My Writing Process


Lovely Lesley Cookman tagged me to carry on with the 'My Writing Process' blog hop. Lesley writes enjoyable murder-mystery novels published by Accent Press featuring her splendid amateur sleuth Libby Sarjeant.

There are only four questions, so here goes:

What am I working on?

In theory, I am working my way through editing and extending all my magazine serials, and then publishing them on Amazon Kindle. However, having just vastly expanded my romantic suspense Fairlights to the length it always should have been, a couple of spinoffs are waving at me, begging to be written. This happens to me A LOT. A secondary character in one book becomes so interesting, with such a lot of hidden backstory, that they turn into the subject of the next book. Generally this happens in sequence, but one of the Fairlights spinoffs will be a little different. When I was originally describing the house, I wrote a throwaway line of explanation ... which has since become a fully fledged storyline! So I am currently revisiting a previous genre of mine and writing Ravell’s Luck: the Regency Fairlights story!

How do my stories differ from others in genre?

Everybody writes with their own voice. Every writer has an idea of what they want to include in their story. I write in several genres (contemporary, romantic suspense, Regency, cosy mysteries), but whichever one it is, I like to think that my stories are the sort of thing that could happen to anyone - even the slightly paranormal elements.

Why do I write?

That's simple. I write because I can. And because I can’t not.

Most people have some sort of creative urge. We need the satisfaction of making something that wasn’t there before. It could be growing plants, knitting or writing computer programs. It could be painting, playing music, inventing sudoko grids, doing cross stitch or even tackling double-entry bookkeeping and seeing all the numbers adding up the way they should at the end. I feel very strongly that not doing something you have a talent for is a waste. It frets us, niggles at our minds. People should play to their strengths because it’s why we have them. I can write, I can entertain, so I do. Also it significantly reduces the likelihood of my laying waste to a large swathe of my surroundings in frustration.

How does my writing process work?

 Each book starts with an idea. A phrase, perhaps, or a character. Maybe a line of dialogue or a setting. That idea rolls around gently in my head, gathering new bits and pieces. I often scribble it all down on paper, stream-of-consciousness style, over and over again before it begins to make sense and I have a story. By the time I actually start writing I will usually know the beginning and the end. I’ll also know my characters and a few hazy milestones along the way. The rest often surprises me - and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The hard part is writing the story. I write best at night in the early stages of a book, when everything is quiet and there are no distractions. I then go over it the next day, and add some more. I repeat the process until I’m only changing the odd word here and there,
then I move on to the next section. It really is two steps back and three steps forward the whole time, but hopefully the manuscript is getting smoother and more cohesive with every iteration.

After it is finished, of course, I have to let people read it - and then the editing starts all over again!


So, that's my writing process. Next, I am passing the baton to the very talented writer Beryl Kingston. Beryl doesn't have a blog of her own, so she is being hosted by the equally splendid Jenny Haddon.
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Fairlights!

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My new book - FAIRLIGHTS - is up on Amazon.

This is my Mary Stewart book. I first discovered romantic suspense in her pages, as indeed did everyone else at the time, and I fell in love with her power of description from the first sentence. FAIRLIGHTS is dedicated to her, for the many happy hours she has given me.

FAIRLIGHTS is set on the west Cumbrian coast. It's full of stormy seas, family friction, an old house and a gorgeous, enigmatic hero. And a heroine who doesn't realise she has a problem until it dawns on her that she is missing a chunk of memory.

It's a short novel - 32Kwords - but fully formed. And it has the most gorgeous cover from the very talented Jane Dixon Smith.

[FAIRLIGHTS was first published in a very much abridged form in Woman's Weekly in 2012. It has been so lovely to flesh it out to the size it was always meant to be.]
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Penny gets her Just Desserts

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Accent Press have now published the second in my series of Penny Plain mystery novellas.

It is called Just Desserts and features Penny (of course), Leo (equally of course), ice cream, a WI show, a missing 1950s test aircraft, odd bits of rivalry, a secret lab, a daughter behaving oddly...

I think it might be best if you just bought it.

Links to Amazon.com

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My Kindle books are on Amazon.com - and indeed Amazon-dot-everywhere - so I thought I would try finding them and posting the links here.

