What an incredible week it has been – the publication of my debut RECIPES FOR MELISSA. So amazing, I hardly know where to start. Regular followers of this blog will remember it all – walking with me through the writing of this book (remember the agony of 2,000 words a day?!) to the pitching for a new agent (was I doing the right thing/would anyone want me?) through the surreal experience of the Frankfurt book fair (7 publishers suddenly in an auction for the book – are you KIDDING me?) to this week. Book launch week. Forgive me – but this took ten years and four unpublished novels so I am going to say it again. Book. Launch. Week… *pinches flesh* OK. Deep breath. And it feels right to be as honest as I always try to be here– and I have to tell you that I surprised myself by being every bit as nervous as super excited. As the very big day approached, I suddenly realised that it was a bit like a wedding. You get so excited about the dress and the cake and the champers that you forget about the marriage. And so it was with me. Suddenly I lay my head down that final night and it hit me that many, many complete strangers would (hopefully) buy and read my book and I began to worry what they might think and say. It was ridiculous that this had not hit me so fully previously. It is the whole point of being published, after all. It is what we writers want. But I realised that, of course, is not the whole truth. We writers do not want only to be published; we want readers to LIKE our book ..and given it is impossible to please everyone, I started to worry about what people would say. What friends might say even. Some writers seem to have such complete faith in their work that this does not seem to bother them. I am incredibly proud of this book -but I am also wired to worry… This slight dose of nerves was all in the middle of a whirlwind of publicity which I had been planning for ages. There was an article organised for my local paper the Plymouth Herald plus an interview with the Western Morning News. I was also thrilled to be featured in the Woman’s Weekly Fiction Special (current issue) under their “Author’s Secrets” banner. Add to this an interview for a Book Show slot on a European Radio station plus a chat on publication day with the lovely presenter Fitz at BBC Radio Devon. I used to work at the local BBC studios – presenting the nightly TV show Spotlight for 15 years - so this was not only super publicity but a real walk down memory lane for me. I popped into the studios for the interview, planning to just say a quick hello to a few former colleagues and ended up gossiping for over an hour! Wonderful. And then there was this huge and difficult question of exactly how to celebrate this UK publication. Abroad my novel is subject to traditional deals and so will be going straight into book shops - first in hardback then mass paperback in Germany. Then Israel, Korea, Brazil and the Czech Republic. But here I have a very modern deal - in e-book and paperback - with the dynamic publisher Bookouture whose main sales platform is Amazon. You can order my paperback through book shops but given it is not the first sales point, it didn’t make sense for me to organise a book shop launch as such. Also my poor husband was scheduled for a late shift on pub day (he works in newspapers) so a party was not an option either. I was initially, hand on heart, a bit sad about that. But then I felt cross at myself for being ungrateful. So what to do? In the end I decided to concentrate on all the media activity and to attend the Tiverton Literary Festival to appear on a panel the weekend my book was released. This worked out brilliantly as other panel guests included the very experienced author Veronica Henry…so, despite having no real idea what to expect, I just followed everyone else’s lead and had a fabulous time launching "my Melissa" in Devon. In the midst of all this my publisher was gorgeous – creating a superb buzz on social media on pub day and , to my delight, the 5 star reviews started rolling in immediately, nudging me up that all-important Amazon ranking and finally helping me to relax and truly enjoy myself. Strangers were reading my book….and loving it. It’s going to be OK, Teresa! I’d arranged a few glasses of champagne with friends…and then the FLOWERS started arriving. Oh my word. The house hasn’t looked like this since the children were born! After everything finally started to quieten down, I took my husband out for a special dinner as a thank you for all his patience and faith through all the many ups and downs – the rejection and the heartache - that finally brought me to this place. As a published author. (It is his new joke, incidentally – that he is now sleeping with a novelist.) And so I thought I would leave you today with a little pictorial portrayal of how I got here - as I wish you, as always, all the joy and luck in the world with your own writing and reading. You know I said I wasn’t going to keep checking my Amazon ranking? Cancel that… I have discovered the most ridiculous and addictive game. Sorry. I know it’s vain and silly and I am embarrassed even to admit to it here but in my defence I have been waiting for this author launch lark for a very long time and I learn that there are more unexpected “you are kidding me” moments… It all began when my novel suddenly popped up on Amazon’s “Hot new releases” chart at number two in literary women’s fiction. Don’t quite know how or why….a surge in pre-order sales one particular day. Something like that. Anyway. The point is I started to find my novel on all sorts of lists and charts, nestled up against novels and authors I really admire. Even big name authors who sell zillions of books. I can only describe this realisation as similar to the day I was handed a costume to wear with the name tag Glenda Jackson. I should probably explain… I used to work in television news for the BBC and one Children in Need they decided to dress me as Elizabeth the First (don’t ask). The costume duly arrived from BBC HQ with Glenda’s name tag…I’d interviewed her when she became an MP so it was another “I don’t believe it” fan moment,. You see when you are a journalist working in television you never really see yourself as any kind of celebrity – local or otherwise. At least I didn’t. Just a hack. So I was often embarrassingly star struck. There was this other time I was invited to a big BBC dinner in London and found myself queuing for the loo with Delia Smith. I tried to act cool but it was ridiculous. Delia Smith!! And that’s what this feels like now. My little debut popping up alongside all sorts of big name books and authors. Really? Ridiculous. Surreal. Wonderful. And I admit it…..just a little bit addictive. So forgive me my delusions but I'm off to see who else I may be rubbing shoulders with ...at least temporarily. Need to be very quick as for a few moments Jojo Moyes is on the shelf above....
