“Strangers We’ve Become” – The final countdown to publishing in 29 days

People change.

It’s a fact of life that over time people change. Yes, they do keep some of their original characteristics, but a lot of people sometimes wake up, forty years later, and wonder who it is that they are in bed with.

It hasn’t happened to me yet, but the person I married has changed.

We all do.

External influences like workplaces, friends, enemies, attitudes, and even children, all have an influence on who we become. I personally have no idea where the 18-year-old version of me has gone, not that I remember much of him.

So it goes for our hero, David. He has an inkling of who Susan is or was, but so much has changed for her. Her mother is dead, she had been held captive by a madman, drugged and tortured, it would have to affect anyone.

But, then, there are different nuances, so un Susan-like. Little changes he knows she might not partake in, and it is these that start him wondering, what if…

Firstly, she cuts short a planned reunion away in Italy, time for them to reconnect. Yes, she is now head of the family business, yes, she is hanging out with new men in her life, and no, it seems he does not fit into her corporate persona.

Then there is the first assassination attempt.

On him.

And so the rollercoaster ride begins…

“Strangers We’ve Become” – The final countdown to publishing in 30 days

…

Anyone can write a book.

It’s an extravagant statement and not necessarily true, but often used by relatives when one of their numbers says they’ve written a book.

My brother said that when I told him I’d written one

I didn’t tell him that I’d written a dozen and published five, it seemed irrelevant at the time.

But as easy or hard as it may be to write one, writing a second is so much harder.

One of those five was ‘What sets us apart’, a story about a retired ‘problem solver’ who meets a girl, marries her, and she then disappears.

It’s not long before he’s dragged back down the rabbit hole of ‘problem-solving’, this time a problem of his own.

Needless to say, there are endless espionage undertones along the way, meeting up with old friends, new friends, and enemies alike.

And his wife was not who he expected her to be, but something else entirely.

Oh, and just for good measure, the girl is the daughter of an old friend of his ex-boss, Prendergast, the legendary spymaster.

It was fun writing the first, weaving the story through many unexpected twists and turns, and arriving at a point where he finally gets her back.

Or has he?

As I was writing that first book, it occurred to me there was scope for a second book, a sequel, that could explore the theme that she might not be the real Susan. After all, in the first, our hero has to contend with several clones that are almost impossible to separate from the real Susan.

What if he hadn’t rescued his Susan?

Thus, a sequel was born, “Strangers We’ve Become’, and over the next month, I’m going to incorporate the last-minute changes requested by the editor and we’re going to get this thing published.

Finally!

NANOWRIMO November 2023 – Day 6

“Opposites Attract”

…

A night meeting

…

Who can sleep when you’re stressing over whether the girl of your dreams is or isn’t the girl of your dreams? Yes, it can be that confusing.

It’s obvious the father doesn’t think it’s over, yet.

And when he gets the call, in the dead of night, it’s a ridiculous question to ask him if he’s still awake, especially when he answers the phone.

Yes, the heart does flutter at the sound of her voice.

And a meeting, in the middle of the night. At the diner. A diner that was once a den of iniquity and now just an empty reminder of what the city was before it was bypassed with the new interstate.

Looking for the chauffeur he figures she hasn’t arrived. He doesn’t believe she drove herself.

Does that come under the category, you learn new things every day?

He finds her already there, nursing coffee, and looking like an unmade bed. In other words, she is definitely the most beautiful girl he has ever met.

And the kiss tells him this thing is far from over.

Perhaps it’s worth it when he tells her she will be coming with him, and learning the ropes.

…

Today’s words: 1,518, for a total of, 11,019.

“Betrayal” – the penultimate final draft – Day 36

I’m sure I’ve been down this road more than once, and with the same novel, but whereas the last edit, which was probably the second or third, finished up in the pile, then forgotten.

I’m doing an active update to all my works in progress, and sending them to the editor, after going through the manuscript once again, with a view to publishing. Hopefully, before the year is out.

…

There is something bittersweet about writing those fateful last two words on your manuscript, ‘The End’.

That’s because it’s not. Oh, no. It’s just the beginning.

However daunting the next phase of the writing process is, it’s a huge sigh of relief to finally finish the NaNoWriMo project for this year.

The ending only changed a dozen times, the most recent version yesterday, when finally in possession of all the facts, we make discoveries that we really wished we hadn’t.

Certainly, the story lives up to the tentative book title ‘Betrayed’ though I’m not sure if I might use ‘Betrayal’ instead. But a decision on that is a long way off.

Now it’s time to finish editing the manuscript, at the moment running to over 80,000 words, and stop tinkering. The line has been drawn in the sand.

Having parked two or three other projects so I could concentrate on this, now I can go back and continue with my episodic stories, and, at last, find myself able to progress at least one.

But, let me say this, it’s a hell of a way to write a novel in a short space of time.

Now it’s off to the editor for the last round of changes, if any, and hopefully, it can be published this year.

Hopefully.