My Writing Process Blog Tour

Many thanks to busy author, Juliet Greenwood, for inviting me to participate in the ‘My Writing Process’ blogging tour. Juliet’s second novel with Honno Press, We That Are Left was published in February this year. As Heather Pardoe, Juliet’s also working on a serial for The People’s Friend. You can find out more about Juliet at her fascinating blog

I would also like to thank fellow Choc Lit author, Linda Mitchelmore who also invited me to join this blog hop earlier in the year. Linda’s fifth novel, Red is for Rubies has just become available. You can read more about Linda and her novels here

And so, to more about my writing process...

What am I working on?

Hmm, well, I’ve got several projects on the go! I’ve just started writing my fourth romantic novel … it was inspired by a ‘secret’ path and a beautiful Georgian house on the coast where I live and I don’t really want to say much more than that! I’m working (very slowly) on building a poetry collection, I’ve got the opening chapters of a much darker novel about friendship and betrayal and I’d also like to complete a non-fiction project I’ve started. Guess that’s going to keep me pretty busy.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

It differs because I write in my own voice! My romantic novels are published by Choc Lit, but that’s where the similarity to any other Choc Lit author ends; we’re all different characters writing very different books

Why do I write what I do?

Because I have to – it’s part of me, of who I am.

How does my writing process work?

Hah! I wish I had a simple answer to that one. My novels always begin with a strong image in my mind’s eye, like a ‘still’ from a film. With Turning the Tide it was seeing a troubled young woman, Harry, sitting alone by the side of creek. With Move Over Darling, I saw Coralie, looking out of her workshop at the snow and with Follow A Star, I saw May, with her rucksack slung over her shoulder hoofing it down a lonely road. Then I start a new notebook, and, these days, a Pinterest board, and keep interrogating the scene – this part takes ages – until I know enough about the characters and setting to trust myself to start writing their stories.

With poetry the process is often started by something I’ve seen that needles me until I write about it – watching the farmer outside my window break the ground to turn a field over to housing, seeing the resemblance between my dad’s feet and mine when he lay on a bed in A&E.

What my work has in common, whether it’s long or short fiction, poetry or non-fiction is that it’s about my attempts to make sense of the world, to set those thoughts and feelings down in words in the hope that it might strike a chord with readers.

The next stops on the writing process tour, on Monday 12 May, will be …

Please welcome debut novelist, Janice Preston
Janice lives in the West Midlands with her second husband and two cats. She is excitedly waiting for the publication in August 2014 of her first novel, Mary and the Marquis – a Regency romance for Harlequin Mills and Boon Historicals. You can find Janice at her new blog: on Facebook and on Twitter @janicegpreston

And drum roll please for my fellow ChocLiteer, Mandy James

Mandy has not one but two novels out this month! Somewhere Beyond the Sea and Dancing in the Rain

(PS I should also add that my own writing process is quite slow!)

Mandy lives in glorious Cornwall. You can find out more about her at her blog, on Facebook and on Twitter @akjames61

Happy Endings, New Beginnings

Blended families come with conflicting loyalties and at Christmas time nearly everyone has somewhere else they feel they ought to be. Throw partners into the equation and it gets even more complicated. Since Tom and I aren’t especially hung up about Christmas we’re happy to let our children go with the strongest flow, but I have to say it was a great delight to have the girls and their partners staying with us this year. When such moments are few and far between they become very precious. My stepsons weren’t far from our thoughts either, not least because we had the very happy news on Christmas Day that my elder stepson and his girlfriend had become engaged. Congratulations Dan and Gill, here’s wishing you every happiness together. Tom and I end a year that has seen the fruition of many years work, both of us crossing important thresholds within weeks of each other. I’m really looking forwards to seeing Turning the Tide published next year and it’s been so satisfying, after al...

Fly Free, Dottie Do

‘How many days to my birthday?’ Ma asks. I do a quick calculation. ‘Eighteen,’ I reply. ‘Eighteen days until your ninetieth birthday.’ Ma pulls a face and shakes her head. Every sentence is hard work for her now, when each breath is a struggle. ‘You’ll have to write a book about this, you know,’ she says, with one of her quick, mischievous smiles. ‘“Carry On Dying”. Make ‘em laugh, make ‘em cry.’ The smile fades. ‘Who knew,’ she adds wearily, ‘that dying would be such a palaver?’ It’s only eleven days since Ma was diagnosed with a high-grade, aggressive lymphoma, four days since she was overwhelmed with pain and breathing difficulties and was admitted as an emergency to hospital. Until a few weeks ago, she lived completely independently; shopping, cooking, cleaning and tending her much-loved garden. The deterioration in her health is shockingly rapid. The eight days preceding her death are a living hell, a constant battle with the ward staff to get Ma the pain relief she’s been p...

Since You've Been Gone

Well, Ma Mère, There have been so many times when I’ve gathered up all the little shiny moments I’ve collected during the day, ready to present to you in our evening phone call and then I remember all over again that you’re not there. But, Mum, so much has happened since you’ve gone - maybe you know, maybe you don’t - that I’ve decided to write to you instead. A few days after you died, we sold our house! After all those months! We even joked about you rattling cages somewhere. At first, nothing happened and then suddenly everything happened at a breathless pace and the next thing I knew I found myself driving (yes, me, driving!) along the M4 to Bridgend and the Time Capsule House, the one you said you and Dad would have bought. I remarked, when we first viewed it that if it was meant for us, it would come to us. Over a year later, when it had been under offer twice, we moved in. Oh, Mum, you and Dad would have loved this house; it’s peak Seventies and the decor - the pampas ensu...

Home Thoughts Weekly

Search This Blog