L is for Learner

It’s been a couple of years since Eldest Son learnt to drive, and now Younger Son is behind the wheel and the one thing that is still obvious is that a lot of drivers still don’t know what the letter L stands for.

L stands for Learner.  That means the person driving is a Learner driver. The clue is in the word and it’s not that difficult to give them the time and space in which to learn to drive. After all, you were once a learner.

It always seems amazing to me that people will cut in front of learners, beep them when they hesitate at a junction and roar passed glaring through a fog of pent up frustration.  Now I am not saying that I haven’t occasionally tapped the wheel as I wait for a learner to move forward, but I can tell you that even driving instructors are left shaking their heads with the attitudes of other drivers. 

It seems to me that there are a few drivers out there who could do with some remedial lessons themselves.  For example, I is for Indicator.  That’s the stick located on the left or right hand side of your steering wheel, which tells other drivers where you are planning on going.  It’s quite useful actually and may just mean that a learner driver nearby might be able to make a decision about what to do next. 

As the Meerkat from a famous car insurance company would say, ‘Simples’.

Dog vs Teens

At last the truth is out.  A recent study in the US revealed that mothers show the same maternal instincts towards their pet dog as they do to their child.  In some of the tests, mothers actually showed greater response to their dog’s image. I am not surprised at this, and here’s why:

Faithful Hound does not leave wet towels on the bedroom floor nor does he eat the entire contents of the fridge in one sitting.  (Although there is a possibility he would if only his paws could open it)

Faithful Hound does not desert you all evening to go on his computer /smart phone while you sit alone in front of Great British Bake Off.

Faithful Hound does not go all hormonal and moody.

Faithful Hound actually bounds up to see you every time you arrive home even though you’ve only been gone ten minutes.

Faithful Hound does not borrow your comb, straighteners, hair gel, mobile phone charger, earphones or expensive speakers.

Faithful Hound comes when you call him.  (Unless a grey squirrel is involved)

Faithful Hound does not hack into your Amazon and ITunes accounts.

Faithful Hound goes to bed when you tell him to.

And there you have it – several reasons why I might if tested reveal a slightly more interested response to the image of my dog.

Oh and finally, Faithful Hound keeps your feet warm on a cold evening when Absent Husband has turned the heating off.

Column for Maidenhead Advertiser, Thursday 16th October 

Finished by the skin of my teeth....

July and August flew by in a haze of hot summer days and long hours chained to the keyboard.  There were A level exams for Younger Son and end of years for Only Daughter.  Eldest Son finished university ridiculously early and joined the previously unknown world of employment serving Toffs (or wannabe Toffs) at Royal Ascot.

The book ticked along with some days of frantic and frenetic writing and other days of endlessly slow   tortuous trickles of words.  I finally finished the book in mid July giving myself only three weeks to edit the first draft.  The editing was done whilst trying hard to ignore the wonderful hot sunshine outside the summerhouse (blinds were drawn tightly) and my shoulders and arms ached from endless backspacing and cut and pasting as I tried to get a draft ready to send off for manuscript review.

The neighbour's noisy gardeners drove me insane (all summer...) with their endless strumming and mowing.  But I would not allow myself to be distracted!  Having the deadline of August 9th was the best thing as I continued to drive myself to at least get a draft finished by then.  It's all too easy to sit around enjoying the sun and not focussing on your work.

So on Friday 9th August, the manuscript made its way into an envelope and off to the Post Office.

108,000 words and six months later.  Hoo-bloody-ray!!

Let the countdown begin

Help!!  I have just realised I have roughly only 45 days left until I go to on holiday with the family.  45 days to finish the book.  I had hoped to have finished a first draft by the end of June (hollow laugh) so that I could spend July reviewing and redrafting (hollow laugh again).  But life, as usual, gets in the way.  So there's no choice but to spend the next 45 days writing as much as I can - squeezing words out in the midst of my chaotic family life.  Of those 45 days, only 32 remain completely free to write and even then some of those days are already half taken up.  Thus it's about getting a few thousand words out every day even in limited time.  Otherwise I will taking a laptop with my on hols and that won't be fun.

Countdown:

Today 24th June (yay Chloe's birthday)   2,306 words

Watch this space

But who really did do it?

OK.  So a bit of an epiphany since last I wrote on the blog.  Yes my villain did suddenly reveal himself but  I woke up early one morning and realised that of course he wasn't the murderer after all.  So I took control of the reins again and forced him back with a stick.  Don't worry though, he's still got an unpleasant role to play.

So now I am faced with a new villain - a different villain, one which I hope will behave until the time is right. This suspense writing is tricky.  My book is not a full one crime story nor is it a complete romance.  Finding the balance is tricky - there has to be some police procedure but most of what is happening is going on in the character's heads and in their lives.  It's behind the scenes that give it the suspense.

Well, hopefully.  Meanwhile I am busy working on a new villain profile whilst carefully looking over my shoulder.

Feeling a little melancholy today....

Time Captured

It seems to me as I look out

The day has flown by without me noticing

And now the fading tones of evening arrive

And I am wondering just how it happened.

When I was younger

Time seemed to race by

Births, marriages and deaths

And now it waxes and wanes

A golden moon in the dark sky,

Teasing me with its glow.

I once heard of a woman who loved only one man.

He, a young man now buried under poppies in a field in France

Still stands proudly in his uniform, smiling and twenty.

She, finally buried under green moss in an English churchyard

Her heart beating for him, long after the trenches were filled in.

Every star in that inky black sky is billions of years away from me

I reach out and lose my hand in the darkness.

Time snatches pockets of my life

Causing me to panic when I can’t remember

And it is only when I see a photograph

Captured forever in a frame,

That I remember your faces.

Vanessa Woolley

June 2014

70,000 words and the villain's revealing himself...

I reached the 70,000 word mark today and am nearing the pivotal moment.  As if by stealth, the villain (I still don't like that word) has slowly begun to show himself.  I am a little worried by this, any publications I have read about writing romantic suspense all say that a villain should either be revealed right from the very beginning thus giving the reader the suspenseful journey of watching the hero and heroine discover.

The other option is to not reveal until the end and hope that your reader doesn't  discover it until it is right upon them.  Throw in a red herring or two and the reader gets a bumpy journey.




What are writers meant to do when the villain decides to drop a few clues of his own?  We're not talking mustache twirling baddie tying the heroine up to a railway track - but still, he's showing his 'other' side before I wanted him to.

I think I better watch out for him......