PD Martin's Blog

February 5, 2010

I’m back…bring on 2010

Filed under: Coming Home ebook,Kiss of Death — Tags: , , , , , , — PD Martin @ 4:09 am

Well, it’s been a while since my last blog…instead of blogging I’ve been enjoying the Aussie summer. My husband, daughter and I were at the beach for January. Most days were simple: a walk, coffee, playground, relax a little at the house, then a trip to the beach with lots of swimming and sand-castle building (actually, I mostly watched my husband and three year old build the castles). Nights were generally DVDs – Dexter and Breaking Bad, plus several movies. Sound good? It was! The only drawback was that I did get behind on emails, blogging, and other stuff, and had to take breaks to promote Kiss of Death, which was released in Australia and New Zealand 1 January.

Of course, I’ve also been working on Coming Home (www.pdmartin.com.au/ebook), writing one chapter a week. It’s hard to believe I’m now officially over half way through this process. I never know when a book will end when I’m writing it, but at the moment it doesn’t feel over halfway done. However, I’m hoping it is because I kinda need to stick to the 12-week, 12-chapter plan. Mostly because I‘ve started my new project and really need to focus on getting the proposal and first three chapters to my publishers. After all, with summer almost over it’s time to get another paying gig :) Fingers crossed my publishers will like the new book…it‘s not an ebook or a Sophie book!!! Shock, horror. It’s been really exciting working on it this past week. For a start it’s written in third person, and it’s much, much darker than Sophie.

Back to Coming Home…well, it’s Friday and I haven’t started on this week’s chapter. How does this happen?? So yet again, I’m flashing back to my school days of late-night cramming. It’s also not ideal in terms of the flow and continuity of Coming Home. I definitely feel it’s time for a good, long edit. But where to fit it in between the new book and other commitments? I’ve already identified some of the key things I’ll need in the edit, such as:

  • A deeper exploration of Sophie’s emotional state – she’s investigating her own brother’s murder and at the moment I don’t think that character crisis is coming through enough.
  • Excerpts from a new victim’s POV – I’ve started adding these in, but will need more.
  • Sophie’s gift – seven chapters in and only one vision/nightmare. Even though they’re not the focus of Sophie books, I think I probably need more.
  • General tweaking, including working on the writing style and word choice for a better read.
  • Continuity (I need to do a few checks between books and chapters)

What do you think?

I always do a lot of editing between the first draft and the final draft, so you can expect changes from what you’re reading now and what you’ll read in the final PDF of Coming Home (available two months after I finish the last chapter).

So, I’m off to work on the new book (really need to submit it) and chapter 8 of Coming Home. Wish me luck!

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