Time to Write.

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”

― Ernest Hemingway

Martha Wenlock aka Granny Wenlock (The Funeral Birds (A.I. Created Image)

At last Martha Wenlock is talking to me. It’s not that we fell out, it’s just that we weren’t singing from the same song sheet. My nerves got the better of me, which meant I was overthinking how to make a great opening chapter rather than just writing and seeing where the story takes me with the first draft.

Writing a novel with the same characters should really be straight forward but I was left feeling concerned that 1) I would be writing the Funeral Birds again, but in a longer book. 2) Readers who loved The Funeral Birds would expect another humorous book.

When I wrote The Funeral Birds I never set out to make it funny. My character was based on my wonderful neighbours, Dave and Joan. A mature couple with a great sense of humour. Joan, an avid reader, has always been very supportive of my writing and proofread all my early work. She was a devil, with a red pen and underlined anything she didn’t understand. She was always honest if she didn’t like something. I love Joan’s no-nonsense Yorkshire attitude to life. She calls a spade a spade, so you know exactly what she thinks of a story or a novel. When Joan read The Funeral Birds she loved it. It started as an entry into a BBC short story competition, but it didn’t get anywhere.

Dave and Joan Cavendish and
Granny Martha Wenlock (A.I. Created image)

For a few years, it sat on my computer and Joan would occasionally ask if I had resubmitted it. My answer was always no. Then one day, a writing friend of mine sent a link for the guidelines for a small publisher called Demain who published novellas. I hunted out The Mourning Birds as the story was originally called, and made it longer to fit the guidelines. I worried whether it was what they were looking for as Demain specialises in horror stories. Although my writing is on the darker side of life, I don’t write horror, but more chilling tales.

I was delighted when the Funeral Birds was accepted and published in 2020. Unfortunately, I never got the book launch I always dreamt of having when my first book was published. I had to settle with an online one because we were in the middle of the first Covid lockdown. The Funeral Birds has sold well and is enjoyed by many readers.

In the novel I want to explore more of Martha’s life and give the reader more insight into why she became Dave’s voice of reason. The new book will be called As The Crow Flies because I want to keep a bird theme linking the books. I have a few ideas for future books, but I will see what the publisher thinks of this one first.

After discovering how to use Ai Picture Creator, I thought I would see if I could create an image of Granny Wenlock, Dave, and Joan. After fine-tuning my request, I managed to create a couple of images that look like my characters. Granny’s cottage wouldn’t be as large as the one in the picture, but Ai didn’t like the word Hovel meaning a small, squalid, or poorly constructed dwelling.

If you haven’t read the short story yet, please check it out. Here’s the link Thank you, if you do drop by to read it.

I’m over 15k words into the novel and new ideas are starting to bubble to the surface. I think I have the right tone for the story, which had been a stumbling block before, but I’m pass that point now. I have a few other points to iron out, but instead of worrying about them now, I’m just focusing on writing the first draft.

I wrote this blog last night ready for this morning. Writing a blog post takes me quite a while to create because I have to double-check everything and then check again. This morning when I checked Amazon, I found The Funeral Birds have jumped up the Amazon charts. I do hope this means someone new has bought a copy. Of course, I would love it to be more, but one new reader is just as important.

Thank you so much for dropping by and reading my post.

Have a wonderful weekend.