Saying goodbye to your book - the zombies are here

Dead Bastards is now done and dusted and
the final galley proofs are now with the wonderful Terry Wright and the zombie novel I never thought I'd ever finish has been published by TWB Press. In the same week, the final version of Hell To Pay is with John Hunt
Publishing.





Do I
feel like celebrating? No. Instead I feel a sense of loss. Almost like a
bereavement.



The characters in my book were only alive
because I was writing about them - though on many occasions I felt as though
they were talking to me and I was just writing it down.





Talking to other writers, I can see that
it's not just me who feels that way and it's easy to understand why. You live with
those characters for so long. Weeks, months, even years. You give them life and
they're no longer characters; they become real.





Then they're snatched away from you because
you've finished the book.





How do you handle that? Here are some
things that have helped me -





1. Start work on something new. I'd started
Throwaways the follow up to Hell To Pay (the first Nancy Kerr and Tommy
McIntyre book) before I finished my other books.





2. Update your blog. Share your
experiences. It's cathartic.





3. Work on other shorter writing projects.
I write reviews for Shadowlocked.com Click on the link and you'll be taken to a piece I wrote on 9 Ways They can Keep us Watching The Walking Dead  





4. Chill out, catch up on your favourite TV
shows, don't work the crazy hours you were before.



To read an excerpt from Dead Bastards click here