rollercoaster ride as you commit their actions, words and deeds onto the document.
Returning to the story the second time around, imbued with the refreshing ideas of Beta No 1 and Editor, is quite a different experience. It\’s more relaxed for a start; there is no rush to see if all the plot lines will work out the way you hoped they would. It is more careful, not calculated as such, but thoughtful. It is craft.
I love this stage! And especially when I find that the original script has the space and the intention ready and willing to be reworked.
As I write more books, I find I panic less. The pattern of how I put a book together seems to have evolved now. It feels more creative, less stressful, more manageable and infinitely more rewarding.
It\’ll be up to you readers to tell me if you feel the same.
Life is busy for me at the moment and writing time under pressure but I\’m still on target to publish by the autumn.

Thorny matters: Alex Martin spinning Katherine Wheels: I am continuing my cunning plan to interview other authors (i.e. let them do the work), with an interview with Alex Martin, author of the Ka…