And.... relax. (A little).

I am done! Yesterday I finished this draft (I won't quite bring myself to call it the final version until it has been accepted by a publisher!) of my children's novel, The Crosser of the Worlds. It's about 92 000 words which is getting on for 10 000 words shorter than the original draft so I'm quite pleased with that. I can probably do a bit more of a slash and burn job in a few weeks time, before I start sending it out into the world. First though, I need to have it read by my crack team of readers. I have four people who have read the original version, waiting to have another go at it and two people who will be approaching it with fresh eyes, so I count myself very lucky! Once I have their verdict and have fiddled around with it a little more, it goes off to The Writer's Workshop again for professional advice. Then the plan is for it to be picked up by the first agent I send it to, fought over by the biggest publishing houses in the country, become a bestseller and the film rights to have been sold by about this time next year.... hmmmm...

In the meantime, I am going to have a couple of days off and then get on with other things. I handed the final version of my anthology-bound short-story over to the publishers last Friday, so I can be purely self-indulgent for a while. I am really looking forward to writing something - even just a little short story - that isn't targeted at 10 year-olds! I also have to start making lists of target agents and begin to think about the dreaded synopsis.

Photo: Hannah Timm Photography

All this, of course, would not be possible without my lovely husband, Paul. We were watching the European Indoor Athletics at the weekend and there was an interview with Helen Clitheroe who had just won the 3000m despite not having been given any funding. The people who sponsor our best athletes didn't believe that she was good enough, but her husband did. He was the one who encouraged her to keep training while he paid the bills. Well, Paul is just like that - he works hard so that I can write and we can still eat and pay the rent and I'm not going to even try writing about how grateful I am. Hopefully I'll be able to show him one day, by justifying his faith in me. I couldn't think of a fitting picture for this post so as a little tribute to my sponsor, here's one of us just after we signed the marraige register, demonstrating how happy it made me!

Right, I'm off to do some baking and walking and other things that I don't have to feel guilty about now that I'm finished!