I am normally one for words first and foremost– obviously - but just now it feels as if pictures are the way to go. Nearly cried when these turned up. Oh – who am I kidding? I did cry. Proper tears. Overwhelmed. Big kid. The truth is it remains so surreal. A beautiful box of shiny, delicious-smelling books with my very own words inside. My debut! After all these years… Those who have been following this blog with all the ups and the downs and the updates as I was writing this novel (wondering and fearing how it would all turn out) will understand how much this means. Of course I am learning too that the paranoia that is in the writer’s job description does not, alas, cease once you sell your book to publishers around the world. The next cue is to start laying awake at night worrying if anyone will buy it! (Whatever are we like?) People are starting to mutter quietly about “rankings” and how I will very soon start a new obsession. Chant after me…..do not check your Amazon ranking every hour. Do not check your…. To be honest? I am realising that this way insanity lies. My book is published three weeks this Friday and, having done my very, very best, I can only now cross everything, hope and pray that readers like it and try to enjoy the moment. At least the early signs are good - some very kind bloggers and reviewers are saying nice things on Goodreads (thank you; thank you – I could hug you all) so I am going to try very hard to stop worrying at least for a little while and instead share another special snap. Below is a picture of me visiting one of the settings featured in the novel (the very gorgeous Porthleven in Cornwall). When I was in the final stages of line editing, I thought often of this mesmeric place and could picture my characters there so very clearly. Worrying isn’t it that our characters become so real to us that we can do that? Watch them. Right there on the beach. So – to all those who are still pitching away, what can I say? I can say this feels magical, if just a little bit scary too… so do please keep the faith. Keep going. Keep loving it. Keep remembering that it wasn’t many months back I had no idea that all this was finally going to happen. And will you forgive a nervous first-time author for mentioning that my debut is currently on special offer - pre-order discount price of just 99p. Click on cover or side bar or HERE I have never wanted to turn into one of those elderly aunts who says how much everyone has grown. And where does the time go? But here I am noticing how everyone has grown. And wondering where the time has gone. Take today. First I met a former colleague from my BBC TV Spotlight days – the lovely Simon Hall, pictured with me here. It’s been nearly a decade since we worked together but, my goodness, it didn’t feel like it when we opened Exeter Library’s “Local Writers' / New Talent” Day together. And then later on, I ventured out into the sunshine with the hubby to the National Trust’s Saltram House. We took a super tour of the house but, wonderful as that was, the thing that really caught our eye was a tree. Not just any old tree, you understand, but a tree that our two sons loved when they were tiny because of its huge and gnarly trunk, split into several twisty peep-holes perfect for climbing. And….well; peeping. Fifteen years ago, it was – that we used to visit the grounds regularly for walks with our young boys. And yet here again suddenly was this vivid, powerful image, conjured from nostalgia and longing and love – fresh as the daisies in the grass. Our sons peeping through that tree trunk. And, on reflection, what's the point of embarrassment? May as well hold my hands up. To admit that I seem to be slowly turning into someone who gets increasingly misty-eyed over memories that have so shaped who I am. Mother. Writer. Journalist. Lover of trees. It's an age thing. Obviously. No point fighting it, Teresa...Though, if you will forgive, I may just pass for now on the furry, zip-up slippers… Have a great weekend and enjoy your own writing and reading.
