Stacks of Library Books for Smart Dummies

Oh how I love the library! I took the girls there on Saturday morning and while Amelia read a story to Lil in the childrens’ section, I went and found the “writing and publishing” section and couldn’t stop myself snatching large wads of books off the shelves (because it’s all free!), including two books on writing romance and two books on writing Young Adult fiction because you never know what might suddenly become a good idea. I felt a little embarrassed staggering back to the girls with my enormous stash. I sort of slunk past the serious browsers hoping they wouldn’t notice my “Writing a Romance Novel for Dummies”.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I’m ashamed to be dabbling in romance writing, it’s just that the universally familiar, big black and yellow cover and well-known font loudly flashes “Look, she’s a dummy! AND she’s a dummy, wannabe romance writer! What a dummy!”. I want to carry the title around called “Writing Romance Novels for Very Serious, Intelligent People who like to try New Things and Don’t Mind a Little Escapist Fiction from Time to Time.”. Where’s that book when you need it?

Day nine: Managed a 5.30 am start. Wrote happily for an hour before kids realised I was up and about. Changed major sub-plot and got rid of a very annoying love-interest and associated useless threads, and felt kind of excited at the slightly new direction.

Day ten: Mother’s day. Sat up in bed with my breakfast and wrote at least a thousand words. New sub-plot took good shape.

Day eleven: Heater broken. SO COLD. Sitting on the couch with the laptop warming my knees while Phil takes Lily for a walk.  I’ve already written 580 words and they’re still not back so I’ll keep going. Love my new sub-plot characters so much. They might (or might not) be based on a couple of my parents’ friends. But I won’t tell anyone that (except you).