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Monday 12 October 2015

Finished my time travel novel, woop woop!

I've just written the last page of the last chapter of my time travel novel, currently called The Trouble with Time.  (Or that may be the name of the series, as I intend to write more books about the same characters.)

It's always satisfying to reach the end of a book, though of course it still has to go out to beta readers, once my sister, a sort of pre-beta, has read it. I have yet to put it through Pro Writing Aid, to catch word echoes I've missed.

I'm a relatively slow writer, and this novel has taken me longer than normal, partly because of the day job, and partly because the offspring and her fiancé have been buying a small flat in London - which if you don't have much money is a task about as easy as finding the Holy Grail. She's been saving for years, and studying the market to a point where if she went on Mastermind, specialist subject The Cheaper End of the London Property Market, 2013-2015, she'd ace it. They're living in my workshop while wrangling builders. The whole thing has been taking a lot out of all of us. 

So that's my excuse for averaging 225 words a day on this novel. Plus, as I've grumbled before, time travel logistics scramble the brain.

This is the cover I made for Write On, but I'm going to experiment with other options before publishing, and maybe get my trusty blog readers to vote for their favourite.

14 comments:

  1. Congratulations! 225 words a day is still better than my count, which I'm going to work out as soon as I sign off.

    And with regards to title and cover - good hunting!

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  2. As I sometimes say to myself when I've written 27 words the day before and I'm logging it on my chart, at least the novel is growing. Though of course there's the odd day when you have to delete stuff and the novel shrinks...

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  3. Congratulations! I thought you'd gone awfully quiet.
    Hope the offspring's flat buying goes well.

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    1. Thanks, Mary. I felt a bit quiet for a couple of months :o)

      The main thing is, at least they have bought the flat, as prices have continued to rise, and they've now sacked the cowboy builder and got a good plumber and kitchen fitter.

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  4. I'm starting to miss my dose of Revellian adventure. Lexi, I was starting to wonder if you had become trapped in some fiendish experiment, trying to change the natural time sequence!

    That cover looks like waves radiating from an antenna, with the butterfly sensing the ripples and ....?

    I have memories of living in a small rented flat in West Hampstead. When the rusty old gas cooker started leaking I gleefuly thought that a new cooker was in the offing. But the landlord spent a week scouring junk yards to find a part .... then there was the drunk mouse .... nuf said!

    Hope your daughter and her fiance get their dream home soon. :)

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    1. Hi Q! Not to be confused with haiku...

      A drunk mouse? The mind boggles. I guess most of us have stories of strange rented accommodation when young and penniless. An old friend of mine started college sleeping under the hut we worked in, as his grant hadn't come through. My best rental was a tiny attic with an ancient boiler my eighty-year old landlord tinkered with whenever it malfunctioned. I look back and feel lucky to be alive :o)

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  5. Hi Q! Not to be confused with haiku...

    Lexi, no possibility of confusion!

    A haiku poem is supposed to consist of three lines – the first with five syllables, the second one with seven, then a final one of five again.

    I'm much too wordy to be confused with that! LOL

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    1. Quantum disguising
      Himself as a haiku - huh!
      Not convincing

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  6. Lexi
    Perhaps my haiku for the moon might convince you!

    http://wordwenches.typepad.com/word_wenches/2015/10/christina-courtenay-the-jade-lioness.html#comment-6a00d8341c84c753ef01bb08853ba1970d

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  7. Q, I am pleased to tell you you have won this small yet attractive trophy for Best Use Of The Word 'Photons' In A Haiku.

    *hands over small yet attractive trophy*

    Not only are you the first winner of this award, but you may also be the first person eligible to win it.

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  8. Lexi,

    Gosh! This reminds me of an occasion at my old school when I won the 'Victor Ludorum' medal.

    Considering the illustrious source, I feel proud and honoured to accept this 'small but attractive trophy'

    I'm tempted to publish another poem here .... but on reflection, that might be pushing my luck. Think I'll quit while I'm winning! LOL

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    1. Victor Ludorum? I had to look up what it means, but now I'm impressed. Well done! All I can scrape up to boast about in that line is a bronze badge for fencing.

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  9. I thought I hadn't heard for a while!

    Congratulations on finishing and I'm looking forward to reading it.

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    1. Thank you, FH. I may wait to publish until I've got the sequel under way. Not sure...

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