So – this is the new me. My official brand spanking new author photo which is to appear on the jacket of the German hardback edition of my debut. ( Recipes for Melissa is to be called “Fur alle tage die noch kommen” over there….which means “For all the days to come”.) Oh Gawd! Can’t tell you how much I agonised/panicked over this. As soon as the email popped into my inbox via my agent, I was in meltdown. A new author photo? For a book jacket? Seriously? Now - for someone who worked for twenty years in television, I must confess that I am surprisingly uneasy when it comes to having my photograph taken. Especially as the years roll sneakily by! The truth is I always worked in live news as a reporter and presenter and the beauty of live television is you don’t actually have to watch yourself. Not that I’m ungrateful – mind. It is, of course, hugely exciting to me to think of any publisher wanting to put my mug on a book jacket …but, all the same, the pressure of my very first “author photo”? What does an author headshot even look like? What pose? What outfit? I decided to boost my chances of success by booking a slot quickly with a lovely and very talented local photographer in Devon called Claire Tregaskis. I gave her the brief. “I just need to look like someone who might write”… I booked a haircut. I tried on a zillion outfits. I posed and smiled and Claire, to her credit, displayed the patience of a saint – especially as I was worried that smiling too widely would make me look too piggy eyed. “Bigger smile, Teresa” she kept saying. “I’ll have no eyes,” I moaned. In the end, we did just fine. Smiling and yet eyes not too piggy for an old bird. A medal to Claire. Whether or not I look like an author, I have no idea. But the German publisher seems happy. Phew
Today is the day “my Melissa” is shared with the world . She is suddenly on the cover of a real novel and I am pinching myself. So today feels like the day to explain how I came to write her story – and why, hand on heart, I worried for quite a long time if I should. I’m a writer who believes when they say “write about what you know”, they actually mean “write about what you understand”…and unfortunately I understand about loss. I lost my mother to cancer when I was 17 and all my life as a journalist I have felt huge compassion for and empathy with people whose stories I have covered… involving loss. But it’s a tough subject – right? Maybe not one for fiction? Maybe too personal as a theme in my case? I certainly wouldn’t want to trespass on my family’s privacy. I wouldn’t use any of the facts of my life. I wouldn’t write a memoir. So maybe best left alone…even as a theme, Teresa. Too sad? I wrote instead about lots of other things successfully for a long time – as a journalist first, then as a columnist and selling lots of short stories to leading magazines. I wrote a few novels – getting near misses with major publishers and lots of rejection letters which tantalisingly said “Teresa writes so beautifully “ and “Teresa will definitely make it as a novelist”. And then as a TV presenter for the BBC ( I presented Spotlight in Devon for 15 years) I was asked to start a Race for Life in Plymouth to raise money for Cancer Research and there were all these women with a single word pinned to their back. “Mum”. It upset me deeply and yet it comforted me at the same time. All of us in the same boat on this same rocky sea. And it was the moment I felt that maybe, as a writer, I had something to say…That maybe I wanted to shine a light on this theme after all. I decided that - yes; I would consider using the emotional landscape of my life for a novel. Not the facts of my own experience obviously. Just the theme. So where on earth would I get a fictional story strong enough to carry something I and so many other people felt so strongly about? And then two things came together through serendipity to gift me the idea for Recipes for Melissa. First I had a dream about my mother. I hadn’t seen her for decades when I had this dream – but suddenly there she was, all smiles, at the reception desk of a sports centre while I was watching my son take a swimming lesson through the viewing window. It was a very vivid dream. It was honestly as if I had seen her that morning. “We’re over here” I said – waving her to my seat. Completely calm. We sat and nattered about my two boys (who, of course, she has never met in real life). She gave me lots of tips and advice. She laughed with me about the ups and downs of motherhood…and then suddenly she sort of just drifted off. When I woke up after that dream, I was overwhelmed. So grateful for the sense of being near her again. For I suddenly realised what exactly it was I missed about going through my adult life without a mother….and that was knowing her as a woman myself. Talking woman to woman. Learning from her about being a mother myself. Then, while looking for a story for my next novel, I was in my kitchen skimming through recipe books. I took down a lovely memento book made by a nanny who looked after my elder son when he was tiny while I was working in television. It was a book of photos of him cooking – alongside sweet recipes we liked to make with him. And suddenly that author thing happened – PING! What if….I stared to think. What if; what if… What if there were a mother who has to leave her daughter….and wants to find a way to talk to that daughter “woman to woman” across time? Yes, Teresa. What if there were a mother and daughter sadly separated who could be reconnected …woman to woman? What if the mother used a journal to do that? To say a belated goodbye. A journal of recipes… But – no, Teresa. Not just recipes handed down through the family but letters and photographs and advice …and secrets too. It was Stephen King who advised that when you suddenly get an idea you feel passionately about, you should write the novel very quickly. I did! I wrote in a complete fury in a way I have never written before ( there are earlier blogs explaining all this). The house was a tip. The family had no clean clothes. Suddenly it was pizza not home-made lasagne. I wrote day and night. I gave myself arm ache… But once Melissa and her mother Eleanor stepping into my writing room, it was as if this was the novel I was always meant to write…Not my story. Not the facts of my story. But a fictional story I do understand. A story about love and loss…but most important an ultimately uplifting story about recovery. About learning that when you lose someone you love with all your heart, you eventually learn that it is the very love you miss… that will heal you. I am so hoping that people like this story. I am very nervous. I am excited. I am also very proud. It is not a deliberately sentimental story, I hope…but it is an emotionally strong story, which is a different thing entirely. I hope it will move people and I hope it will make anyone who has ever lost someone they love very much…feel understood and reassured. That you can and you will get past it. I submitted the novel to agents last summer. Everything went mad! I ended up choosing between five offers. My lovely agent then took the novel to the Frankfurt book fair where it was auctioned between seven German publishers. So far it has sold in five languages…. Today my UK publisher Bookouture has revealed their cover. Their interpretation of “my Melissa” running through a field with the sunlight catching her. As I said at the start. I keep having to pinch myself...
