That sinking feeling

October 27, 2014 at 8:04 pm

A year or so ago I completed a manuscript for the Christian market. It’s a contemporary romance and I’m now looking for a publisher for it. That thought terrifies me every time I think about it. While I was waiting for the Verindon trilogy to be published, I didn’t consider that there might be a time when I would, once again, have to send a manuscript off to different publishers for consideration. But publishers can be specific about what they publish, and for this manuscript, a different one is required. So now I am, once more, looking over lists of […]

Better than success

October 21, 2014 at 8:42 am

Last week I experienced the thrill of receiving an award for my debut novel, The Heir. Along with a number of other books, The Heir won the silver award in the YA science fiction category from Literary Classics. It was exciting to see my book on their website with a silver foil on the front, indicating the prize I had received. However, what made it even more exciting for me was that other authors also published by Wombat Books received the silver award in other categories as well. LD Taylor received one for her novel, Motive Games, in the faith-based […]

An original idea?

October 13, 2014 at 4:02 pm

One of the most frustrating things I have experienced as an author is to find another novel that is similar to the one I am writing. There’s nothing more deflating than realising someone else has beaten you to the punch with your supposedly original idea. The novel I’m working on the moment is a classic example. I originally wrote How Far Forgive? back in 1998 and I have kept it in mind all this time because I’d never read another book like it. Then I started to work for Rochelle Manners at Wombat Books/Even Before Publishing and she gave me […]

The long and the short of it

October 6, 2014 at 1:37 pm

This week I passed the 60,000 word mark in the novel I’m writing. As it is, again, for the YA market, I can almost hear my publisher saying, ‘Between 50,000 and 70,000 words only!’ I don’t think I’m going to go beyond 70,000, but then, sometimes it’s hard to tell. All three of my other published works, all written for the YA market, came in at over 70,000, so I guess it’s not a hard and fast rule, but how long is too long? Is there such a thing? I remember being surprised when my published told me that YA […]