28 February 2022

Writing News: yes, there is some, finally.

Image by Olga Volkovitskaia via Pixabay
I’m a right one for crossing genres in my writing; I never learn. The mystery cum psychological cum women's fiction novel I have been working on, seemingly for an aeon, finally passed its finishing post last week. Or it would have if I’d managed to hit all the steps for a satisfying ending.

Unfortunately, the initial read raised questions, and critique partners agreed. The problem is that my mind is wedded to the ending as written, despite my knowing it won’t fly. So, what to do?

If in doubt, stick to the plan – which is to spend this week working through the comments I made on the script as it was being written. And there are plenty of those to consider. By the time I reach the final chapter, or where the final chapter should be, I am trusting to have clicked back onto the rails so as to be able to steam smoothly into Ending #2.

But back to what the novel is about. Its title is The Forever House, and here’s the tagline and blurb:

In searching for a lost child, can a recently bereaved woman find her true self?

While her family thinks Carrie should sell the too-big house she and her late husband had begun to renovate, Carrie is determined to carry through their shared objective to prove she can manage alone. And she can, until the surprise of finding a child’s drawings beneath old wallpaper turns to disquiet.

But is she reading more into the drawings than is there? Are her misgivings merely revealing the long-papered cracks of her own marriage? Or, as her family fears, is her need to discover the identity of the nameless child tipping her into obsession?


I’ll give an update next time.