News! News! News!

Some of you may have seen the cryptic countdown on here and social media as we waited for 04/04!

I have had to keep this to close friends and family awaiting the official release of the BIG news.

I am delighted to announce that I have been signed for my next book, my novel If Crows Could Talk formerly known as ‘Colourblind’ (working title) with Bridge House’s new literary imprint Walela Books which launches today. It is not open to submissions yet. I think there are some quite specific criteria for selection. It was submitted to Walela through my lovely agent Camilla at the start of the year and I was delighted that Gill felt it was the right fit and a worthy book for the imprint’s first release.

Colourblind as it was first called started life as a short story back in 2003/4 and was part of a bigger project… my first stab at a novel that had short stories woven into it. But I felt the story was too big for that novel and never included it and that novel ended up being my practice novel that never did much. So I developed the short story into the novel Colourblind, or at least the first version of it back in 2006. While it had some good feedback I knew I needed to develop my writing skills further and that one day I would return to it and do it the justice I felt it deserved. I had a feeling about it. I went on to write other novels and in fact, While No One Was Watching (my debut) was in fact my fourth novel. However, what you might not know is I took a lot of what I learned from writing about George and Molly… African-American narrators in If Crows Could Talk to create Lydia in While No One Was Watching.

In 2020 while the world locked down and I was recovering from my breast cancer surgery I finally decided, several novels later and numerous short story successes, I was ready. I completely rewrote the novel making several changes from the original. While it is still the same story, I had let it grow and felt it was ready. The response when out on submission was great and now it has found its forever home 🙂

If Crows Could Talk is an American mystery novel with pertinent themes. African-American George Tucker and white teenager April Jefferson share the same birthday – born fifty years apart – but that’s not all they share. The novel explores the repercussions of Jim Crow’s actions and the impact they have had on George’s life. But what George doesn’t know is how a little white girl is the key to unlocking his biggest secret, so that justice can finally be served.

The novel is set for release in the Autumn and you can bet there will be a book launch locally and I am planning signing events at bookstores too. I am also hoping to do something in the US as I have plans to be in LA and New York later this year. Oh and for the fans of my first novel, I did bring Lydia back, though only in a cameo role!

I will be sharing steps along the way right here!

But today I will celebrate sharing the news with you all! A press release has gone out to various national bookselling and publishing news sites today. Thank you so much to Gill at Walela Books for making me their first acquisition! I wish you all the luck in the world with this exciting new imprint. The name means hummingbird, it’s the Cherokee word and anyone who knows me will understand the significance of that. The new website is live here with the news: WALELA BOOKS

And I am finally doing the happy dance!

“Did you hear about Debz’s new book?” “What’s it called?”

{Inside the Writer’s Mind Series 2024} Week 2

So a week into writing the new novel, a short prologue and Chapter 1 complete.

I knew exactly how this one would start. The prologue sets up the inciting incident and establishes the mystery that is to act as the hook for the reader before we go back in time three years. So the story structurally is all set before the inciting incident and covers the events that lead up to it.

Chapter 1 introduces the protagonist, who so far I think will be the only narrator… although I am pondering if it will be more interesting to use another one. I know who. So this is the first question I have to ask myself as I start Week 2. If I do use him there lies a danger of losing some of the intrigue I need to create about him later.

What is interesting, and always happens when I write, is you can plan; you can actually have quite a detailed plan, but a character might have other ideas as soon as you breathe life into them. They let me know if I have the voice right, if I have the tense right, and if the intention of the character is right. No unexpected surprises so far. When I started to write last year’s American mystery novel, there were two narrators; alternating with chapter. The first one immediately hijacked my initial intention. She decided she wanted a second-person narrative; something I never, or hardly ever do. She also surprised me by wanting to tell her story in a non-linear way. For that story it worked (or I hope it did) because the other narrator has a timeline fixed firmly in a linear form, which I saw as an anchor to hold the reader in place, to avoid any confusion. I didn’t know when I started to write the second narrator that he had a dog and this really turned into the comedy element of the book as a whole. Those surprises at the start, I am so glad I went with as I do think they work. With this new novel, more domestic noir, the voice was as planned but a little more serious and a little austere. For the type of novel, this is okay but the danger is she may be harder to relate to. The hope is what she talks about, namely her mother’s death a year ago to the day, will soften her enough at the edges that she is someone the reader will want to go on a journey with.

