“The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress.”
—Philip Roth
—Philip Roth
My blog posts are few and far between these days. I have been writing though. I finished the first draft of Indian Diaries- Speedy, I know but its only approx 10,000 words and really it is a skeleton draft- just the bare bones– now they are with Urmi for her comments. I think its gonna be a great little kindle book – we might even get our heads around the epub format and put it on Good Reads and other sites to download.
I have started writing a little marketing plan so we will be a bit more organised before it is even released.
The good news on GT is that someone I know who was going to Goa on Holiday borrowed a copy. I was expecting a bad review- I dont know why I guess because he too is a writer (and we are always critical- aren't we?) but actually the review was pretty good- giving me way more confidence in the book. The friend in question is coming around next week for a chat and as I read his book as well we are going to exchange notes.
The one interesting comment was the front cover (the old wooden door)- he did not like it! I loved my front cover and this was the first negative comment I received about it. It will be interesting to hear his thoughts . Lets see what they come up with for The Bittersweet.
I have not heard back from the publisher yet (last month I signed the publishing contract offer and returned it) but my agent warned me to expect a delay. I think that’s the norm with publishers. I am being patient- although I cant help but think- what if they retract it!!! But I am pushing those thoughts aside. Instead, I am on a mission to finish the first draft of Under the Coconut Tree. Just the skeleton one. It will need a lot of work after this but at least if I have the bare bones I will feel like I have accomplished it. I am about 10,000 words away and my target is the 24th March! It’s the denouement time or unravelly end bit – as I prefer to call it, which I find is always a bit of a mission!
I keep telling myself that I am going to achieve this deadline. With a further deadline of the end April to get a first readable draft together.
I then might do something radical (well for me) and start writing The Body in the Bath (Chupplejeep novel two) so that I perfect characters and can go back to one and make amends to character details. These characters have to be uber three dimensional to really draw the reader in – as I have said before these books will be more about the characters and local life than plot- but don’t worry there will be a good plot as well!!! It just wont be the main focus- if you know what I mean- the Chupplejeep Mysteries are going to be a feast for readers – the books are going to explode with tiny details that will completely transport you to another world! This other world being rural Goa.
Also after April I plan to finish writing ‘Living the Dream’ – I have constructed a good and complex plot as a follow up for Bittersweet. I think my impatient side is calming down. With what’s in my writing plan I wont be able to show my agent Living The Dream until November this year! – I would like to say summer but I doubt that will happen. Anyway I also have to see how The Bittersweet Vine is going to go, when it will be published and I am sure re-writes and publicity and marketing will take up quite a bit of my time.
What I have learnt thought is to always have something on the go – have writing mini breaks – but always be working on something – in this industry (unless you are just self publishing) there will always be gaps of tortuous waiting periods. Knowing that you can work on something else that you can self publish if needs be is a great feeling.
Ohhh which reminds me – not that I am getting ahead of myself or anything, but I have been looking at Blurb to self publish Indian Diaries – if, and only if, it does well on Kindle.
And on another note I also downloaded some guided meditation aps to chill out- I believe that I am suffering product fatigue! Yes this exists I read it somewhere although I read it in a different context – it was about being fed up for putting chemical products on our skin(yes the biggest organ in our bodies- our skin and we continually put chemicals on it) but this is another matter- quite frankly I cant afford organic – so I am going to let this one go. But I mean product fatigue as in there are so many products around us. So much we want, so much we aspire to be- it all gets on top of us. I decided that meditation now and again would help me. H overhead my app and accused me of being middle aged!!!! Ahhh well- I think its helping we achieve calm (one of my new years resolutions). Funny how we should be able to sit in silence and let go of everything but we don’t until someone (on an app) tells us to!
- and yes I am signing up to the on line grammar course next month!
