6 June 2005
Busy
It's very fashionable to be busy, isn't it? Much more fashionable than unfocused contemplation. But - whisper it! - that's what authors have to do, or their work doesn't grow ...
Think of flowers. They don't appear to be doing much, gazing at the sun. Think of lizards, basking, warming their blood.
Anyway, these are my busiest weeks of the year and I have no time for contemplation, for basking, for anything but events and travel.
We were in France doing some location research till Tuesday, then meetings at the BBC and preparation for recording Radio 4's Saturday Review. Greg and I spent a day in London on Thursday with the shortlisted authors for the Orange / Harpers & Queen short story writing competition, giving a masterclass.
That was great fun and you can read their stories on this website in our Showcase Karina Barker, Sam Binnie & Caroline Drennan.
Then recording Saturday Review on Friday, writing the script and the email letter that goes with the show. Then dinner and an interview with a journalist interested in my novel Labyrinth which publishes on 7 July.
At 5 o'clock on Saturday morning, up early to write an article on the genesis of the whole Labyrinth project, then in the car to drive to Hay for the Festival where I'm doing an event around Harper Lee's To Kill a Mocking Bird and a couple of gigs connected to the Orange Prize for Fiction.
Back home on Sunday afternoon. Sleep? I hope so!
Next week will see the British Library readings from the OPF shortlisted authors on Monday night, the party for the presentation of the actual £30,000 prize on Tuesday - plus the Harpers & Queen award and the Orange Award for New Writers. Then Radio 4's Woman's Hour on Wednesday ...
So, although 14 days ago I was talking about posting pages from the research for my next novel in a few weeks, I guess that was a little previous!
There are also email questions from journalists or academics. Here's one:
What prompted you to install Labyrinth as an online project? What were your ideas about it?
And here's my reply:
A historical novel needs research, days and weeks of research. However fascinating, the stuff you discover cannot be a part of your book, except in the background, in the back of your mind. In fact, a good author of contemporary fiction has reams of back story that never finds a place on the pages that the readers finally hold in their hands. I remember seeing J K Rowling holding up a notebook in which she says is the entire history of the Death Eaters - imagined sequences of events that never appear in the Harry Potter books, save in flashes of memory in the pensieve. With my husband, Greg - who has more of an ICT background than I have - I discussed the possibility of releasing the research on a CD with the book. But we decided that the interesting part of the process for the writer - and therefore, hopefully, for the reader - was to see the shifting tectonic plates of the creation, submerged continents heaving up to the surface, others drowned under new ideas. So I decided to make available not just the research, but also the process of writing, editing and selling a novel. From that, it was obvious that the internet was the appropriate medium - like a self-archiving magazine.
Sit down whenever you get the chance in the Labyrinth.
