My friend Lisa Hill (that night be pushing it a little as I’ve only met her two or three times but without sounding like a psycho, I hope she becomes a friend as the advice she has given me this year, having been through the Romantic Novelists Association’s New Writer’s Scheme has been very welcome) has completed the first draft of the sequel to her fabulous book ‘Heart in the Right Place’, For anyone who did not see my guest blog post in August, read about it here.
Seeing Lisa’s recent social media and a photo of her laptop showing those magic words THE END, not only excited me as I can’t wait to meet up with her characters once her sequel is printed, it also inspired me to keep going with my own manuscript which now stands at …. drum roll please … 56,000 words (32,540 at the end of October, so bravo for #NaNoWriMo).
I want to reach 60,000 by the end of this week so that I have a barrow load of words to throw on the muck pile and start rifling through for treasure next week. Next week .. when I shall be attending a writing conference. YES! Ha! Yours truly (*feel like a total fraud*) shall be sat amongst a group of five published authors and unpublished writers, listening to and absorbing every last morsel of advice from Julie Cohen in Devon.
Having died and gone to heaven whilst reading Julie’s book Together, then finding out she ran writing courses, I was as determined to attend one as that mummy penguin shuffling up the icy slope on David Attenborough’s heart-wrenching programme DYNASTIES. The penguin made it to the top, and saved her chick, and I secured the final place on Julie’s writing retreat, so miracles do happen (except my process was far less traumatic).
I know how lucky I am, when so many will be thinking about the onset of Christmas, I shall be ignoring my every-day world, the day job, the family and being totally selfish and writing – Stephen King would be so proud!. His book ON WRITING talks a lot about making time for writing, if you want to do it seriously. In fact, I feel like reading it again.
Man of the Woods and the daughter shall be driving down on the Friday to join me in the wilds of Devon so we can spend a long weekend exploring, so no-one is missing out on the adventure. Son is out of the country (I’m not sure I mentioned that as I’ve been a little quiet around here lately due to NaNo) for five months. He is on the South Island of New Zealand working very long hours on a sheep farm. There are 40,000,000 sheep there and 6,000,000 people … plus him, thoroughly enjoying himself. (Bless, I knew all those pre-school hours – when big sister had started school – spent taking him to cafes and out and about on buses and then trains and planes over the years would help develop his sense of adventure and ability to travel. I’m proud of him, and so far haven’t missed him. Too much…..