Deep breath. Here goes:

Penny Plain 1: The Jigsaw Puzzle - An old jigsaw puzzle leads to a new phase in Penny's life

Written on the Wind: Mystery novella with Celtic trees set on the North Yorks Moors

Fortunate Wager: Secrets and subterfuge on the Regency racecourse

There, hopefully clicking on the links will take you there. For the UK links, just click on the sidebar!
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Penny Plain comes to Accent Press!

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I am delighted to announce that my Penny Plain Mystery novellas have found a home with Accent Press.

These are the expanded versions of the People's Friend serials, but all in one place on your Kindle, without the need to wait for a week between chapters to see what happens next.

The first of the four stories is out now. It is called The Jigsaw Puzzle and is sparked off by the discovery of a strange jigsaw puzzle in Penny's late mother's cupboard.

The cover of the e-book has been taken from part of the real jigsaw puzzle that I really found when clearing out my own late mother's cupboard.

(The rest of the real story is far more mundane than the story I invented for Penny!)
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Penny Plain - the final episiode

The final part of Penny Plain for Christmas is out this week, featuring a heroic charge through the snow, a nativity with provisos, a real baby birth in a church and a happy-ever-after. Now how could anyone resist that?

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Happy Christmas reading!
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Penny Plain 4 - part three

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Part Three of Penny Plain: The Christmas Present is in the current issue of People's Friend. Items are still going missing, the mystery of the WW2 wedding photo deepens - and Leo's son arrives to spend Christmas in Salthaven.

Only a couple of days until the final episode is out!
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Penny Plain 4 - part 2

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Sorry - blogging late again. You only have a couple of days to buy Part 2 of Penny & Leo's Christmas serial before the new issue comes out on Wednesday.

Go on, you know you want to. It's not often that you find boats, petty theft, Nativities and car boot sales all appearing in the same story.
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Penny Plain for Christmas!

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The fourth Penny Plain serial starts this week in People's Friend and - as the illustration below shows - it is a Christmassy one!

You need to be quick, though, as Part two will be out on Wednesday/Thursday!
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Written on the Wind is live!

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It's finally here. The longer version of Written on the Wind is up on Kindle.

It is set on the North Yorks moors,

it contains a mysterious gardener and an ancient grove of trees

and mobiles

and gingerbread

Enjoy!
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Coming soon...

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I have been reminded today that I haven't posted anything new for a while, so I'm sharing my brand-new cover for an expanded version of Written on the Wind.

The cover is by the very talented Jane Dixon-Smith. I really love it.

This was originally a Woman's Weekly serial, but I'm going to be publishing it as a mystery novella on Kindle very soon. Watch this space.
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Low Tide

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It's a slow, sleepy bank holiday today, so here is a slow, sleepy poem. Enjoy...

  

Low Tide by Jan Jones

River flats, mud flats,
Curving haze-shimmer all along the horizon
Slender silver loops of creek
Otherworld solitary
Impassable

Boats leaning on the river banks
Making slow, crazy-angled love,
mattress half on bunk, half up wall
distant trees feathering the hatch space
endless sky through dangle-curtained windows.

Late afternoon eddy of water
pushing in from the sea
covering the shining mud
sliding the world inexorably upright
returning us to civilisation

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Penny's back!

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The first part of the third Penny Plain serial starts this week in People's Friend magazine. In this mystery, we are introduced to Penny's son Noel, whose girlfriend Caitlin is having trouble with graffiti at her family brewery.

Various characters from previous serials make an appearance, along with a few new ones.

Hope you enjoy!
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(People's Friend issue dated June 22nd 2013)

On being a jobbing writer

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It isn't easy being a writer. Not my sort of writer, anyway. Without contracts or security, but still with an aching need to write, to entertain, to tell stories that readers want to read.

On with the motley by Jan Jones

Doing makework
Hopping from project to project
My whole life spent in the remaindered aisle
eyes darting from shelf to shelf for the
bargain-of-the-moment

Motley, always motley

A scrap of beauty here
A half-elegant phrase there
Buried in the rush for a temporary high
I long for a year’s space
To cloak myself in a world of my own fashioning
To explore leisurely
Spending a day finding just the right word
Knowing my characters down to the base of the iceberg
Security

But the car needs petrol
The children need MP3 players
So it’s on with the motley and smile
And pare the ease of sleep to the bone.

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Visiting with Cupid

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Yes, yes, I know. I'm hardly here, and then I go off visiting. Today I am over at Holly Hepburn's blog putting in my order for Cupid's arrow. Although having read her splendid book, Cupidity, I'm a little worried about him having time for me...
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