Ok. Now I’m getting serious about First Aid Four (FA4 to its friends).
After spending all summer growing inside my head, and occasionally leaping out into scribbles in notebooks, the final First Aid novel is about to start becoming sentences, paragraphs and chapters.
And not only does the new adventure have a folder in my computer (to be honest, I created that folder 30 minutes after sending the final edit of the third book to my editor – I don’t like hanging about), it also has a shelf in my study.
To make room, I’ve had to clear out the Storm Singing shelf. I’m not sure why FA3 still had a shelf – I finished writing it months ago, and I couldn’t make any changes once it was printed. But I just hadn’t got round to clearing all the marked up manuscripts (most to be recycled, a few key ones to be kept to remind me how a book changes) and the maps, the notebooks, the pictures, the news cuttings and the piles of books. Some of the books will be useful for FA4 (like the very old fashioned veterinary text book!) The books of sea legends will move to my folklore and myth bookcase. And the scientific books about seals and killer whales will go out on the shelf in the hall where we keep all our reference books for reading when we’re queuing for the loo. But what about the kayaking and scuba-diving books? I bought them to help me write the scenes on and under the water. But I’ve never been kayaking and scuba diving, and I don’t really have time to start. However I hate getting rid of books, especially books which have inspired me. So perhaps they will just find another shelf, a shelf for books I might need again in a few years time (in case Rona has an adventure on her own, and needs me to write it for her…)
And I’ve now got a collection of books to inspire FA4. It’s not a new collection, I’ve been hunting them down and reading them all summer. But I just had them lying around, tripping up visitors, getting in the way of sleeping cats, and weighing down rucksacks when we were on holiday. Now they are all gathered together on one shelf, looking like a proper springboard for a book. But I’m not going to tell you what they are! They are about certain kinds of legends, and certain parts of Scotland, but if I told you their titles, you would guess too much about Helen’s adventure.
So. There is a shelf. It is filled with many books. But there is still plenty of space for the chapters of the book that the shelf is there to help me write!
If you really want to know more about FA4, you could come along to my Edinburgh Book Festival event on Saturday, ask me difficult questions and see if you can trick me into giving a few hints away!
(I’m at the Corner Theatre in Charlotte Square, at 10.30 am, Saturday 27th August, and you can get tickets from edbookfest.co.uk)
Cannae wait for FA4!!!