I’ve just had an early Christmas present in the form of a great review for Face Value from the website: Focus on Style.  It couldn’t have come at a better time, as I’ve just finished writing the first draft of my new novel and I’m really excited by it.  

What happens next?  Well, it will make its merry way to agents and publishers and fingers crossed they will love it as much as I do.  I decided not to submit it and try to get an advance up front as I wanted to see how it would shape up as the story unfolded.  It’s more of a risk,(for all I know they may have commissioned three more just like it)  but it’s more satisfying for me, and I think, important, to know I can complete the novel.  

So I’ll leave it for a week or so before I re-read and make corrections, and then hopefully summon up the courage to email it off in the new year.   For anyone writing a novel, Stephen King wrote a fabulous book called On Writing - and I’ve copied that technique of writing the whole story out, then leaving it (I seem to remember he waits for six weeks)  from him.  For me, you can plot the story as much as you like  - and I do, obviously - but the ending can still change at the last minute.  

This next one (working title Me, Myself, I)  has nothing to do with beauty - I would describe it as an adventurous love story. Early readings from the couple of people who I’ve sent it to chapter by chapter have been beyond favourable, so fingers crossed it will eventually see the light of day!  I really hope so because I am missing the characters already and can’t wait to get back into editing it!  

What can I tell you about it?  It’s about an English couple, living beyond their means, highly social, who swap homes with a couple in Malibu. A holiday in paradise becomes a holiday in hell and as everything starts to unfold our heroine Antonia is left wondering what she really wants from life after all.  Most of the action takes place in Los Angeles, Palm Springs, with quite a bit of London life at the beginning. 

But back to that review.  Here’s the link to Sharon Haver’s Focus on Style website. It’s one of the loveliest reviews I’ve had, so big thanks to Focus on Style!  http://www.focusonstyle.com/stylething/face-value

Kathleen x