Arizona
Wednesday 9th April, and to Phoenix Arizona for the last gig of the tour (well, bookshop event). Last night at Warwick's in La Jolla, San Diego, will be hard to beat - a fabulous audience, meeting with a Bookclub earlier, lots of fabulous questions and leaving armed with a few more (hardback!) books for research - but if anything's going to come close, it will be the legendary Poisoned Pen in Phoenix. Many of my friends - crime writers, mostly - have appeared here, so I'm thrilled to be finishing the 2008 Sepulchre store in a place where so many writers have read, talked, met readers.
Putting together a novel is much like being on tour. A combination of location, characters, a storyline, ideas. And one of the best things about being on tour is that there is plenty of time to think. As a writer, the temptation is always to rush in, to be at the computer, putting words up on the screen for the sake of feeling that you're working. Often, writers do not allow themselves enough time to simply think, to let the characters come to you - rather than you imposing your will upon them - to let the story gently find its shape.
These past ten days on the road, have been important for the next novel. Not just in terms of reading and researching, although that has happened, but as much as for the ideas I've had time to discard as well as adopt. I don't feel clearly, quite, about where the next novel is going, nor the story line, nor even the leading characters. But I do feel certain about the location, the period of history, maybe even the title - which, of course, to fit, needs to be a single, three-syllable word like Labyrinth or Sepulchre!
A hint? Egypt in the 1920s, the magnificence and terror of the desert. A little family history thrown in, both distant and more recent. More than that, I'm not sure. All I do know is that the novel is now in my mind, deep down, writing itself while I travel.
Home tomorrow. Phoenix to New York, New York to London (and the current horror that is Heathrow Airport).
Thank you for joining me on this voyage around the US.
A bientôt.
Kate
Putting together a novel is much like being on tour. A combination of location, characters, a storyline, ideas. And one of the best things about being on tour is that there is plenty of time to think. As a writer, the temptation is always to rush in, to be at the computer, putting words up on the screen for the sake of feeling that you're working. Often, writers do not allow themselves enough time to simply think, to let the characters come to you - rather than you imposing your will upon them - to let the story gently find its shape.
These past ten days on the road, have been important for the next novel. Not just in terms of reading and researching, although that has happened, but as much as for the ideas I've had time to discard as well as adopt. I don't feel clearly, quite, about where the next novel is going, nor the story line, nor even the leading characters. But I do feel certain about the location, the period of history, maybe even the title - which, of course, to fit, needs to be a single, three-syllable word like Labyrinth or Sepulchre!
A hint? Egypt in the 1920s, the magnificence and terror of the desert. A little family history thrown in, both distant and more recent. More than that, I'm not sure. All I do know is that the novel is now in my mind, deep down, writing itself while I travel.
Home tomorrow. Phoenix to New York, New York to London (and the current horror that is Heathrow Airport).
Thank you for joining me on this voyage around the US.
A bientôt.
Kate
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