Falldog

OK, so it’s like this…

If you go back to the very first entry in this blog, you’ll see me talk about a book called Darkland by Liz Williams. You’ll see how reading that book inspired me in a rather-blithe-at-the-time manner to give up full-time work and try to write a novel myself, in the spirit of ‘I can do that’. That’s the seed.

The sapling came later. I stumbled across a writing course, organised by the excellent Arvon Foundation, run by Liz and another author who writes quite lovely books, Graham Joyce. So (as a very kind birthday present from the Mrs), I booked on the course and, a couple of weeks ago, travelled up to Yorkshire – shortly before the heavens opened – to the wonderfully picturesque and remote Lumb Bank, there to learn what I could learn.

What I learnt was this: Liz loves my idea, loves my writing, and really thinks I have a shot at publication. She was so enthusiastic about where I was going with the novel, and so flattering, that I was quite staggered.

So, with the exception of a few already booked freelance gigs (I’m not so stupid as to cancel any – and, sod’s law, the offers have come flooding in since I got back from the course), I’ve cleared the decks to concentrate on the writing between now and the middle of October. I’m very lucky in that my partner is unbelievably supportive about the whole thing, and that my main freelance employers completely understand why I’m saying no to offers of work. This last thing is crucial, as I don’t want them to forget about me, and I will need to come to them for more work in future.

Now, I’m at the start of a reasonably long stretch of time (though, of course, it’s already feeling like it’s too little time, but these are just self-defeating Jedi mind tricks) in which to actually write a draft of the novel that, preferably, I’m happy to hand to Liz and see if she can still stay true to the claim that she’d be pleased to pass it on to her agent.

Hugely exciting, and hugely horrifying in equal measure. I’d say “Wish me luck”, but actually all I want is you all to stand over me with big sticks and make sure I do it.