Timing is everything

Well, I guess it's time I write another blog entry. I'm sorry I haven't written one earlier but my excuse is that I'm trying to write Book Three of the Keepers of Genesis series and I'm hoarding all the time I can get in order to write.

But before I begin this blog in earnest, I wish to touch on some thoughts I've had over the last month since I heard about the incident of the writer who stalked a blogger for giving her a bad review (and some stuff about trolling and catfishing and all that, which I'm not going to go into). So my thoughts ran like this:

(a) well, of course, writing is personal. It's like having a child. You carry this story around inside you for so long and then you give birth to it. You create. You write. It's a part of you (even if it is a fantasy or sci fi novel or such like). You become attached to it. You become attached to your characters. So, let's face it, when someone says something negative about your book, it's like how you might feel if someone says something negative about your siblings/ parents/ children/ home/ etc... It's personal.

BUT

(b) why feed the trolls?

AS

(c) despite what you may believe, it isn't meant to be a personal attack for most bloggers. It isn't personal. Most bloggers, in my experience, are lovely people who want others to make intellectual discoveries about books/ literature and other interests... They give their honest opinions about the books they read and review. And, as I've said before, not everyone is going to like your book. Even if it happens to be the best thing since Shakespeare.

So enough about that (though I probably didn't say anything at all!!)

Okay, so this blog is firstly to let you all know that I'm still waiting for the green light to publish Book Two, Scroll. It should have already been out. Except that the US tax laws changed and, for foreign writers, this left a few issues to be sorted out. And despite submitting all my paperwork to the IRS over a month ago, they misplaced it or lost it or something and have asked me to resubmit everything. So that Christmas deadline I set myself is drifting further and further away...

But I will endeavour to give you snippets of the novel to whet your appetite. Bear with me guys ... I'm hoping the long wait will be worth it.

And speaking of which...

I have to say that I hate it (as a reader) when authors take forever to get their books published. What's an appropriate time period? A year? 18 months? I don't know. It seems dreadful when a series takes forever to finish - I have been reading a few such series and one series (which I started in high school) is still unfinished (seven books later and waiting...) whilst another (I absolutely loved) after twelve books (two series back to back) I didn't know if I could persevere with. I'm waiting till they are all written and then I'll buy them and read them. That's not a comment on how I want readers to read my series but I hope to produce them in a decent time period.

I know that sometimes it isn't the fault of the author but there are times when readers have a right to gripe. I sympathise as a reader. I overheard an interview where George RR Martin (of Game of Thrones fame) became angered at the suggestion that he might pass away before finishing his series and leave fans in the lurch. His response is unprintable, I'm afraid. But I know that for someone who began reading his series before it became a megablockbuster bestseller, the wait is excruciating (compounded by the fact that the TV series seems to sort-of-but-not-quite follow the plot by going off on tangents and digressions).

But then, as a writer, it takes me FOREVER to write a novel (okay, so my novels are around 160,000+ words in length) but when my BETA group speed through it in an adrenaline-rush-hell-for-leather-burn-the-midnight-oil sitting, I'm both thrilled/ elated/ humbled and horrified.

I'm like: Do you know how long it took me to write/research/edit that?

And they respond by: What do you mean "I can't believe you've read the whole book already!" What am I supposed to do when it's open and there are words on the page?

So yeah, my dilemma.

Well, I guess that's all for now. I will be blogging again soon (stay tuned for 7 interesting facts about me on my blog hop) but, for now, take care.

Love DB