Why are some authors like harp seals?

Hurrah! Who Wants To Live Forever is out in the world. Yay! This will be—allegedly—Georgia Pattison's last case. 

And, as is always the case, the most enjoyable part of writing any book is…the writing. So, where do harp seals come into this, I hear you ask. Because it is the bit after the birth of the book that is a complete pain in the neck. Let me explain.

Did you know snakes have no maternal instincts? At all. They lay eggs and don’t bother to hang about to see if they hatch or if the snakelets manage to fight off predators. Female harp seals are little better. They are glued to their pups for about 2 weeks, during which, mum doesn’t eat anything. After that, she abandons her offspring—presumably to nip up to the local fish shop. 

Some authors, of whom I am one, are a bit like that. 

We get the “great idea”, play “What-if?” for a while to see if it has legs, and jot down a few notes or create a detailed plot line. We “see” our characters, imagine them in different scenarios. Then, we sit and write that first draft, which for this author, is a white-hot, full-pelt, romp through about 90,000 words, not bothering to agonise as to whether any particular word is the right one, simply getting the story on the page. Finishing that first draft is a mixed blessing. The story is there, in black and white, but it is never the spectacular, perfect entity that I imagined. And how could it be? But it has been fu

In the case of Who Wants To Live Forever, the what-if? spark was What if someone was murdered at a wedding and then it transpired the victim was..... And off I went.

Then begins the sojourn in the Editing Cave. Some authors love editing. I have grown to quite like it. This is the time when I can agonise over making sure I have the right word in the right place. First of all, does the structure of the book hold together? Are there any plot holes, anywhere where your reader is going to say How did she know that? Have the clues been seeded carefully enough? One of my readers paid me the enormous compliment of saying I went back and the clue was there and I still didn’t see it.

And, as with snakes and harp seals, it is time for the fledgling to leave the nest—or be kicked out of it. I always do promo for a couple of weeks, but then, just like the snakelets and harp seal cubs, it has to fend for itself. My books don’t so much get launched, as slide in through the back door. Why? Because the joy is in the writing, not in the promotion. And, allied to that, I cannot force anyone to buy my books and neither would I want to. But mostly, because I am usually in the process of trying to produce the next book, which will be perfect.

So for the next two weeks Who Wants To Live Forever will be looked after, shown to the world, and nurtured in the hope that a few people buy it, yes, but that they also enjoy it. And after that, it will fend for itself, except when I get a spare few minutes to think about tweeting it or Facebooking it. 

If you would like to read Who Wants to Live Forever, you can find it here: https://mybook.to/RRGsWE

But until January, I shall give the keyboard—and myself— a rest. 

A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous 2023 to you all!

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