When I completed my first novel, Ladies and Gentlemen…The Redeemers, I routinely got asked a difficult question: “How long did it take to write?” I honestly didn’t know the answer. I knew that I had begun writing the book something like ten years earlier but even that was guess. In terms of time truly committed, well, that was impossible to estimate. I had gone long stretches of time, sometimes years, without working on the novel. Even when I was on a good run, I’d hit patches where months would go by without progress. Writer’s block, my day job, the birth of my third child. Whatever the cause, days and weeks would slip by.
But now, as I release my second novel, thanks to the magic of Microsoft Word and my desire to be prepared with an answer this time, I know exactly how long it took to write—six days, nine hours, and one minute. Okay, that really represents the amount of time consumed if it were all in one continuous run—no eating, sleeping, going to the bathroom, going to work. Just writing, writing, and more writing. Nonstop. Nine thousand one hundred eighty-one minutes.
In terms of elapsed time, I know that too. Two hundred forty-three days. Writing in the early morning hours when the kids were asleep and before the work day began, and from time to time, writing at night, I completed The Book of Sylvia in almost exactly eight months. Well, the first draft anyway.
Two months and many edits later, both on my own and with my professional editor, it’s time. I have released The Book of Sylvia into the wild. Here’s the synopsis:
Under suspicion of abetting a robbery, London streetwalker Sylvia Smith doesn’t know where to turn. Frightened and alone, she arrives on the steps of St. Alban’s church, where she meets Father Christopher Fosberry, a priest consumed with self-doubt as he struggles to resurrect his dying church.
Together they set out to recover the stolen money, following a cryptic clue whispered to Sylvia by her client as he was taken into custody. They quickly find themselves drawn toward one another by a mutual sense of despair and a desire to help the other. But Sylvia soon discovers that the more she guides the priest, the deeper she drives a wedge between the man and the church.
I hope you enjoy the book.
But now, as I release my second novel, thanks to the magic of Microsoft Word and my desire to be prepared with an answer this time, I know exactly how long it took to write—six days, nine hours, and one minute. Okay, that really represents the amount of time consumed if it were all in one continuous run—no eating, sleeping, going to the bathroom, going to work. Just writing, writing, and more writing. Nonstop. Nine thousand one hundred eighty-one minutes.
In terms of elapsed time, I know that too. Two hundred forty-three days. Writing in the early morning hours when the kids were asleep and before the work day began, and from time to time, writing at night, I completed The Book of Sylvia in almost exactly eight months. Well, the first draft anyway.
Two months and many edits later, both on my own and with my professional editor, it’s time. I have released The Book of Sylvia into the wild. Here’s the synopsis:
Under suspicion of abetting a robbery, London streetwalker Sylvia Smith doesn’t know where to turn. Frightened and alone, she arrives on the steps of St. Alban’s church, where she meets Father Christopher Fosberry, a priest consumed with self-doubt as he struggles to resurrect his dying church.
Together they set out to recover the stolen money, following a cryptic clue whispered to Sylvia by her client as he was taken into custody. They quickly find themselves drawn toward one another by a mutual sense of despair and a desire to help the other. But Sylvia soon discovers that the more she guides the priest, the deeper she drives a wedge between the man and the church.
I hope you enjoy the book.
RSS Feed
