January - March, 2009
I can’t believe we’re a quarter way through the year. Gawd, what an old person’s thing to say that was! Needless to say, time has flown with my life peppered with highs and lows. Secrets was published in early February as a special edition for the UK airports - some of you loyal readers even made the trip to an airport just to grab a copy. I thank you from my heart.
I’m a perfectionist control-freak when it comes to my novels - some authors are quite content for editing work to be done on their behalf. I throw a hissy fit if anyone dares tinker with even a comma! Although I have done 10 novels in 12 years - an output many people marvel at - I do not ‘churn them out’. Each novel is carefully considered with in-depth research undertaken and by the time I submit it to my publisher, it’s in third draft. To arrive at those 130,000 words of original fiction, many thousands more words are written in the process! Then, after editing and copy-editing (which is to double check if the character’s eyes are blue in one chapter, they’re not suddenly brown in another!) the 5th and final draft of the novel is typeset and two rounds of proof-reading commence. Typesetting is bewildering. Somehow, entire sentences disappear! Elsewhere, paragraphs suddenly appear in italics. Invariably, words are split at the end of a line and look bad for it. Finally the work is ready to be sent to the printers - and I await my final copies.
The thrill of seeing my novels in book form has not diminished over the years. It’s the highlight of so much hard work, hope and energy. Imagine, therefore, how distressing it is when mistakes are made utterly beyond your control…. (more…)