In one of my novels, I Am Wolf, yet to find a home, it was always an issue for me that the main protagonist, deliberately flawed, was hard to connect with. I revised her many times and added what I thought were elements that made her vulnerable and hoped this was enough. By the end, I think the reader is in no doubt about how lost she is (both in a real and metaphysical sense). I think we feel sorry for her and sad for her, but it’s getting it right at the start so you want to read on. This remains something I need to be clear about. We all know characters must change as a function of plot. So if you take a character who is flawed, damaged, broken… you are expecting something to fix, mend, be resolved in them by the end. But if they’re too flawed at the start, you also risk your reader not caring enough to invest the time you need them to, to read on and see that change. This is the save the cat moment. In essence, it’s when you create something akin to showing the reader the character has compassion or vulnerability and hinting that a change is possible. If we see how the character treats an animal or literally saves the cat, you create something about them to like. In last year’s novel, the second narrator is likable but is conflicted and bitter over the death of his wife in a car accident that also put him in a wheelchair. So the dog was like the self-conscious saying, redeem him, show his softer side. I had no idea the basset would become so important in the story but I am so glad he walked into not just the first chapter, but the first line with what I think is one of my best opening lines for a character. I hope you agree when that book finds a home!

I don’t think the character in my new novel is as bristly as the one from I Am Wolf but it is something I had to bear in mind as I started to write her. I want the reader to like her despite her idiosyncrasies and the odd way she views the world but as I now move on to the next chapter, I will see what surprises she has in store for me.

Happy writing everyone!

Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com

Every New Journey

I wanted to post this morning as I embark on another new novel that has been creating a world inside my head for the past six weeks or so. It is now ready to be written!

Writing, for me, remains my favourite thing to do. I love all parts of the ‘story’ process, from its conception, its planning and then to its initial creation and through to the sculpting of it through its various rounds of edits. This is book number 11 and some might wonder how you can keep writing something you pour your heart into every year, get spectacular near-misses, then sit those in park (for now at least) and move onto something else you need to find the same gusto for. It’s a strange life I know, but while I still love it (which I hope I always will) I will do it. I am honoured to be able to do it.

I am always willing to learn and I think every new book I have written I have learned from and would like to think become a better writer with each one. I have really played with voice and character, as these are my favourite, but I have learned how to plot, use the story arc, use techniques to best effect, and I believe have delved into and explored a range of interesting structures. I do believe my time will come. I hope that I am not writing into a void because every story needs to be read, especially when they have all been written with such passion and hopefully you will agree, skill.

The new one is a domestic thriller (literary) but that’s about all I will divulge at this stage. The last one which is with my agent now is more of an American mystery. This new one is set a lot closer to home.

I plan to post more as I feel the writing process itself is so great for learning new things. They come as you work and I plan to share some of those with you along the way this time. I might even ask for the odd comment if I have something in my head I want to know what you all think about it.

So here I go.

Life really is about the journey. Enjoy it!

To a New Year…

Being a writer is more than a job, it’s a way of life. It defines me. Someone said to me once it is not a real job. Er… yeah it very much is, we all need a way to pay the bills… but it is a privilege. I have said it here before and it’s true… I feel as if I created for myself the ideal job. I used to dream away the hours working for a big ‘corporate’ wishing for the kind of job I now have and the kind of life I now have. Sometimes, and not just when the New Year brings its shiny clean pages, it is good to look back as well as forward and see just how far you’ve come.

2024 marks ten years (later this year) of packing up my old life in Wales and moving to be closer to family. And it marks beginning my fitness journey joining my first gym. Now that’s a commitment I have never failed on. New Year often inspires people to take stock, get fit, eat healthy. We struggle to get into our regular classes because of this sudden swell in numbers… only we know deep down that by February most of the newcomers are gone. Cynical? Yeah but true sadly, along with most New Year resolutions. I am happy to report I do not make such resolutions at New Year, I make them any time of year I need to make a change and I DO STICK TO THEM. You?

