Where Has the Time Gone?

Life in lockdown appears to be affecting people in one of two ways – either they are bored silly and can’t wait to be ‘released’ or frantically busy. The reality is probably that it’s the people at either end of the spectrum who shout loudest to vent their frustrations. Those who’ve learnt to adjust have just got with it.

I’m definitely in the later camp when it comes to feeling overwhelmed by all I have to do (even though I’m the one calling the shots) and wondering how I’m ever going to find time to return to my normal morning’s exercise classes. The most frustrating thing is that I’m still not writing!

I finally managed to get the manuscript of Undercover Geisha off to a new publisher. Now it’s the waiting game. In case they wanted to look at the first Aunt Jessica Novel, I decided to re-edit it and to create a paperback. Even after all the copyediting and proofing done on the book before it was published, I manged to find missing words and typos.

Most of this month has been taken up with re-editing my other mystery series.

I began by designing a new set of covers for all the Fiona Mason novels. (If you click onto my Books – Fiona Mason Mysteries page to the left on the header, you can see all six.) Do let me know what you think.

The first two in the series – Blood on the Bulb Fields and Blood in the Wine – were originally published as paperbacks back in 2007 and 2008. They have long been out of print. I decided it was time to produce paperbacks of all my novels, but first each book would have to be re-edited. It’s been a long process. It is surprising how technology has moved on in that time.  

To date, the first four are now complete and available as paperbacks. I’ve made a start on Book 5 – Blood Across the Divide – which I’d hoped to complete by the end of the month, but other things took over.  

Now that June is here and we’re almost half-way through the year, I’ve decided to take a break from working on the last two novels for a couple of weeks. I’m beginning to wonder if all this time spent re-editing isn’t my form of displacement activity – any excuse not to settle down and get back to work on the latest novel in progress. I can’t say that I’ve ever suffered from the dreaded Writers Block – I’m not short of ideas – but I am a procrastinator. I find it hard to gear myself up each day to sit at the keyboard and be creative. For that reason, I’m determined that June will be a writing month. Once I’m back in the flow, I might allow myself a couple of afternoons a week to return to books 5 and 6.

Do let me know what you think of the new covers and what you’ve been up to.