The Dream – Tweaking and proofing Book Two

I’ve been very  quiet here on the blog recently because I’ve been channelling the writing time that I have (very precious, these days) into finishing the manuscript of the next book in the Everyday Magic trilogy.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been learning so much about writing in a different way. With an eight month old baby to take care of, I’m no longer able to fully immerse myself in the world of my work-in-progress, as I used to do at this point in the process. But I have managed  some three-hour stretches, here and there, when my wonderful parents have taken Violetta out for the afternoon.

I’ve loved every minute of returning to the story of Ella and Fabbia and inhabiting the everyday through their eyes. And my own experiences as a new mother have inevitably found their way into the plot.

A funny thing happened with Book One, The Dress. Whatever I wrote about in the fictional setting of that book had a curious habit of coming true in my own life. For example, I wrote about Ella having a baby girl, months before I knew that I would give birth to my own. And before my daughter was born, I’d already written half of Book Two, in which Ella struggles with balancing writing and new motherhood. There are all sorts of little details in the early part of that book that I couldn’t possibly have known would be so relevant to my own life now. Or could I?

Perhaps this was me tapping into what my subconscious already knew about the future. Perhaps I was creating a fictional world that I myself would choose to live in.  I don’t know. But it will be interesting to see what happens next as I launch this book!

I really do believe that we write what we need to write; that we end up telling the stories  that we ourselves need to hear.

I have been really touched by the supportive messages on Facebook and the emails I’ve received, urging me on with this book. Although I feel a little nervous and hope that I won’t disappoint people, I’ve found your kindness and enthusiasm enormously motivating. What more could a writer wish for than a group of readers waiting for the next instalment? Thank you so much.

So today I’m making notes on the final draft, tweaking, editing, adding in little details that occur to me in the middle of the night when I’m up feeding Violetta. And then I’ll be sending the manuscript off to a handful of beta-readers and finally for proofing.

I’ll let you know when I’m ready to click ‘Publish,’ hopefully by the end of this month. You can sign-up for my occasional newsletter over on the right-hand side of this page, if you’d like me to let you know by email; or you can ‘Like’ my Facebook page.

And now back to the tweaking and editing…