After sending my first novel, A Prawn’s Heart is in its Head, to a few publishers, I received the first (no doubt of many) rejection letters a few days ago. As a friend of mine says, “Oh, poos.” My thoughts exactly, only her expression is much more polite.
Strangely, I don’t feel too upset, because on the same day I had a fantastic idea for a new book. I’ve had it in my head for the last couple of years (even before I finished my novel) that my next novel was going to be about medieval torture. I adore all that lovely, bloody, gory stuff, and I wanted to explore the people behind the instruments — how does someone just wake up one day and invent a new form of torture? But when I went into the library recently to start my research, I couldn’t find any books to inspire me. I don’t know if the library just didn’t have the right books, or if maybe, without noticing it, I’ve gone off the whole medieval thing. So I decided to leave the ideas to ferment for a while and see what happened.
Yesterday I sat down before breakfast to note down a couple of ideas — and couldn’t stop writing! It was such a wonderful feeling; one I haven’t had very recently. I’ve already got one and a half first drafts of linked stories based on the imaginary erotic lives of famous women from 1900-1950 who lived in Paris. I’m thinking of the title “Nights in Paris”, or “My nights in Paris”; something like that. Feel free to send me any other suggestions!
I’m convinced that the sudden inspiration was partly due to my beautiful new writing book. I’ve been searching for one for ages, but I’m fussy when it comes to writing books: it has to be big enough, of course, not post-it sized. The pages must be blank, without lines, as lines make me feel constricted. And the ideal book has silver or gold coloured paint on the edges of the pages, just because I love books like that. Amazingly, I found just the thing a few months ago; it’s black velvet with silver beads. I found it in one of those swanky shops that sell lots of (mostly useless but) gorgeous things, and then a few weeks ago they had a sale, so I quickly nabbed two! What a fabulous bargain.
