Oh Lordy.  Secrets went to print today.  It’s like sending a child off to school for the first day – you know they’ll be fine without you.  You know they’re ready to go.  You know you have to let go…  BUT still you want to keep bringing them back to check they have absolutely everything they need.  And one more kiss.  And stay waving until they’re quite gone from sight. And you then feel utterly bereft.

I’m a perfectionist – much to the frustration of my publishers.  Some authors I know can’t wait to see the back of their books – they are even happy to have minimal involvement in editing.  Me?  I’m an utter control freak.  These are my words, THEY’RE MINE.  HAND’S OFF!  No you can’t change that comma!  No I don’t want to use ‘green’ instead of ‘verdant’!  No I’m not changing her age/ his hair colour/ the last two paragraphs of that chapter….  I’m obsessive about every adjective (yes yes, some are made up, I know!), every semi-colon, when a word MUST be in italics, (or in brackets), or when I need * * * (three please, one * won’t do) between paragraphs and not merely a line break.  I can’t abide words being split between two lines.  The spacing has to be just so.  Sometimes I choose a word as much for its physical appearance on the page as for its meaning.  I’m a nightmare control freak mad woman.  But I do it because I care SO much about my work, my characters, their story – and most of all, the reader’s journey with them. I hope I’ve done you proud wtih Secrets.  I hope you’ll love reading my 10th novel as much as I loved researching and writing it.

No matter how many people proof read, regardless of how many times we go over the text, there’s always a typo or two which escape.  If you find one, please let me know!  I’ll be mortified!  I’ll be on the phone, barking at my poor publisher, in a jiffy…

Tags | Secrets, writing