Background to the Authors First Novel

In October 2020 during the Covid pandemic I was sat at home watching the rain hammering against the patio window and knew I was not going to be able to go out for my morning walk. My mind started wandering to the things I had always wanted to do before I shuffled off the plank of life and amongst that bucket list I  remembered that one thing I had always promised myself  was that I would write a novel. That day was as good a day to start as any and so I got my laptop out and started writing............

Of course it was plain sailing from that point and I typed out 100,000 words of story in no time......

Well actually it wasn't like that at all. I had a bit of an idea of a police investigation into a murder based in the Derbyshire Dales but after about a 1000 words it just ran out of steam....so I started again...and again...and again. Eventually in desperation for some sort of inspiration I sat down and wrote a basic plan with just a couple of characters and an ending. That gave me some momentum to continue and so I wrote a first chapter and the ending.

The story was developing but I realised that the story would have to take the characters from the first chapter to the final one. It would also need some extra characters to help the story along. I just started filling in the gaps and adding characters. I then had to re-write the ending to fit in with all the new characters.

It was at this point that I also had to ensure that none of the characters bore any resemblence to people I had either worked with or dealt with in my time in the police service.... yet more re-writing.

I had the characters and the story and was happy with what I had written and gave it to my partner to read through. Well all feedback is good including negative or should I say constructive !

I went back to the characters, I wanted them all to develop through the novel. I also needed an emotional theme running through the story.

I was talking to an ex-colleague one evening and we got talking about how we dealt with the really horrendous deaths and murders we had dealt with. The conversation sparked an idea for the theme of the novel... How do different people deal with death and loss.

I kept the story but re-wrote the novel. This time I tried to envisage how each of the characters would deal with the deaths emotionally in the story. That was just about it ..... other than weeks and weeks of re-writing and editing.

I had the novel just about written and needed some independent feedback as to whether it was any good as a read. I contacted some people that did not know me very well through social media and asked if they would read through the novel and tell me whether the novel kept them engaged and whether the story was good or not.

The feedback was very positive and so I decided to publish.

Next step ... I needed a cover and contacted a local graphic designer for the artwork. I had an idea for the front and book covers and she helped putting those ideas into reality.

I had a novel, a cover......all I needed now was a company to print it, an ISBN, a barcode, a website, a bank account, a facebook page, an online shop, a budget, advertising, a digital formatted copy, a kindle version, an audio book.......

5 Star *****

I didn’t put it down, twists and turns, great characters and plot.
Looking forward to the next one. Buy it!  JC

Acknowledgements