As ever I seem to be writing the wrong book, or at least not the book I meant to write. I’m supposed to be working on the second draft of ‘Rachel’, which is number 4 in the Saltbury series, but instead, a whole new book is bursting out quite uninvited. It hasn’t got a title yet. In my head I’m calling it ‘The History Girls’, but I don’t think that will be the final version. I usually like snappier one or two word titles, usually just a name. But whatever it ends up being called, history is going to loom large.
I like to experiment with different forms. I even have a book half written called ‘Debbie Speaks’, about my Rock legend Debbie Stewart, which is wholly in interview format. I also like to play about with time. But most of the Saltbury books cover very short time spans. The first, ‘Haze’ describes the events of just three weeks, and ‘Red’, the first book narrated by Tina, only takes five. The second Tina book, ‘Carol’, which is almost ready to publish, also takes just five weeks and even ‘Rachel’ which will cover the longest period yet, only takes eighteen months. ‘History Girls’, however, the third Tina book, is going to be slightly different. It looks like covering a period of more like two centuries, not bad for a woman of twenty. Oh and some wonderfully eccentric new characters are popping out of my head to join old favorites like Carol Baxter, Katie Ralstrick and Rosie Drymen. I won’t tell you anymore; it would spoil the story, but I think I’m going to have fun with this one.
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Jo Brodie 