This Week I... Started re-reading some of my previous novels
It's not as big-headed as it sounds, I promise
Hey folks, good to have you here! Hope you have had a good week. It’s been another week of non-stop rain here in the south of England. It’s a tad annoying as I’d like to have been out in the vegetable patch more, but on the other hand, if we are heading into more heatwaves, then I am grateful for the rain!
This week I started re-reading some of my previous novels; the ones that exist in a connected universe. (See image above.) There are several reasons I am doing this and it’s not as big-headed as it sounds, I promise!
More on that in a bit, but what else happened this week?
This week I…
Read: I am still reading Fall From Grace by Tim Weaver, another book in his David Raker missing persons series. It is a chunk of a book so I don’t expect to finish it for another week or so!
Watched: I finished watching Dublin Murders on BBCiPlayer and absolutely loved it. The story involves two detectives with dark secrets, a mystery about two missing children in the woods in 1985, and two murders in the present day. Are they all connected? I did find the ending confusing, but in a good way, and I have decided to read the books it is based on, In The Woods and The Likeness, by Tana French. I am hoping they’ll be even better! I have now started watching A Good Girl's Guide To Murder season two also on BBCiPlayer. While I don’t think the show is as good as the Holly Jackson trilogy of books, I am still enjoying it very much!
Listened to: I popped Definitely Maybe in the car this week so I’ve been singing my heart out and smiling endlessly to my favourite tracks! I can’t believe it’s almost been a year since we went to see Oasis in London. It really was a special night. Here is one of my absolute favourites, and incidentally, a song that pops up (among many others) in my The Boy With The Thorn In His Side series - Slide Away.
Wrote: I’ve been cracking on with the endless editing this week and hit a few milestones. My editor returned Black Hare Valley Book Two: 1966 to me so I intend to start those edits very soon. I finished another edit of Book Three: 2026 and sent that to her. I then started another edit of Book Four. We are getting there! But the editing has meant no time for fresh writing, sadly.
Started re-reading some of my previous novels: I do wonder if other authors do this? I am currently re-reading my The Boy With The Thorn In His Side series and I have just started book three. There are five books in this gritty coming-of-age crime drama set in the 90s and early 2000s and as I’ve already mentioned, many more books set in the same universe. Why am I re-reading my own books, you might ask? You’d think I’d be sick of them, right? After all, I’m constantly moaning about endless editing… Well, there are several reasons I am doing this:
It makes me SO happy. Yes, it’s as simple as that. Reading my own books makes me very, very happy. It’s a source of comfort, I suppose. I created these worlds and these characters who are very dear to me. It feels like visiting old friends.
I write the kind of books I want to read. I am fussy when it comes to reading and I rarely find anything that ticks all the boxes for me. Since I started writing as a kid I have got around that by writing the types of book I want to read. So, there’s that!
These books have been with me my whole life. It’s that as well. I first created the characters in The Boy With The Thorn In His Side series when I was 12 years old. The characters in A Song For Bill Robinson (the Holds End trilogy) I created aged sixteen. I know them all so well and they are such a huge part of my life that I find myself thinking about them constantly. Re-reading them feels like coming home and back to myself.
It’s my birthday soon and I’m feeling nostalgic! I love birthdays and I don’t mind getting older, but I am super nostalgic at the same time and often find myself massively missing the 90s. Re-reading these books is such a source of comfort for that reason. They take me back to the 90s because they are set there, and they take me back to the 90s because that’s when I wrote them! I find it extremely comforting.
I’ve decided to treat myself to up-to-date paperbacks of all my books: This will take a while, but I recently realised that I don’t have author copies of all my books and the copies I do have are outdated Amazon paperbacks. I hate the Amazon paperbacks and much prefer the ones I get printed through Draft 2 Digital. I decided I want every single one of my books in the newest form, in the nicest paperback. This means I will be updating a few books along the way, but The Boy With The Thorn In His Side was recently updated so I don’t have to do those. My copies are stuffed in drawers or hidden away and I thought, why? I’m immensely proud of them, so once I have them all in their best version I am going to get a new bookshelf solely for my books and place it in the lounge for everyone to see! Why not?
It will help me decide how to proceed with The Dark Finds You Parts One and Two. The Dark Finds You was my last release and was supposed to tie up all the stories in this connected universe. It’s a crossover book, weaving storylines and characters from The Boy With The Thorn In His Side series, The Mess Of Me, The Mess Of Us, The Holds End trilogy, At Night We Played In The Road and Elliot Pie's Guide To Human Nature. I loved writing it and then got ideas for a part two, which led to ideas for a part three. They’re both written and I even considered holding back Black Hare Valley Book One: 1996 and finishing off The Dark Finds You trilogy first. I then had a crisis of confidence about it and decided not to. I am still feeling unsure about them so I am hoping re-reading the universe books will help me decide and possibly even help make them better.
So, there you go. I write my books for me and I love them very, very much! Re-reading them is giving me an immense amount of joy right now and hopefully it will also lead to updated versions, and improved ideas for new books.
Well, that’s all for now folks. Thanks for being here and I’ll see you next Friday!
I re-read my series novels before I start a new one. I'm often struck by how much of the story I'd forgotten writing.