Oranges and Lemons
November has been a quiet month. With the second Kismet book still at the editor, I have been working on the new novel, but I have found myself procrastinating quite a lot. I am not alone in this; apparently many writers find themselves doing everything they can to avoid writing (emptying the fridge, scrubbing the bathroom, reorganising files on the computer). It doesn’t seem logical as when I get down to it, I love writing! Some people suggest it is a fear of rejection, the idea that your work will not be received well. There are certainly some days when I feel that I am wasting my time. Then something happens – this month my friend sent me a screen shot of a lovely lady who was recommending The Kismet Pension on one of the Facebook sites for people who live in or visit this area – and then all the angst feels worthwhile!
I have been writing this latest book differently to how I have written the other three (two Kismet books and another set in London, which I intend to publish early next year). With those, I always wanted to have a plot in place. This would be a list of scenes and a sentence or two of what happened in each. While I often changed things – swapping the order, adding in scenes, scrapping some and including the action in another scene – I felt as though I needed that structure in order to see where I was going. With the new book, I have mostly just written, with a few notes about the things I wanted to cover. This is a debate amongst authors who divide into ‘plotters’ and ‘pantsers’ (ie. those who write ‘by the seat of their pants’). It seems I am somewhere in the middle!
I am thinking about publicity for the second Kismet book (called Speaking Out – cover to be revealed soon!) and have found one book blogger who is happy to post a guest blog, in the form of some questions and answers about the book. I hope to find others, though frustratingly some of them review mainly traditionally published books – many of which are by authors already famous and enjoying good sales. It would be nice if more bloggers featured unknown authors, but I suppose given that a number of agents – who are supposed to be good at spotting potential bestsellers – turned down Harry Potter, it is a bit much to expect a keen but amateur reader to champion a new author!
November may be the last month of autumn, but it is about the only month that feels like autumn here. We don’t have a lot of deciduous trees to give us a colourful display but I did see this Virginia creeper the other day which was stunning. In the market, the melons and peaches have been replaced by apples and citrus, though I don’t know how they sell the latter since walking around, it seems that everybody has a couple of trees in their garden and at the moment they are all laden with oranges, mandarins and lemons. I was given so many mandarins that I started trying out recipes. The mandarin cake was pleasant, the marmalade is delicious and the liqueur has been put away for Christmas! I now have a pile of kumquat to get through. These also make very good marmalade, or they can just be eaten whole – peel and all.
No new mountains conquered this month, but a lovely couple of hikes and a cycle round the peninsula.
I have had more time for reading and seem to have gravitated towards crime and thrillers this month. Here are three very different stories that I enjoyed:
Apples Never Fall – Leanne Moriarty
This is a family saga with a mystery at its heart. Joy Delaney has gone missing and her four adult children are trying to find out what might have happened and why their father seems so unconcerned. There is also a mysterious stranger who turned up at their parents’ house the previous year and stayed for some time. A television mini series has been made of it and while it is enjoyable, the book is much better, cleverly crafted in the way it reveals information and the different perspective of each character.
Nothing to See Here – Susan Lewis
In this book, there is no question of whether a crime has been committed: sixteen years previously three women were murdered and a young girl went missing. The makers of a popular true crime podcast decide to investigate – and uncover new information. The characters are brilliantly written and like the above book, we learn how diverse different people’s perceptions can be.
The Lost Past of Billy McQueen – Neil Alexander
I loved this book! Billy returns to Ireland after thirty years when he hears that his estranged mother has had a stroke. Again there is a mystery to be solved, in the form of the disappearance of Conor, Billy’s first and only love. While Billy and his friend, Aine, do solve the mystery, the story is more about how that disappearance affected Billy and about the huge changes in society in those thirty years.
Happy reading!
Melanie