The Sweetest Words for an Author's Ear

The sweetest words that an author hears are when someone says "oh, you write those Romance novels I'm so fond of" or "Just read your crime novel and loved it" or anything in a similar vein. It just makes all the hours of hard work, editing, re-editing the editing, struggling with the plot, having a really bad day - or days - and having a really good day - or days, when all goes right and the writing flows.
These -ahem - deep thoughts cross my mind recently when I met two readers who had read both my Sergeant Murray crime fiction books (written under my pen name P.B. Barry) and my Sunshine Cafe Romance novels which I wrote as Peggy O'Mahony. It really did give me a lift, especially as I was having a hard time getting part of the plot of my third Sergeant Murray mystery to gel into a suitable shape.
Authors are very sensitive creatures, I think. We constantly need encouragement, we need to know that yes, there are people out there who enjoy reading what we write. It's the human condition, isn't it? the need for reassurance, even if, like me, I write for the fun of it and not for fame or fortune. Of course it would be nice to have a list of best-sellers to my name and to appear at book launches and sign my name on my books for all the adoring fans, but that isn't going to happen and I'm not sure if it would suit me if it did. Being a self-published author, I can choose my own time to write (no pressure!) or not to write. I am not tied to any deadline. I do work hard to make my novels as good as possible and I am a very harsh critic of my own work, but aside from that, I don't let it dominate who I am or what I do. It's just great fun to spin these tales and invent this little world inside my head.

But when someone comes up to me and says they loved my novel, well, that's a very special feeling and one I wouldn't swap for anything.

You are never too old for romance

My Romance novel Love at Close Range will be released on Thursday this week. I have really enjoyed writing it and am almost sorry to close the door on the characters. For those who have not read the first novel in the The Sunshine Cafe series, I am offering Love at a Later Date free on Kindle for the next 5 days, starting on Thursday.

I get asked a lot of different questions on why I write. My favourite tale on this subject is when, a few years back, I was introduced to someone as a "writer" and he said "do I know you? what's your name?" When I told him my name and the name of the novel I had written at that time, he shook his head. "Never heard of you," he said, "you can't be a writer."  After a bit more conversation I discovered that he did not read novels, fact or fiction, and I would even bet he never read anything longer than a menu. But such is - or was - the expectation that if you are a writer you are up there with the bestsellers. I hear hollow laughter from my fellow writers.
No, we write not for fame or fortune - though none of us would say no to wake up and discover we are a household name - mainly we write for fun.
Only another writer can explain the need to sit down and bash out 2,000 words a day, possibly delete some or all of them the next, and go on to hammer a story into shape, editing over and over until you feel it is the best you can get it.  One reader wanted to know why my stories are relatively short. The answer to that is that I write as much of the story as I feel the reader wants to read. Too many characters and/or too much detail, bog down a novel, I feel. I hasten to add that this is only my personal opinion.

I have had a lot of fun writing both Love at a Later Date and Love at Close Range and I hope my readers will have as much fun reading them.