HOT GOSSIP!

Lunch with friends and a gossip today...well a girl has to get inspiration for her new books from somewhere!


Ok so that's not strictly true. I don't use the nuggets of gossip or pieces of information that is gathered about friends' lives in such a direct way but I guess I do glean things from them.


Every piece of gossip that is dissected over the pub table is analysed - not just for my own reaction but for the reaction of others to it and it is that which I tend to use in my books.


For me, the greatest turn-off in a book is when a character seems cardboard, when they don't react in a way that is natural to them. And by that I don't mean react to the situation in the same way that I might but rather react in the exact way that he or she should, with his or her own personality traits, background and history.


So listening to friends coo and gasp, interject and explain is a fascinating experience for me and one which cannot fail to provide a deeper understanding into the psychology of human nature.


Or at least that's what I am telling myself as this week, very little editing is being done and a whole lots of socialising is taking place instead.


But hey its research isn't it? And anyway who's round is it now?


:) Happy reading!

This way up ^

Today I am happy and not even the rain which bounces off the sodden earth in my back garden can dampen my mood.


I am currently working on another edit of Split Decisions. As I have stated before, it's a very different book to The Owners and as such, I have kept it mostly under wraps. But the part I have just been working on is neither controversial nor contentious and I thought you just might like a little snippet, so here it is:-

I swallowed the lump which sat uncomfortably in my throat. I was not a bitch, not the sort of girl who sniggered behind another’s back at their stupidity and misfortune. I knew that about myself but it was suddenly not enough – I needed Suzie to know it too.

“It’s not about you, Suzie,” I said quietly, searching for the right words to say and unable to find them. Tongue-tied and embarrassed I realised how the sniggering must have been perceived. I tried to explain. “I was…I mean we were laughing at me, not…anything else.” I had been about to say ‘you’ rather than ‘anything else’ and managed to stop myself just in the nick of time. But even though it was the truth it was a lame excuse.  And we both knew it.

I have loved writing this book every bit as much as I loved writing The Owners but it has been nice to have a departure from sci-fi for a change.

By the middle of April I will be moving on to another book, one which is forming in the back of my mind at the moment, awaiting its chance to leap onto the pristine white screen as I type it out.

In the meantime - happy reading.