October 2005

Welcome to my new online diary.

I am often asked ‘what do I do all day?’ The answer is: quite a lot of thinking. Much of the business of writing lies in pondering and reflection and I have learnt after ten novels to give myself room to allow this to happen. During the day, I will go for a walk, or do something mindless like the ironing, secure in the knowledge that my unconscious will be working away. Quite a lot of it takes place during the night because, invariably, I wake up and my first thought is to do with the novel in progress – a piece of dialogue, another look at a character, a new plot device. My first act of the day, before I am even dressed, is to go into my study and turn out the word processor in order to get that thought down. Bitter experience had taught me that it can be easily forgotten between waking and breakfast!

At the moment, I am putting the final touches to the sequel to Revenge of the Middle Aged Woman which is due to be published in June 2006 entitled The Second Wife in the UK and WivesBehaving Badly in the US . This stage in the writing of a novel is often a magical one. The first and second drafts are unmitigated hard work and worry, but the third draft is one where the novel takes on its own momentum and flows of its own accord. I love this stage.

I am waiting with a great deal of interest to see what jacket designs my publishers devise. In the UK , there will be a departure from the previous designs as The Second Wife is going to be published in hardback, which is very exciting as this will be my first time in hardback with Penguin UK . My editor was considering a plain, elegant jacket with gold type and a very beautiful rose as the illustration. But she will have to consult with the art department and the marketing department, and the result could be very different. As soon as the jacket is decided, I will put it up on the website. I will also put up, at a later date, a sample chapter of the new novel for you to read.