There's a big yellow thing in the sky again today and suddenly
everybody is looking happy. People are even starting to mutter the
S word.
Not me though. The imminent arrival of Spring has the opposite
effect on me from the rest of the world because it's the time of
year when my blissfully simple existence becomes rather more
complex. Or to put it another way, the one trick pony has to start
juggling.
First up, NOW YOU SEE ME (NYSM) is in proof form and being sent
out to the opinion formers of the publishing world. They may not
all be kind. I'm not the new girl on the block any more and I can't
expect they'll cut me any slack. Which could be a problem, because
NYSM is my favourite child. I was fully prepared for people to be
ambivalent about BLOOD HARVEST (long and torturous pregnancy,
agonising delivery) - but NYSM has been a delight from start to
finish. If readers don't love it as much as I do, it will hurt. And
I can't bunker down in a dark room, keeping my ears closed. I have
to give interviews, write articles, talk to libraries and book
clubs, have my hair done and wear shoes with heels.
On top of that, D(deadline) Day for Work-In-Progress is drawing
near. Actually it's the end of the week and, as I continually
remind myself, an author is only as good as her last book. So,
around noon on Friday, I will send it. She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed will
pick up her red pen, little horns will sprout from her temples and
editing season begins. Regular visitors will know what that does to
me.
And it's sad, as well as nerve-wracking, when a Work-in-Progress
comes to an end and I have to say goodbye to the characters who've
taken up most of the room in my head for so long.
This year there's the added complication that I have to submit
ideas for future books. Now, I know I like to say that ideas are
the easy bit (and to some extent that's true) but taking an idea,
that can probably be expressed in a couple of sentences at most,
and turning it into something that might satisfy a notoriously
hard-to-please editor is another matter entirely. Especially when
all I really have up my sleeve at the moment is:
1. Body in river
2. Nasty thing in church
3. Black magic in Peckham
4. Kid knows more than he should
No really, that is as far as I've got. Yet, by the end of March,
each must have a complex but credible plot, strikingly original and
yet grounded in reality. Each will have to be heavy on atmosphere
and meticulously researched with the forensic science/spooky
folklore combination that has become my trademark. Each must be a
fully developed story in miniature, just waiting to be written.
So to recap, while I'm planning at least three new books,
(She-Who-Must … likes to have a choice), I'll be editing
Work-In-Progress and promoting NOW YOU SEE ME. That's at least five
stories I'll have to store in a head that normally only handles
one.
Autumn's the season I love. When the ploughed fields look like
dark chocolate and the air feels like a polo mint on your tongue
(line from Blood Harvest). When small child goes back to school and
I can lock myself away with the dog and a packet of biscuits, gain
half a stone and lose myself in a world that always feels so much
more exciting than the real one.
Ah well, next September will come around eventually. In the
meantime, I have Spring to get through.