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!