‘Passage to Greenland.’

April was a satisfying month for me on two counts. I finished the preliminary draft of my latest novel and in the last couple of weeks I researched and put together a PowerPoint presentation on Jane Austen in readiness for my lecture cruise in August.

‘Passage to Greenland’ is now with my editor. I don’t think I’ve ever written a first draft in so short a time. My initial rewrites didn’t take nearly as long either. One of the major difficulties of not plotting my novels in detail before I start writing is that as time goes on, the plot tends to wander and may not hang together. It needs a fair amount of tinkering on the first readthrough before I’m satisfied that it works. The second problem is that the characters end up being inconsistent.

I’m hoping that the reason my rewrites involved far less work than normal is because having completed the first draft in half the usual time, I was able to keep hold of the threads that much better. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that when my editor returns it, her comments won’t also involve so much work! She’s taking her time getting back to me. Here’s hoping that’s because she’s busy with other things rather than making note of all the things I need to look at.

It will be interesting to see her reaction to the new series. When ‘Murder in Morocco’ the first of my Aunt Jessica mysteries came out, several of my beta readers didn’t like it as much as the Fiona Mason novels. It’s surprising how resistant to change we can be as readers. I vividly remember when one of my favourite writers Lindsey Davis abandoned her protagonist Falco after twenty novels and created a new series featuring his daughter Flavia Albia, I was far from happy. However, a new Alba novel is now one of the highlights of my reading year.

‘Passage to Greenland’ takes place on a cruise ship and though it’s still a travel mystery set on a holiday, it’s a little different to the other books. As I spent so much time on cruise ships in 2020, it seemed a natural thing for me to do. Ultimately, it will be you my readers to decide!

Would you like to receive a prepublication copy of my book?

In the coming months, I shall be looking for two types of pre-readers.

Firstly, I have a couple of places for beta-readers to join my experienced team. These are people who can offer me critical feedback on my manuscript pointing out errors, plot holes, inconsistencies, and unclear passages within two to three weeks of receiving the manuscript. Several of my team are writers themselves, but that is not a prerequisite. If you are a critical reader and can help me improve the manuscript then I’d be happy to hear from you.

It always helps to attract new readers when a book is launched for it to have reviews straight away. I’m hoping to publish ‘Passage to Greenland’ in the Summer and, if all goes well, I shall be looking for pre-publication readers round about June a month or so before publication.