So this ideal job of mine? Yeah, I truly love editing and mentoring and seeing the success in those around me, I might even be quite good at it now 😉 but writing will always be my first true love and every year I put my heart and soul into another novel which I finish by the end of the year and it finds its way to my lovely agent. Then every year feels like a waiting game. One full of really terrific near misses for which I am now the queen. But that hope, that desire, dare I say it, that hunger, never goes away. If it did, I would stop.

I am ready to manifest the next part, where I will still help people, sure, but one where I get to be just the writer. What do you think?

While that waits to happen and I plan the next novel I am opening up my mentoring programme again to writers of novels and short stories who need some guidance. It will begin when I have six people. Group sessions will depend on who we have and what help people need. If you’re interested in some hands-on help to get your masterpiece into shape to submit or self-publish, email me writer@debzhobbs-wyatt.co.uk and let’s step into 2024!

Never Give Up

It is fifteen years, later this year, since I had my first short story published. I had finally taken the step towards who I felt I was supposed to be. Since a child I knew what it was, but life thus far had taken me a different way. I had always relished books and I had always wanted to be a writer. So back then I was still in the day job but I was signed up for my MA in Creative Writing, I was running a writing group and I was on the path I knew I was destined to be on. Everything about that time, that decision to write and eventually to leave my job — felt right. Even my confidence lifted like this was the real me. It had been three years since I’d lost my partner, Lee, to cancer, and my self-esteem had taken a huge knock. But it was in 2008 I knew it was time to do it. I can relate to something I heard my hero, Barry Manilow, say many times: there was this little voice inside my head that wouldn’t go away… saying if you don’t go for it now you might never get the chance again.

So in 2008, my story Jigsaw was published in Making Changes — the first ever Bridge House anthology. That was long before I had anything to do with editing for them. And so began a journey. A journey that led me to leave my day job in 2010 and I now have close to thirty stories published and my debut novel was published ten years ago. But I still don’t feel as if I have arrived. I have won prizes; I have built an editing and mentoring business, I have even taken books like Gentle Footprints to Hay and as a friend mentioned only this week, did something most people never do… got my writers on stage and reading. This is usually reserved for ‘famous’ writers. Hell, I even got that book on Loose Women! I now also edit for Cornerstones and have amassed many great clients and friends and seen them succeed too. I’d like to think I have been instrumental in helping others achieve their dreams. But know this… write because you cannot NOT write. Write because it is your way of making sense of this world. Write because it is your passion and nothing or no one will stop you. Don’t write for fame, for riches, for adoration.

It is a slow journey and even with the best agent in the world… and even with books you know are good enough, that break is often a long time coming. But when it does, it will complete you… it will verify what you always knew was true. You just have to keep believing… because… what is a story if it is not read? Like baby shoes never worn, like a song never played, like a painting never seen… a story needs to be published, read and appreciated.

Never Give Up.

That is my message for today. For myself and for everyone else who feels the same way I do.

Keep dreaming. Hope is what gets us out of bed every morning.

What’s in a name?

What you tell your mind you are… you are.

There was a point in my career, before I left the day job to live the dream, when I made the decision to call myself a writer. I was still working full-time in Pharmaceuticals, but the first thing I thought about in the morning, the first thing I did every day, was write. It was my whole life and it still is. So why did I not call myself a writer? Was I waiting to be discovered? What did that even mean? Until I had something published? We often make this a benchmark, and wow it is a moment when you first see your work in print, but to get there you have to write. Therefore… you are. A writer.

I write, therefore I am.

I can honestly say that from the very moment, I said I am a writer, I was on the path, I was being truly honest. If anyone asked I said that, and it lead to the inevitable… what-do-you-write question, easy one… to the are-you-published question… working on it is all you have to say until you don’t! Until you can tell them where to buy your book… but it made for a much more interesting conversation to the what-do-you-do-in-Pharmaceuticals question. Cue glazed expressions. And while not even realising it, just saying that and believing it, shifted the universe. It empowered me on my journey and before I knew it, I was a professional writer and editor.

