Sorry for the long delay in updating my blog. I don't really have a valid excuse. I've been busy doing lots of things and the time just got away from me.
Anyway, in book news, I finally finished a draft of my Victorian erotic romance novel
IN THE FLESH, and it's now with my agent, and I'm awaiting her verdict. This book has been a huge challenge for me. A new sub-genre with a new publisher. I've already written quite a few
Spice Briefs for
Harlequin, but a 100K+ word single title novel is a whole new ball game. Working in a historical setting for a longer work has been hard work, because I've only ever done contemporary novels before. Every fact, and it seems like nearly every other word and phrase has to be checked for historical accuracy. You can't just bowl along willy-nilly 'talking' the way we do nowadays. I'm sure
IN THE FLESH still has more than its fair share of anachronistic speech etc, but I have tried to at least get a flavour of the times, and be as accurate as I can to the best of my researching ability. But, I'm not a history scholar, just an average writer with a passionate interest in all things Victorian, so it's not going to be 100% perfect on the historical score.
But despite all the hard work and angsting over the thing, I feel hugely happy to have done it, and eager to do more in the same vein. I also feel proud that I've pushed myself to do something that was out of my usual comfort zone, because I think it's made me grow as a writer. I feel I've achieved something. And I think it's particularly important for someone like me, who's no longer a young writer, to keep on stretching themself, and learning new things and new skills.
So, what's next? Well, no doubt my agent will have some suggestions for
IN THE FLESH and that might mean a bit more work on it, but hopefully in the next week or so it'll be off to the editor and then I'll be keeping all my fingers and toes crossed that it makes her grade. But obviously, I won't be just sitting around waiting to hear the verdict. At the moment, I'm still working in the Victorian era, weaving another of my
LADIES' SEWING CIRCLE tales. I've got a contract to do two more, and this first one of those is provisionally titled
A GENTLEWOMAN'S RESCUE and is about Miss Lucy Dawson, a bespectacled bicycle riding spinster, who sees herself as a bit of an ugly ducking and has philosophically resigned herself to a solitary life... or at least a life without a man. That is, until she tumbles off her bicycle in the rain, on a lonely country road and is rescued by a handsome rustic Adonis who takes her to his cottage to recuperate...
After
RESCUE, I'll be writing the next Sewing Circle Lady's story, but I don't have a title for that, and I'm still mulling over a few different ideas. It'll be fun though! And when that's turned in, I'll be seriously applying myself to writing the outline and character biographies for my second Victorian Spice novel. No firm details on that yet, but I'll definitely be setting it in the same 'world' as
IN THE FLESH and
THE LADIES' SEWING CIRCLE.
Also in the pipe is my sweeter novel for Samhain Publishing,
FAR FROM PERFECT. I don't have any publication date for that yet, but I'm hoping to get edits on that soon, and then I'll know more.
That's all for now, but hopefully when I've worked on it to my satisfaction, I'll soon be able to post an excerpt of
A GENTLEWOMAN'S RESCUE.
The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
