3 March 2015

Astrology and Writing



The first Jenny Parker novel, Due Diligence, was published a couple of years ago and sold (is selling!) remarkably well. I'd actually use the word spectacular in this context and not be overstating the facts.

This triumph seems now but a distant memory. Once I had a readership, writing took on a more urgent quality.
Still, it's nice to take a trip down memory lane.

I'm reproducing the early designs for the cover, both of which I liked. Obviously we eventually settled for the one you see at the side of this blog and I'm glad we did. It provides a style that can be continued over the four novels in the series.

So, the fourth Jenny Parker novel is on its way. What actually started as a writing exercise is now a series. There was me thinking that Due Diligence was only a bit of practice before I returned to the fantasy/science fiction. I've been wrong before, but not quite as mistaken as this.

Now my novels have to be written to a deadline. No more absently admiring the word count and being very proud that I managed a book a year.

The fourth Jenny Parker novel, Critical Analysis, will need rewriting, editing, all that kind of thing. Fortunately, I have Dea Parkin www.fictionfeedback.co.uk to help. She did a great job on the others and I'm hoping she'll like Critical Analysis just as much.

It felt much better to be writing crime fiction after I consulted an astrologer. She told me the time for fantasy would come two and a half years later when something or other enters the house of something else. It's only now that I'm well on with a cracking fantasy novel that I've remembered what she said to me two and a half years ago. I'd completely forgotten what she said to me. How spooky is that?

For those of you raising eyebrows at me mentioning an astrologer, relax, please. I don't run my life on the basis of a paragraph in the newspaper that must apply to a twelfth of the world's population. I don't actually believe in astrology but I do believe in Margaret Koolman. www.soulastrology.com

For fans of my crime fiction, I think that four Jenny Parker novels is plenty. It's three more than I intended, after all. And you just might learn to love the fantasy books as well, you never know. Try asking an astrologer about it if you don't believe me. 

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