THE LATE TELEGRAM
The words The End have never felt so good.
When I started writing Fifteen Postcards, I never envisaged it as a series, or as a trilogy, or as a book which would spawn a spin off (more on that later). It was merely a book I was writing during quiet periods working at Antique Alley.
As I was finishing Fifteen Postcards, I realised it needed a sequel, and I was adamant that The Last Letter would be the end, that it wasn’t going to be a trilogy, that I only needed two books to tell Sarah’s story.
After The Last Letter was published, I needed a break. Writing historical fiction had drained me and I needed a break from spending two hours of researching Victorian pubs, only to use the information for half a sentence. Which is how Painted came to be written.
I had so much fun writing Painted, that writing another thriller seemed like a good idea at the time! So Doctor Perry was born. But all the time, Sarah Lester, her father and her mother, Warden Price and Major Brooke kept rattling away inside my head, causing mayhem every night as I drifted off to sleep. It was about then that I signed a contract to publish Telegram Home. That contract had a delivery date attached.
The first 30,000+ words flowed well. Characters behaved themselves, I’d sourced some amazing reference books from the local school book fairs, it was fate. But as the delivery date inched forward, the panic set it. Remember the feelings of panic as your school exams edged closer and closer and you knew you hadn’t done enough study? That’s how I felt. And I decided that I much preferred the leisurely pace of writing first, then signing a publishing contract! Instead of the other way around.
It all became a moot point as I had to ask my publisher for an extension, and then we broke up, releasing me from the most incredible amount of pressure. Silver linings…
I gave myself a hall pass, and started writing Ithaca Bound, which was meant to be my first attempt at writing a YA (young adult) book. But do you know what happened? The characters from Telegram Home tried slipping into Ithaca Bound. There was only one thing for it. I had to finish Telegram Home.
It’s done now. The completed manuscript for Telegram Home found a new home with the lovely Kiwi publishing house Squabbling Sparrows Press. And you can all finally read it on the 28th July 2019. Which is only three days away.
The relief of being able to type those words cannot be underestimated. Praise the publishing gods!
You can preorder a digital copy here and I’m told paperbacks will be available at the end of the month.
Thank you all for your patience, and for the gentle reminders and queries about when Telegram Home might actually be coming out.
Now to get back to Ithaca Bound. You never know who might turn up in those pages…