You can always tell when things are (temporarily?) calmer in my writing life - a great deal more plugging in of the "proper" coffee machine. I have always had a soft spot for good coffee and treated myself to this splendid chap several years back. I use it whenever I have a girlfriend over for a chat...and whenever I have the time. Lately, during the editing phase of my debut novel, I've been holing up in my writing room with a large cafetiere instead (much quicker), so it's delicious to have the time again to savour my coffee breaks. (Please note that there will be no mention of instant coffee. Sorry to be a caffeine snob and all, but we all have lines. I only allow myself so many cups per day so I am certainly not going to waste them!) So where am I at exactly re the writing? OK. My lovely editor is delighted with all my changes (*punches air*) so we only have a short copyedit stage to go now. I haven't yet seen the cover which is both exciting and terrifying. I so want to love it! Promise I will share just as soon as I am allowed. The other bit of good news is we have sold to another foreign publisher - Czechoslovakia. This means RECIPES FOR MELISSA will be read in five languages which is just incredible. To celebrate acceptance of the edit, I decided to cook some of the recipes when we had friends over for dinner at the weekend. The good news is they readily accepted second helpings....so I am quietly smiling. They were either just horribly hungry or I can tick another box. The novel is by no means a recipe book, per se, of course - but it's still good to know that the recipes I have included work well. Next stop is to discuss publicity plans with my publisher. And on that note, I should mention that I am giving my first official author talk this Friday Feb 27th at 7.30pm so if you happen to live in Devon and would like to say "hello" , do come along. Will be very embarrassing if it's just me and the hubby.....Details are HERE. Only remains for me to thank all those fellow authors on my home patch who over lunch (and coffee!) have lately been so generously sharing very helpful advice as I start this publishing journey proper. I feel so very lucky.... So if you are still waiting for the "call" yourself....do please take heart from my story and keep going. That is just what it feels like today. Coming up for air... Rising to the surface for a lungful of glorious, fresh air after long hours at the keyboard editing. Don’t get me wrong – I like editing. I respect the journey to making a manuscript better and have written often on this blog about the process. But I do also find editing all-consuming and sometimes infuriating so that I always feel this huge sense of relief when I finally email the draft to my agent or editor to read. I sent my edit off yesterday so today is the day for bursting to the surface of the water. To breathe in deeply. To sigh. Also to COOK.... No coincidence that my debut novel is called Recipes for Melissa. So today I printed off one of the recipes from the script for my lunch. A steaming bowl of soup which I took out into the garden to eat because, despite the cold, I really needed that fresh air. The sense of the outdoors. The sense that, for now at least, I am on a very temporary break from the writing. I say that on the strict understanding that blogging doesn’t count, of course. Blogging is just chatting with you lovely people. Soup. Fresh air. Little bit of a natter. What could possibly be nicer than that? I am knee deep in “editland” – getting my MS ready for publication so apologies that the blog has taken a back seat. I genuinely regret this as it has always given me a buzz, sharing tips along the way – this incredible road that I like to call “long and winding…with speed bumps!” So I’ve decided while I’m short of time for full-on blogging, I am, for now, going to share micro-blogs of “headline tips” which come to mind as I edit. As well as working on RECIPES FOR MELISSA which is due out in the Spring, I’ve also been re-reading an early draft of the MS for my second book THE SEARCH. Doing so makes me smile as it reminds me how much I have learned! Cue my first 2015 headline tip… Don’t crowd the stage!! By that I mean be careful not to have too many characters and too many sub plots, all vying for attention. When I first started writing fiction , I made this mistake as I was trying to figure out how to fill a whole novel. It took me a while to realise that what you actually need to do is not scatter gun more characters and more strands but instead dig deeper with fewer characters and strands that genuinely interact or play to the theme. Novels need minor characters too , of course. And sub plots. But you need to be careful that you don’t let them get too big for their boots. I had a weakness for this in my early writing and I’m very conscious of it now. So, I repeat. Don’t crowd the stage. Try to opt for fewer key characters and DIG DEEP. Hope this helps. Here’s wishing you a wonderful and productive 2015. Now….toodle pip. It’s straight back to the edit!! |
AuthorTeresa Driscoll - journalist, author, mother of two and lover of great coffee. CATEGORIEsArchives
February 2024
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