Well, a three book deal was signed so I'd better get on with it! Book 4 did, eventually, end up in a primitive first draft in ten weeks but only with about fifty extraneous characters and few descriptions, mostly because they would normally go in the next edits. It was painful sending a poorly finished draft off, especially as the editor (naturally) noticed all the flaws and nonsense that had crept in. I just hope it gets sorted out in the structural edit, although I have less time to turn that in as well. They wanted book 4 to come out on 18 July, which seems unnecessarily quick to me. I'm used to waiting a year for my favourite authors to throw out the next book!
So at the moment (4 April) book 3 (Dreams of the Cottage by the Sea) has just come out, Book 4 (Coming Home to the Cottage by the Sea) is up for preorders and book 5 is in outline stage ready to start writing it. It feels like there's an awful lot going on in my head!
I'm enjoying the process and I'm starting to see some financial benefits, especially as books 2 and 3 have been commissioned in audiobook as well. But it's very hard to make a living from writing, as everyone who has ever tried knows, so I'm still working to keep the series going. I am getting fretful about my crime book which is so nearly finished, and hopefully I can get into the last few chapters at some point in May and send it off to an editor to spruce it up.
Meanwhile, I have computer woes. i hate using the Mini Mac I bought last year, Word doesn't work the same and I'm an unsophisticated creature of habit. So I'm looking out for a new PC, which my son might build for me. The last one he did (only overwhelmed by all the new software that it had to take on) lasted for ages and loads of books. But it's too old for Windows 10 really, and can't cope with all the track changes in the new version of Word so needs a reboot.
