I’m going to open with some news, ***THE ADVANCE COPY OF MY LATEST NOVEL IS READY***.
 
Yes, I’m excited to announce that book one of my six-book series is ready for human consumption, real humans.  Not just the guineapigs who were forced to digest the very early version of this book.
 
For those who have spent more than a fleeting moment stalking me, you will aware that I’ve already published three novels.  So how is it that book one in my series is only just ready?  Did I write a different series?  Is The Offspring Trilogy a separate saga entirely?
 
No, it isn’t.  Let me explain.
 
It was October 2021.  I’d managed to escape on holiday between various travel bans and restrictions which had been enforced due to Covid, and I’d re-engaged with a passion I’d long since abandoned – reading.
 
I was once a voracious reader.  In my late teens and early twenties, I ingested novels at a rate of knots.  Every night I’d read a few chapters before bed and I’d read during gaps during the day too.  But then life happened, I got a long-term boyfriend, then husband, who loved to watch TV in bed before going to sleep, and life no longer had gaps.  Reading became relegated to something I did on holiday, on a sun-lounger, by a pool.
 
I digress, so back to topic.  As I read a few books on holiday in October 2021 – I came up with an idea...  I was bored at work.  I worked from home, I had work to do, but it didn’t fill up my time.  So what do I do when I’ve done everything I needed to do?  When I’m sat staring at a screen, needing to be on call in case anyone rings, needing to be available for meetings and the like, how can I fill my time?
 
I could dig into policy, read boring documents, organise my files…boring.  Or, I could write a novel.
 
This didn’t come out of the blue as much as you might think.  I wrote a novel when I was bored in a completely different job back when I was 24.  I tired to get it published, I failed.  Then I gave up on writing seriously for ages, but I did hatch an idea for a different novel.
 
The idea of putting modern, military characters on a magical planet spawned an idea for a story.  A story that I attempted to start writing two times over the years, but abandoned it on both occasions after a few chapters.  It was an idea that developed and grew; it stretched into a trilogy.  It was in my head, waiting to be written, waiting to have its moment.
 
In October 2021, that moment arrived.  I started writing, and I couldn’t stop.
 
Book one of The Homecoming Trilogy was vomited into my laptop.  I say vomited, because it’s probably accurate, metaphorically at least.  There was no proper plan, no organised structure, there was just an idea that tumbled out of my head.  By Christmas 2021, draft one was completed.  My baby was typed out.  My precious child was ready to be thrown at my guineapigs.  And then I started on book two.
 
The feedback started to come in, people liked it.  There were points for improvement, which I worked on, but overall they said they enjoyed it.  Yippee!  Surely my masterpiece would be snapped up by an agent.  I started to query.  I got nowhere.  I decided to invest in a manuscript review.  I paid my lovely editor, a lady called Rachel Rowlands, to do this.  A while later I got my book report back.
 
My novel stank.
 
It wasn’t because it was a terrible story, it wasn’t because my characters were wooden or unbelievable, it wasn’t because I write like a ten year old.  It was because I was inexperienced; I didn’t understand simple things like managing POVs during a story, my exposition was all over the place, but the biggest thing was that the structure was screwed.
 
It was a hard pill to swallow, even though I knew she was right.  But by the time I got this feedback, the idea for my second trilogy had not just hatched, it was being scribbled into little black shapes on the screen of my computer.  The Offspring Trilogy is a sequel trilogy to the Homecoming Trilogy, but its also a stand alone trilogy.  I wrote it, I polished it, I self-published it, then I turned my attention back to book one.
 
Back in the spring of this year, it was nearly a year since I’d been hit over the head with a literary stick and accepted that my first novel needed work.  A lot of work.  In fact, it needed hacking in half with a big fat axe and pretty much re-writing.
 
The problem with the original manuscript was that I kicked off with the antagonist’s back story, and it dragged on, and on.  It got to the point where it was too long, so I rushed it to a conclusion then started on the main plot.  Because I’d filled up so much space with the backstory, I then rushed the main plot line.  I ended up with something that was basically two rushed novels with a jagged join in the middle.
 
The solution was to chop it in half, archive fifty percent of my baby, then begin the re-write of the second half.  It took the completion of all six books in my trilogy before I was mentally in the right place to do this – when you’ve written just one novel, embarking on a re-write is a hard thing to mentally prepare yourself to do.  When its just one of six, and after you’ve actually learned how to write and you know your first book stinks, it becomes a hell of a lot easier.
 
So, on 17 May this year, my re-write began.
 
I won’t bore you with the details of how this went – this post is long enough as it is!  However, to summarise, I basically took the second half, spliced in a load of new chapters, chopped/changed/re-wrote the rest, read-through, edited.  Chopped 10,000 words, edited again.  And voila!  A new novel that has some shadowy similarities with the original, but is basically a new book, was done. 
 
I’d suggest The Queen of Vorn V2 is to The Queen of Vorn V1, is as Darth Vader is to Anakin Skywalker.  The genetics are the same, but it’s a whole different character.
 
My novel is now ready – but ready for what?
 
Lots.

1. It’s ready to be read.  I want people to read it, to hopefully enjoy it and to tell me what they think (even if they thought it stank).
2. It’s ready to send to agents.  Yep, I plan to try to get a traditional publishing contract for this one.  I’m going to start querying shortly.
3. It’s ready for editing – should I decide to self-publish.  If I can’t get an agent or publisher to get excited by my novel, then I’ll send it for pro-editing then release it into the world.  I want as many people to read it as possible, and the traditional publishing route offers the best chance of this happening, which is why I’ll try that first.

That concludes the story of The Queen of Vorn; or at least it concludes the tale of how it started and where it is now.  The story hasn’t ended yet, and you have a chance to be part of the story’s future.  You can get your hands on an advance copy.  All you have to do is sign up to my newsletter.  Do this before the end of September, and an ebook will we be sent to you absolutely free!
 
Happy reading! 😊

Do you like my little flowchart?  I made it myself.

I'm at 9.b. kind of, except I'm not writing, I'm editing.  I'm also about to go through steps 4.b. to 4.d. after having already gone from steps 1-7 using route a.

This all sounds terribly complicated...

​The story of my life! 

​P.S. I'm aware I've not blogged for a while and this post lacks a little meat on the bones...

Check back in a week or so and I imagine I'll have written something a little less vegan.