An update and points to remember

Easter decorations in Prague Old Town Square

I got back from a fortnight in the Czech Republic on Thursday and after a whole weekend of what feels like solid sleep, I’m ready to get back to work. 

I was quiet on my blog in the weeks running up to my holiday because I heard back from HMB with another set of revisions. So after much hair-tearing I buried myself in those and cut back the amount of time I spent on social media. I finished and sent back the revised manuscript a couple of days before my holiday so now I’m back to the jumpy, nail-biting wait!

Of course, the best way to keep my mind off the wait is to get on with the next story, so starting tomorrow it’s back to the WIP. It’s been on hold for nearly two months now, so the first thing to do is read it through. I’ve come up with things to look out for, gleaned from the points that have come out in the revision process for TWKS. They are (in no particular order):

•  Does the progression of the romance take centre-stage at all times, or are there places where it gets buried under the action?
•  In each scene, is it clear how the hero and heroine feel about each other and is their behaviour consistent with these feelings/conflicts?
•  Do the hero and heroine each have a clear and consistent emotional arc throughout the story?
• Are there places where introspection could be replaced by the hero and heroine interacting?

Hopefully now I’m more aware of my areas of weakness I won’t repeat the same mistakes again. I also hope I won’t make any new ones!

I'm back!

I said in my last post that I would confess up to how much work I had done on my ms whilst I was in Prague, so here goes...

Well, I like to look upon all new experiences as research. For instance, I now know what it's like to look after a toddler with a death wish, I've learned all about jelly-floods (courtesy of endless episodes of Ben and Holly) and I got whipped on Easter Monday (didn't manage to avoid that after all). So while I didn't actually work on my ms itself, I've built up a store of experiences that I'm sure will come in useful in my future writing.

Wow - that almost convinced me! Back to work tomorrow...

Holiday time and an arcane Czech tradition

I'm off to Prague tomorrow for the best part of a fortnight. I've been looking forward to this for ages - Prague is such a beautiful city. My brother lives out there so I've been there loads of times, but I never get tired of it.

It's especially beautiful at Easter. They hang ribbons and painted eggs in the trees in the Old Town Square which looks charming, although all the pastel colours do give me cravings for Cadbury's mini eggs :)

It's not all fun, though. Not for women, anyway. On Easter Monday, it's traditional for the men to whip the women to keep them fertile. To add insult to injury, the women are supposed to weave and decorate the whips themselves! The men go around the neighbourhood, whipping all the women and drinking a glass of slivovice (a potent mixture of plums and TNT) at each household. The  next day the poor women have to nurse their menfolk through their hangovers. Something tells me that this particular tradition wasn't thought up by a woman.

I think I'll try to stay out of the way on Monday. I've sent the latest version of my first three chapters to my Kindle, so I hope to be able to read it through and make notes. I'll own up to how much I did or didn't do when I get back.

Happy Easter!