Publication Day!

It's a big day for The Fire Portrait in the UK! The paperback will be released today, 19th August, followed by the e-book worldwide on the 22nd. Readers in South Africa, Australasia, and North America will have to wait a little longer for the paperback to reach to their shores, but my thanks to you all, wherever you live, if you've pre-ordered to help drive the book up the popularity charts! 

I've been reflecting on the time it takes to get a book from concept to published page...
For my first novel, The Housemaid's Daughter, I laboured for over 6 years, initially self-publishing to stimulate interest. But a little success can breed more success. The subsequent strength of the commercially-published Housemaid, both in English and in its translations, spurred me to start on the next novel. The Girl from Simon's Bay took about 3 years, and The Fire Portrait has taken a similar length of time. 

Readers often ask if I do all the research first, and then start to write. In fact, the process is more mixed: I write and research throughout. Very often this is for practical reasons if I have to travel to the places I write about. This means that there is constant revision to the manuscript as I learn and see more. The digitisation of museum and academic records has been an incredible boon in that a lot of work can be done online. So there is a kind of "home and away" aspect to my research. I also read continuously around the current project while writing. 

Getting started can be a challenge. In order to get my arms around the potential plot, I begin by creating a single poster-size mind map of the action. Then, to develop the characters, I write a CV for each, detailing background, family, work, likes, dislikes and those small traits that hopefully make them memorable in the mind of the reader. The hero or heroine is always the most demanding to create, while the lesser characters can often be the most fun especially if they are outrageous. Like callous Rose, in The Housemaid's Daughter, dismissing Ada's attempts to improve herself:
"You haven't any money so you don't need to learn to count!"

While it may sound as if the plot is settled at the outset, there are very often detours or changes. Characters disappear, events accelerate. And I never have the ending until more than halfway through. After all, if I surprise myself with the finale then hopefully I'll surprise you, too...