The Waiting Game

At last my latest novel is on its way. I finished my read-through after Pat had gone through the manuscript with her red pen; then sent the final doc. to my publisher. I offered to send it in hard copy (double spaced), but she was quite happy to receive it as an e-mail attachment. Now it’s sweaty palms time: I’m wondering if she will like it enough to make me an offer, or if she will reject it out of hand. It’s a completely different genre to my usual stuff, and now I keep thinking of improvements I could have made to elements of the story. I find myself thinking how boring the beginning is, and then tell myself not to be so stupid; it’s the way I meant to write it. And so the mind games go on: all I can do is wait. I’ve got plenty of time to do that as well: I’ve got nothing to do. No, that’s not exactly true: I have plenty to do, but my day feels empty because I’m not working on a novel. Pat says I should start another. The truth is, I already have one half completed, but I need to completely restructure it and start at the beginning. I keep mulling ideas over in my head, but I’m not coming up with satisfactory synopses.

Another reason for not getting down to more hard work is the fact that we are waiting for some people to let us know if they would like to buy our house. Four people (two couples) viewed the house several days apart. Each couple wanted a second viewing which meant four viewings. Then they had to meet up in UK to discuss it. Today, Monday, is when we expect to hear from them. (Well; this week). If they make us an offer we are happy to accept; we will be shifting into panic mode and my writing will go out of the window until we are safely back in England. Meanwhile life goes on and there’s nothing we can do other than wait and hope. Perhaps we’ll be home by Christmas.

Incidentally, the title of my novel is PAST IMPERFECT. I know it’s the same title as a book by Julian Fellowes (Downton Abbey), but I had the title in my head almost from the word go. I’ll ask my publisher’s opinion on this if she agrees to publish. I know titles are not copyright, but sometimes a big selling author can get in the way. That’s the reason I changed one of my book titles from THE THIRD SECRET to ROSELLI’S GOLD. Wish me luck!

Fulfilling Week

It’s been quite a week, one way or another. Having finished and read through my manuscript, I printed it out (double spaced) for my wife, Pat, to do a read-through. By page two she was happily wielding the red pen and completed the MS by the end of the week. I value her contribution because she sees many things that I don’t, which is an enormous help. I began my read-through yesterday, Saturday, and hope to have it completed by the end of this week. Then it will be sent to my publisher. If she rejects the book, I will publish it myself on Amazon, but probably under a pseudonym. The reason for this is because it is written in a totally different genre to all my other books.

I had a nice surprise come through the post when my royalty statement appeared. The sale of THE BOY FROM BERLIN e-book had gone above 1700 for the six months from January 1^st. For me this is a staggering amount and actually supports the argument, in my case, for sticking with a traditional publisher. Hopefully this will increase the sales of my other titles. Oh, and before anyone asks why I will self-publish my latest book if it’s rejected, the reason is that I would almost certainly not find another publisher, and at my age I would be wasting my time doing so. Amazon is the quickest way for me.

On the domestic front, we had a second viewing on our villa during the week. There is now a wait until the clients return to UK, but they have promised to let us have an answer within a couple of weeks.

Friday morning I was at hospital for an appointment. This was followed by a prayer meeting at my local, Christian Fellowship. On Saturday we attended a lunch with Adrian Plass; a minister who is probably as funny as any of the top comedians you would watch anywhere; either on TV or live. Not one swear word (naturally) and he had us all in fits of laughter with tears rolling down our faces. A very funny man and, a brilliant wordsmith: he has published many books.

Another passion of mine is speedway, and on Saturday night it was the Polish Speedway Grand Prix from Torun. I watched it on Eurosport. It was the end of the season and an English rider by the name of Tai Woffenden won the world title. Point scoring is achieved throughout the year. Brilliant night and smiles all round.

So, my week went well. Now I will get down to the third read through of my manuscript. Wish me luck!