Time to relax at least for a bit.

I finished another psychological thriller on my TBR pile about a week ago and decided that I needed a break from all the tension. I have to say that, thanks mainly to Twitter, I have been able to pick up some excellent thrillers and I am grateful for that. But I felt it was time to turn to the gentle world of Jane Austen and so I took Emma down from my bookshelves. I have read it so often that I nearly know it by heart but this does not lessen the enjoyment. You know that line in the song The Second Time Around? Well, reading Emma is "like a friendly home the second time you call". It is like visiting old friends where you can talk as if you had seen each other only yesterday. Randalls, Hartfield and the village of Highbury, they represent a sheltered world which is gone for ever. The no-nonsense Mr. Knightley and Emma, who we have to like even though she thinks "a little too well of herself", because with all her faults, she is basically like us all: good at heart but liable to make blunders.

I should, of course, be editing my Sergeant Alan Murray novel. I have finished the first draft and now comes the hard work. But I do it for fun, I keep reminding myself. I hope to have this fourth novel in the series ready for publication by September at the latest. A plot for a Christmas novel is also starting to tick over in my head but I haven't got beyond thinking about the main character. 

Writing is a wonderful pastime. It beats knitting bed socks, let me tell you, at least for me. I never could learn any kind of handicraft. At least if you are a writer you can repair, unravel and start anew without having to pick up wool and needles or scissors or whatever. 

Maybe I'll just read one more chapter of Emma to keep the feel good effect going. Might start on editing tomorrow.

New Beginnings

We are already 6 days in to the New Year and although I struggle with writing the year as 2017, I know that in a very short time it will become automatic.
I have had an interesting start to 2017 (there! I've written it without any problems!). On Tuesday I had my problem tooth checked by the orthodontic surgeon and all was well so I do not have to have another check up until next year which, his Receptionist reminded me, will be January 2018. Three cheers for that!  I would hate to start off on the root canal saga of last year.  A tick beside the "Positive" box.
On Thursday I had a small lesion removed from the lower lid of my right eye. The surgeon assured me it looked harmless, they would do a biopsy and he would only contact me if there was a problem.
The only unpleasant thing about this operation was getting the injections to deaden the area.  Eeek!
I now somewhat resemble a panda when seen face on, there is a great big black bruise below my eye. It is a bit tender but not half as bad as it looks. I am doing my best to be nonchalant about it and act as if this is the latest fashion for January 2017 - despite people asking me in gentle tones if I'm all right.

Apart from that I have been busy converting my e-books into paperback. This means editing them again and it is amazing what needs to be done on this score, despite all the editing I did before publishing as an e-book. There is always room for improvement.

I have changed the wallpaper on my laptop to a shot of Frankfurt in late summer which I took last year and which sort of compensates for the grey foggy day which I can see outside my window.
Oh well, back to editing now - and I must really start on my third Sergeant Alan Murray mystery, the characters inside my head are waving at me and insisting on being transferred to paper.  A cup of coffee and here goes.  Oh, and here is the picture of Frankfurt flower stalls:

Hope you like it.  Roll on Spring!

Yes, it's hard not to get distracted

I should be writing. I have loads of editing to do on my current work in progress or as I prefer to call it my baby:  Love At Close Range.  I have finished the second draft and let it for a week to stew around in my head.  I like to look in on the characters and see what they're up to. Boy, they've changed a few things since I stopped writing about them.  Which means a lot of work ahead.  Which is currently the reason why I am wasting time on social media.
 I am browsing Twitter for Tuesday Motivation - I'm not getting any, I have to admit. Who wants to hang off the edge of an iceberg while being stalked by a polar bear just to prove you can get over the hard times?  Yes, I know you have to never give up, keep going, pick yourself up, be kind, finish the novel, persevere to the end, love everyone and come up with a rose between your teeth... gasp! I admit to being hopelessly inadequate. I admit to having a very exclusive Twitter account (in other words, I don't really have that many followers) I admit to being a nobody because I do not have a Facebook account and therefore cannot admire all those cute photos of friends and family which everyone else keeps telling me about.
I just am, really. I enjoy writing but I also enjoy reading, walking by the sea, watching quiz shows on TV. I'm going to the Everyman theatre in Cork on Thursday night. The Factory Girls is a comedy and just what I need. I love to laugh. And I love the atmosphere of the theatre, especially The Everyman, because I feel like I've had a night out.
Having written all that, I feel free to return to my editing again. Just need a cup of coffee to keep me company.  Here's the cover of the new novel. It won't be available just yet. In fact if I don't start work on it, it will never get out there.

This Writing Life - Letting Go the Novel

I am almost finished writing my crime novel Ending in Death under my author name P.B. Barry.  I have done at least twenty edits - I don't count them and it could be more than that - but now I just need to read the whole thing over again from start to finish and see if I've made any glaring mistakes and then I'm ready to go. It feels like the first time your child goes to school.  You have to let them out into the big bad world where they will be taken at face value.  The fact that this is your darling child has absolutely no influence on how they fare. Yes, you'd like to nurture them and keep them close but you know that's not the right thing to do.  So you watch them take their first steps away from you.
I've had a lot of fun writing this novel and I hope my readers will enjoy it.  

Ending in Death is the second novel in the Sergeant Alan Murray mystery series and will be available on Amazon Kindle e-books from the end of April 2016.  It is set in the fictional village of Ballyamber in the Kerry mountains.  A young girl's body is found near the village.  Who is she and what was she doing in such a remote area? Murray has only started investigations when Stanley Wallace, a businessman who has lately moved to Ballyamber, is also found murdered. Were both victims just in the wrong place at the wrong time or is there a more sinister explanation?