W.I.P. Wednesday - 29th Feb

Hazel Osmond is joining me today to talk WIP

Photo courtesy of author

I am currently writing Book 3 which will be out in 2013 – working title ‘Grace under Pressure’. It’s about Grace who is a very calm, very organised person who likes her routines and works for a company that organises art tours in London. When a brash young American guy joins the company to give tours on more cutting edge art, weird things start to happen – pictures get stolen from galleries and Grace’s life starts to unravel. As it does, the reason why Grace keeps herself so in control, start to emerge.

I have a deadline of the end of April for the manuscript to be with Quercus, my publisher so I’m at that adrenaline pumping stage where you can’t make any more excuses about just needing another cup of coffee to get started. I’ve been an advertising copywriter for years, both in an agency and freelance, and I’m used to working to deadline… in fact, I feel a bit lost without one and have this weird notion that what I write is better when the pressure’s on.

Obviously I love writing – everything about it from getting the story idea to the planning to the writing and then the re-writing and the editing. Absolutely. Love. It. And I also really enjoy the research that’s involved. Again, as a copywriter, I’ve been used to researching topics so that you end up knowing quite a lot about, sometimes, fairly obscure subjects. For Book 2 ‘The First Time I Saw Your Face,’ which is out late summer, I had to research the skills blacksmiths use, the sheep farming year, library tasks and alcoholism! (Yup, it’s a hell of a book!)

This time it’s art I’m researching and I’ve just spent a couple of days down in London going to contemporary art galleries. I have tried not to stand in front of some of the installations, etc. scratching my head, but there is definitely a type of art that does not speak to me, or if it does, it’s saying something incomprehensible.

‘Who’s Afraid of Mr Wolfe’ – published April 2011

‘The First Time I Saw Your Face’ – to be published August 2012

www.hazelosmond.co.uk

Twitter : @hosmond

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Hazel-Osmond/180418321996194