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Wednesday 21 September 2011

Research and other stuff . . .

I spend today working on the plot for a children's/YA novel set in the middle ages. I've got a few cheap second-hand academic texts but they only get you so far. So then it's the internet and that's a writer's greatest time-thief. Before I know it I'm reading fascinating stuff of no relevance to the plot.

I turn it off and go back to the strange diagrams that are emerging on the blue paper I'm using, with arrows pointing everywhere and strange little notes that even I will struggle to understand this time next week. By mid-afternoon, I'm veering towards a decision to set the story in Britain, even though I'd thought about Galicia originally, somewhere on the Camino de Santiago. Trouble is, to write about that properly I feel I ought to go there. And we spent all our money this summer. I don't think I could persuade the family to walk the pilgrim road from the Pennines to Compostela.

This is a part of writing I know I'm going to struggle with; the intricate details of a plot for a mystery novel. It's the first time I've tried something like this, and setting it in the middle ages has only complicated the issue further. Still, challenge is the best way to learn.

No clues, but . . . there was a thriving trade in stolen religious relics during the middle ages.

Wednesday 7 September 2011

It's been a long time . . .

. . . since I posted anything. The summer has spluttered to a halt, though I'm surprised it made it as far as it did. The man who cleaned the carpets today told me Easter is the new summer, as we waited for the torrential rain to ease so he could load up his van.

Next week I'm getting a proof copy of The Court Painter's Apprentice, due to be published in the new year. It's been a ridiculously easy ride getting this out, compared to my previous experience. And I think that's largely down to the brilliance and energy of my editor, Non at Catnip.

When somebody says 'have you thought about this?' and you haven't, even though you've read the manuscript 100 times, then you know you're onto a good thing. She has the uncanny ability to inspire confidence. And she does what she says she's going to do, which is always welcome because writers sometimes live in a kind of hopeful space, waiting for the next email or rejection slip.

If I ever doubted the idea of a writer needing a good editor, that opinion is now a permanent resident in my mind.