When you have written 9 books which feature a central character, it is quite hard to wean oneself off that person. It’s not just one character. Everyone has friends and Petra Larson who has become my soulmate had several. I recently moved away, I wrote Trelawny, which created totally new characters. The plot centred around an inheritance by an aunt and from the moment the main character visits her inheritance, a property called by the book title name, everything isn’t quite what was expected, especially meeting a beautiful young woman and finding out she’s not attracted to men after all. Definitely a departure from the trusted norm!
I wrote Outcast and then The Survivor, which followed on from Outcast. Even here Petra crept in quietly – you thought you’d lost me, but HELLO I’m still around! So, I decided a complete change was needed. Typically, I’d written books 100k minimum, one as near as damn it 140k. I’d begun to wonder if people’s attention span ran to such word count any longer? The trend seemed to be a book that could be read in one sitting an hour - tops? I’d never considered something which boasted just 10 pages could even be considered a book at all? A short story, an article at best. Seems I was wrong; lots of popular books, or certainly those that rate well on Amazon had just as few? My colleague and fellow writer at Texshirebook.com Sadie Stern seemed to sell far more. Hers were around 15k words and 20 pages max. She’d go for the jugular from page one. A sprint that has starting blocks and goes at full speed right to the tape.
I decided to give this a try, only time will be the judge whether readers prefer the short book. Mine, The Kiss, was 30 pages. It centres around Angela who is becoming unsure of her sexuality, especially when she meets someone at work who fascinates her. She’s attracted to this woman sexually too and her confusion increases when she is frequently touched and often rather intimately! Eventually temptation takes over and Angela kisses her! What happens next, you’ll have to find out for yourself.
I’ve never believed in leaving anything to the imagination. All my books feature women and their relationships with other women. They all get hot and steamy and I never pull punches when it comes to descriptions and what takes place is portrayed in juicy detail – literally. It’s what happens; so I describe it!
That’s all for now. Happy reading.
Anietta