Sunday 1 November 2015

Busy, busy, busy

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Biba platform shoes, 1970s, V&A Museum
Sorry for no blog posts recently (!) but I have goodish reasons!

Since the RNA Conference - which went very nicely, thank you, and at which I was shortlisted for the Elizabeth Goudge Trophy for Different Rules, I've actually been writing.

(Writing, of course, does go on, even when we are busy doing other things. That absent look in a writer's eye? They don't mean to be impolite. They are writing.)

Anyway, Different Rules is resting, pending comments and suggestions, so I started on an idea I had for a Woman's Weekly serial. Only Dancing has such a complicated structure that I discovered it was easier to write the whole thing rather than explain it to my editor. This is really not how you write a serial. Fortunately it worked, she liked it, and it will appear in the magazine early next year.

But...

But...

But I really like this story and I wanted it longer.

So I've doubled it in size and I still like it, but contractual obligations mean I can't publish it until next year, so this one has been set aside to rest as well. (Only Dancing is what the shoes in the photo are illustrating, by the way, but I'm afraid you'll have to wait to find out why.)

Which leaves the problem of what I'm going to put out THIS year.

So I have dusted off my very first serial, An Ordinary Gift. I still like this one too, but oh, it is crying out to be expanded.

Going in...


5 comments:

Jane said...

Good luck!!

lilypadmeulin said...

Oh my gosh I've read the first part of Only Dancing and I adore it!!!!!!

Jan Jones said...

Oh, aren't you lovely, India. Thank you so much for letting me know. I hope you enjoy the other instalments too.

I'm just proof-reading the long version, then it will go up on Kindle for publication next year.

Unknown said...

Hello there, is Only Dancing available to read elsewhere? I came across the first two installments and now I'm hooked!

Jan Jones said...

Oh, I'm so sorry, Denny. ONLY DANCING won't be out in ebook form until next February, I'm afraid, due to contractual obligations. Thank you for letting me know you like the first two parts though!