I wrote it with a pen in some Moleskine notebooks - two of them, in fact. 230 pages, 90,000 words. Writing longhand is a very honest way of writing. Plus it's easier than lugging a laptop around. I found that I just threw sentences down onto the paper, and I'll decide at the second draft stage whether they're worth keeping. I really want to know what people will make of this novel. It's a strange one, stranger even than "Besotted".
Here's what's going to be difficult - writing the blurb for the back cover. What can I write without giving too much away? Well, the book is about a man called Saul Castle. We meet him when he's in his forties, is an alcoholic, and is just about to attend the funeral of a friend. It seems as though Saul Castle's life has been dotted with tragedies.
This book didn't affect me the way "Besotted" did. Of course, I used some events of my life to pad this story out - what writer doesn't - but I didn't have to become Saul Castle in order to write it. In that respect, it was moderately easy to complete. But the next huge step is the most difficult one - letting people read it.
It should be ready around September time, so keep watching this space.
