Christmas in the summer

 I have finally completed my last edit on my novel A MAN CALLED GREGOR - preview of the cover here:

Lauren's search for her uncle makes her question everything she believed in.
Available on Amazon as a Kindle and as a paperback from June 2019.

This means that I need to start on my Christmas novel, the idea or perhaps I should say the ideas for which have been going around in my head for a good few weeks now. It is a bit strange to write about Christmas and frost and snow when outside my window the swifts and swallows are dashing about, proclaiming that summer is here. But once I get started, I become lost in the world I'm writing about.

I usually start out with a character and a problem they are experiencing. I don't plan out the chapters, as some very organised authors do. Instead, I write by the "seat of the pants" method, which means sitting down every morning with no clear idea where the story is going to go. By the time I have done my tenth or twelfth edit, the whole thing will be completely different to what I started off with.  I'll have written and discarded tons of pages, well let's say around a hundred or so. Some of the characters will have been axed while others are added or changed to be completely different to my original idea. Yes, it's hard work but it is also a lot of fun. And viewing the finished product is worth all that sweat and all the hours put in.

What are you reading today?

I returned from a trip to London last month and came down with bronchitis, so I have been keeping warm and reading anything I can get my hands on.
For Christmas, one of my nephews gave me A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW by Amor Towles. I  enjoyed this book very much. It is really a set of stories about Moscow with a lot of insider tales. Towles is a gifted writer - reading this book felt like sitting chatting to someone who had been in revolutionary Russia and seen it all. It probably isn't everyone's cup of tea but I can certainly recommend it.
Apart from that, now that I am feeling somewhat better, I have continued with the editing of my novel A MAN CALLED GREGOR, the tagline for which reads: Lauren's search for her uncle turns into a nightmare. I wrote this several years ago and had put it to one side, as writers sometimes do. Now, having re-read it and spotted some of the holes in the plot, I am having another stab at it. I don't know if it is easier or more difficult to edit an existing piece of work.  I still have some way to go with it but I now do have the cover. See what you think:

I am using the name Peggie Biessmann as this story is more international than my crime and romance novels, which are set in Ireland. this one moves from London to Frankfurt to Croatia.
The only other novel I have written under this name is SPATE OF VIOLENCE which is set in Germany.
Anyway, now that I have the cover ready, I am motivated to get cracking on the editing. I hope to have it available on Amazon as Kindle ebook and paperback by Easter.  Still lots to be done, though.