Mindset is key.

So what are you… truly… in your heart?

There are still spaces on my mentoring course if you want to take part… full thing which is 6 x group teaching sessions, 6 one-to-one sessions on work and drop-in sessions £299. Or just the group Zoom sessions (6) and drop-ins £59 or group sessions, drop-ins plus one one-to-one session £84.

Email me, starts Sunday May 28th 6 pm. writer@debzhobbs-wyatt.co.uk

Be Mindful…

Subscribe to continue reading

Subscribe to get access to the rest of this post and other subscriber-only content.

Already a subscriber?

Monday… yay!

Don’t be depressed, embrace this amazing new day! This is the start of a great new week and one you will love because great things are coming your way… That is all.

 

 

 

Being busy

I love that I have a lot of work, although my own writing has to wait when that happens. I suddenly have a lot of work this side of Christmas; from both private clients and Cornerstones, but that is all fab! It is, after all,an expensive time of year!

Tomorrow I finally get to meet my Cornerstones colleagues when I am off to London for a little drinks evening; although I have a consult with a client first! As you do. So tomorrow I will not be in the office even though I have a lot of work to get through! Anyone would think it’s Christmas! But when I think about having colleagues who do what I do for a job I can’t help thinking about how I created the ideal job. I think back to when I would sit in the open office at work; all discussing pharmaceutical technical things and wishing we were talking about character motivation and the like! And now, well it is only me in the office, but I do have phone calls and I do spend my afternoons doing just that! I have indeed created the perfect job! And I will forever be grateful because I am quite sure I could never go back now! How could I do anything else or work for anyone but me? I couldn’t!

Tomorrow morning I also have to be at the gym early to be put through my paces by my lovely friend and one of the trainers as she has her final assessment to become a fully qualified personal trainer. So later I get to be trained by the man and then in for another session tomorrow for her and him again Thursday! I will feel it! I will not blog in the morning as I need to be up and editing at 5 so at least I get some work done before my busy day! But I will be back on Thursday to report on meeting my Cornerstones’ colleagues!

Have a fantastic day folks, whatever you’re doing!

Create the life you love…

On This Day… 22/11/2016

Today sees the 53rd anniversary of the assassination of John F Kennedy. Three years ago I had the official launch of While No One Was Watching, my debut novel. And what a three years it has been.

The same year I won the inaugural Bath Short Story Award, was shortlisted in the prestigious Commonwealth Short Story Prize and my story, The Theory of Circles, was also nominated for the highly acclaimed Pushcart Prize! It was hard to top that in a year!

The following year also saw successes, the biggest of which was finding an agent.

Since then I have had something published each year to keep that short story momentum going and had numerous signings and events along the way. I also moved to Essex, joined a gym and met a lovely man.  So personally and professionally my life has changed.

Give me a WHOOP!

Novel wise, I have still got the other three novels and been working on at least two new novels but am waiting for something to happen. My agent is so incredibly busy and she has now joined a much larger agency where her focus has changed more towards non-fiction. She still represents… me for the time being, but I am now making plans for 2017. I need to have another novel out there now!

I talked about my novel, and this whole idea of using a real event, such as the Kennedy assassination, woven into the fabric of fiction at the U3A event last Friday. Aptly timed of course for the anniversary. We used examples from film and talked about the historical novelists like Philippa Gregory and Sharon K Penman and where the historical novel sits (although mine is not a historical novel per se) in terms of representation of history. Can fiction change what we believe and is that a good thing?  It went down really well and I sold 14 books which isn’t bad for an event like that!

I will share links to the U3A site as they also took photos  when that is live.

So on this special day, I am sharing links to my novel again (sorry!) for anyone who has not read it! Give it a go! Christmas presents?

 

Buy me

Thanks and thoughts to Kennedy and what the world might have been if he was still here.

Would I even have written this novel?