When the cover for my newest novel-His Other Wife -was revealed, a reader commented on my Facebook site. ‘How do you do it?’ she asked and she followed this with, ‘You are amazing.’ Always lovely words to read.  She was referring to the fact that I had only just released a novel and now another was on the way. Months away, but on the way. Publishing being what it is-a book is written and edited for many months before it is published so books that seem to come out close together have really only been scheduled that way. I am always a book ahead of my publishing schedule. I would never keep up otherwise. But her question led me to think about exactly how I do-do it.

I have, at Bookouture, a wonderful team to work with who take me through many edits and then take care of everything else surrounding the publication of a novel but the story has to come from me.  

It’s not often that I think about the process of writing. To me it’s just the way that I am in the world. I cannot remember a time when I was not narrating my own life and situations. I thought that meant that I was meant to be an actor but it is in writing that I truly find myself.

So how does a novel come about-where does it start and how do I know that it is meant to be?

I have to be honest here and say that many times I begin with a blank page and think-how will I ever do this-only to take the first step and suddenly find that the story has taken over. There is a point, a wonderful point when I realise that the story is being typed into existence on the page but that it has always existed in the universe.

His other wife, began with some whispered words- ‘daddy can you come help us please-he’s back again.’ I knew it was a child speaking. I knew she was on the phone and I knew she was terrified. And that threw up a whole host of other questions. Why was the child’s father not with her? Where was her mother? And what did she mean by ‘he’. Who was the mysterious, ‘he’?

I have never been a fan of waiting for the muse to inspire me. If I waited for an idea to simply appear, I would never get anything written. I favour sitting down at my desk, writing and writing, deleting and deleting until something begins to form. But lately-the more I work, the more I get the feeling that I am being chased down by the stories, rather than the other way around.

When I sat down to start writing, His Other Wife, I had no real idea where the story would go. In fact-I was unsure as to who my protagonists were, and which of them I should be concerned with. Like most of my novels, there is a child involved and I saw Emily quite clearly. I knew she was five and I knew that she was a delight. But I needed to learn a lot more about the people who were in this little girl’s life.

Without giving too much away I can tell you that I thought the novel would turn out one way and then suddenly it changed direction and I had to simply go with it. I thought I knew who the bad guy was but I didn’t. I like to control things. In my life and in my work, I feel better if I am the one in charge. But lately, I have found that writing a psychological thriller relies on letting go just a little and allowing the novel, the characters, the story to take over. And so it was with, His other wife. I remember being halfway through a chapter near the end and writing something and thinking ‘Oh-I didn’t know that.’ A character had a thought and then did something without me planning it.

It was quite a surreal moment and as I typed, I found myself shaking my head at their actions, thinking, ‘what kind of a person are you?’

The character revealed themselves to be someone entirely different which is something that happens in the world of psychological thrillers often and unfortunately in life as well. I don’t deal well with the unknowns of life so perhaps that is why I enjoy my work so much.

Inside a novel is a safe place to let go, to allow things to just happen, while knowing that I still have some power over the lives I am writing about. I enjoyed not knowing what was going to happen in ‘His Other Wife’ and I hope readers do too.

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