Snap judgements

A few weeks ago I attended the Bournemouth Festival of Romance Writing. You can find the post about it in the October archive list. I mentioned then the Slay the Slush Pile panel, when three editors indicated how far they would read in an anonymous script before deciding whether to reject or read on. The speed of the responses was fascinating - and I have to say, somewhat depressing. 

But now I have to admit that I have found myself doing something similar. A realisation that came to me when I sent back a selection on my Kindle that hadn't grabbed me in the sample pages. 

I have always been a die hard library user, from the age of seven, when you were allowed to have your first library card. You had to be able to sign your name and that was when you were expected to have mastered the art of joined up writing. 

My habits have changed quite a bit since becoming a Kindle reader. For a start, I actually buy more books. I still use the library, and am an avid user of the reservations system, but now I buy electronically from my favourite authors so I can have them faster, and keep them! 

My tolerance level seems to have gone down though. Using the sample feature and subscribing to Kindle Unlimited, if it doesn't grab me in the first few pages, back it goes. This may be a factor of getting old - a lot have friends have commented that they now give themselves permission not to finish a book that isn't holding their attention, where in past times they would have soldiered on. Large scale library use might be a factor here. When you have struggled home on the bus with your weekly quota of heavy reading matter it is harder to give up on a book and the hope that if you keep reading it will get better. To be fair, sometimes it did. But not often, And now I don't have the patience. Always more fish/books in the sea.  

Impatience? Yes. But also more choice. If you don't have to commit to carrying it/reading it to the - often bitter - end there is room to experiment. I've taken a chance on an unknown author, a genre I don't usually read, a recommendation from a friend - or an algorithm - and found a new one for the favourites list.   

A little lowering to discover that I am just as quick to make up my mind as those professional panelists? Maybe. 

Moral of the story - that first page matters. 

Christmas reading.

 Regular readers know that I never intended to write a Christmas book. It just sort of crept up on me. What Happens at Christmas has been around a while now, but if you haven't discovered it yet, why not give it a go? I'm still very fond of Drew and Lori and enjoyed telling their story, And, of course, there is snow.

It's got a new cover, and you can get it now on Kindle Unlimited. It's romantic suspense, so it has some dark stuff along with the tinsel and mince pies - but if you are looking for a Christmas read that is a little bit different....

And, of course it has a happy ending. 

  Get it here

Not where but when

 Choosing a location to set a book is an essential part of the preparation process, but at the moment I am not thinking about where - it's going to be the South Wales coast - but when. And no, it's not an historical. 

It's contemporary, but I'm thinking about which season it could be set in. 

In the old days, when books took maybe a year or more to get into print, I don't think it was quite such an issue. Books happened when they happened - or so it seemed to me. 

Now books are season appropriate. With the production rate moving up to two books a year, a summer story and a Christmas offering is often expected as a norm. Indeed, Christmas books certainly seem to be much more of a thing these days.

But now autumn too seems to be moving into the frame. With the emphasis on pumpkin spice, autumn decor, like door wreaths, celebration of Halloween, autumn is also becoming a thing. 

As you know, I'm not a great fan of this time of year, mainly because it's always so dark, but the New Idea seems to be trying to set itself in the autumn. I'm not sure if that is simply because it is autumn, or if something else is going on. Certainly at the moment the Idea is coming up with a gothic tinge to it. You know I'm always threatening to write a gothic romantic suspense. Is this one it? 

There seem to be a lot of creepy houses and stormy moonlit goings-on going on. And did I mention the wolf? No - it's not a shifter romance. Logan is 100% human. He's the hero - he's been wandering around in my ideas bank for a while. She doesn't have a name yet. I'm working on that, but nothing has felt right so far. 

Maybe once that happens I'll have a better grip on what exactly is happening here. 

Research Threads

 Research takes many forms - and not all of them are procrastination, honest. Sometimes you need to look up something specific like character names, or breeds of dog, or train frequencies. Other times it is deeper stuff - building blocks to an idea, inspiration, background colour. And sometimes those odd strands coalesce and form - well, something quite unexpected. 

In the last few weeks I have several things that I am chalking up as research. My visit to the Russel Cotes Museum and Gallery in Bournemouth was one, as I have a number of ideas in the melting pot that will involve a Victorian house. 

Then, on a trip to London and a visit to one of my favourite occult bookshops - Watkins in Cecil Court,  I located a book that was on my wish list - Of Dove and Ravens by Benjamin Stimpson which is Welsh folklore and will again feed ideas into ongoing projects. I've just written what I hope is a creepy scene involving the Mari Lwyd  - which is a horse skull on a pole - for the WIP, and as that book has a character reputed to be a local witch who has just made her first appearance I'm looking forward to other traditional folklore I can use. The last thing I did in London was a trip to the play Born with Teeth which explored the relationship between Elizabethan playwrights Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare. I've long had a manuscript idea that hinges on such a relationship so it was a must see. And a memorable one with  Ncuti Gatwa and Edward Bluemel in bravura performances. 

All of these were to feed the inspiration bank, adding layers to ideas I am already working on or will be working on in the future. And then as sometimes happens an idea that I'd had a considerable time ago and not developed suddenly surfaced, gathered some of these elements up and became ... well, something. Separate bits smooshed themselves together and started to demand attention. I'm not sure where we are going, but I like what I'm seeing so far.  Whether it will be a story or simply idea soup remains to be seen, but I'm hoping ...