Wednesday 7 November 2018

Christmas Novel




I love Christmas. Today I had to force myself to pass a shop which had a wonderful display of festive decorations including a cute little Christmas tree. There was just no way I would have space for it in my little apartment.
One of the reasons I started writing my Christmas novella, Christmas at Castledarra was because of this love for the family season. Thinking about my childhood and those walks to Midnight Mass when the sky was bright with frosty stars, and later when as a young adult I came home for Christmas, I asked myself the question nearly every writer asks when they are planning their novel: what if? What if Molly has dreams for herself and her family? What if her children have very different dreams and difficulties? Will all of these dreams come true? How will it all end?
And so I sat down and wrote the story.
One of my readers told me the other day that it was her favourite of all the novels I have written so far. "You have to write a sequel", she said and proceeded to speculate on how the story continued. I was both touched and surprised at her interpretation of each character and told her so. She said she felt like they were her personal friends and she would love to keep in touch with them.
These somewhat rare experiences of meeting readers face to face and hearing how much they enjoyed what I wrote has to be one of the most uplifting experiences in my life. It more than compensates for all those times when I sat in front of a blank computer screen or deleted pages of text because that wasn't where I wanted the story to go.
Readers, please, when you finish a book, leave a review even if or perhaps especially if it is a critical one. No writer claims to be faultless. But your feedback is essential and very welcome.





No comments:

Post a Comment

Reading old novels

 I haven't written here for ages but wanted to put my thoughts down on a novel I am currently re-reading. I keep certain novels and read...