I don't normally solicit feedback on my works in progress. Yet I have used Beta Readers twice in recent years, and my first novel was professionally assessed several times. This paid assessor gave feedback over several drafts before I decided to have another draft looked at by a team at a publishing house, for the …
Waiting to see if your new book is selling.
There's a unique anxiety after the release of a novel. It doesn't happen straight away. We are on a buzz when our new book is in the public arena. We're busy marketing while finding new promotional possibilities. We're updating our website and searching for new reviews. Then searching for new reviews again. And again. But …
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Anything you read helps your work in progress
Sometimes I choose what I read carefully. For example, I read H.G. Wells and Ray Bradbury when I worked on my first dystopian novel. My assessor got me to read Joe Keenan as she wanted me to hone in on the farcical elements of my first book. But when I'm reading for pleasure, whatever style …
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I’m replacing an entire character
In my last blog I wrote about writing a summary for a book submission. And although it's for a novel I'm still working on, it hasn't stopped me considering how to pitch it to potential publishers. I've created a 500 word and a 300 word synopsis, and a 200 word summary, in line with what …
Book Review – Anything But Fine by Tobias Madden
I don't usually read Young Adult novels. This book showed up on my socials several times and I browsed, no, I glanced at a bit of information about it. I believed it was a contemporary novel about a rising ballet star who has an accident that changes his life. Well, the last part is correct. …
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Realising your manuscript needs work!
I've just edited the initial draft of my novel set in the 1990s. Like any novel at this early stage, some scenes work, some need work. But for the first time I sense this manuscript needs more work than my recent novels did at this early stage. It's not because it's bad. It's because I …
Recycling characters
Many authors do it. They place their characters in several unrelated books. I've been doing it for a while although I'm planning to stop after my current release, The Midnight Man. And while the major characters in this novel are brand new, a whole range of characters from my novellas Nate and the New Yorker …
Writing about a dream lover
I was listening to Kate Bush. The track was 'Man With the Child In His Eyes' - a song about a mystical lover that waits for the songwriter at bedtime. It has been one of my favourite songs since its release in 1978. Natalie Cole does a beautiful cover version. Its haunting melody was the …
I wrote a sex scene without realising it.
The Midnight Man started with a nightclub scene. At least it did in earlier drafts. In the scene we meet middle aged gay couple, Stanley and Francesco, as they pick up a guy to share their bed for the night. After that opener was an erotic sex scene in which we discover Stanley isn't happy …
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Time to rethink my work in progress
I'm writing this during Covid lockdown. The date is the 9th of July 2021 and due to the Delta variant, we're not allowed to leave our homes here in Sydney unless totally necessary. As I've often mentioned in my blogs, I can't write unless I'm alone without distractions. My husband is home with me and …
kevin klehr - author 