Writing Fiction

Although my late mother wrote many books during her lifetime including children's books, non-fiction works and her autobiography, I have not been able to follow her so far other than as regards her autobiography.

My late mother's first work of children's fiction pictured above featured I recall in the window of the local WH Smith on a day when she had been invited to assist with sales by signing copies for purchasers.

Writing books was not in my picture so to speak until after retirement when I was able to publish an autobiography which the Jesuits at Farm Street Church kindly allowed me to endeavour to sell in the Immaculate Conception church hall Mayfair, after their morning masses.

Autobiography

Probably aided by both retirement and the impact of the still continuing pandemic, a work of fiction is now on my page so to speak. My mother was very much younger than I am now when she wrote her first novel so unlike her, commencing with an adult  fiction rather than a novel  for children, seemed apt.

As for the  novel writing experience so far, a slow start but  the work  has now got going and the number of words written  is accelerating almost daily, so far. 

Perhaps one of the advantages of writing a book even a fictional work, is that of having to check facts fairly carefully. Obviously a work of fiction is just that, ie fiction, but some aspects, such as particular places visited on occasion by the fictional characters, still need to be checked.

My mother along with all those who wrote books in say the 1950s, never had the benefit of internet sites on which to check  her or their facts but had instead to rely on more cumbersome research tools, such as the Encyclopaedia Britannica or specialist libraries.

Of course securing publication of the novel is perhaps the second most difficult task facing prospective authors after creating the work itself; if not actually the hardest.

If and when the novel is finished and then published, I will blog further.

Meanwhile may 2022 be a happy one for all readers of this blog.