Wednesday 22nd July
Hello, I hope you are all keeping well and safely enjoying the opportunity to move around more freely. Thank you for joining me through Friends & Flowers; don’t forget to download the prologue for The Cottage of New Beginnings if you’d like to find out a little more about Annie before she arrives in Thorndale.
Yesterday I was able to spend time in the Yorkshire Dales, something I appreciated very much after lockdown. It was an opportunity to look at locations for Book 4, a property and somewhere that my two new characters spend time together. However much research I do online, it’s always so much better to view a place in person and the photographs will really help when I come to work on the scenes again.
I’ve just finished the first draft of Book 4, which is set in Thorndale during December, and I’ll be sharing more about this later on. Writing about winter took a little getting used to as we were enjoying such lovely spring weather but the story soon took over. My new characters are called Olivia and Tom and I’m loving spending time with them, especially as they don’t always see eye to eye over the future of an old bookshop. I’m happy to have written the draft in four months and the next stage is to work on layering the story as I edit, adding detail and more depth. Then it will go to Susan, my agent, for her to read and decide what’s next.
This image is part of Littondale, looking back towards Arncliffe. I always find the landscape inspiring and it’s often a setting that prompts me to think up a story, imagining who might live in a place and who might be newly arrived and why. Thinking through a new book is one of my favourite parts of writing and involves lots of jotting down notes trying not to forget anything before I’ve captured it.
As well as research, part of the time spent in Yorkshire yesterday was to gather some information for the launch of The Cottage of New Beginnings on 3rd September. This will be an online event and I’ll post more news about this over the next few weeks.
Perhaps you’ve noticed there is a bit of a theme going on with my heroes; drop me a line if you think you have spotted it. You will need to have read the Books and Inspiration pages as well to work it out! Looking forward to your messages and sharing more with you next time.
Suzanne x