My next book, ‘Debbie’s Gift’, went off to the editor a few days ago.  That will be number 12 in the ‘Saltbury Chronicles’ series.  Normally the manuscript is away for a few weeks, then comes back covered in red ink so I can set to, to produce the final publication draft and post it on Kindle.  I normally manage a book every four months, but this one’s a bit late I’m afraid, because I was ill for a while.  Even so, I should still be able to get it on sale in time for Christmas, so I hope you’ll find it worth the wait.

In the meantime, I’ve already made a good start on the next book.  This one is called ‘Fracture’.  ‘Debbie’s Gift’ was narrated by perhaps my favourite character, Hazel Fauld.  But ‘Fracture’ is another in the sub-series narrated by my other main character, Tina Burns, so it follows on from ‘Red’, ‘Carol’ and ‘History Girls’

Whenever I change narrator, I have to change voice.  Tina and Hazel are best friends and have been since their schooldays, but they are still two very different women.  Even now in her early twenties, Hazel is a distinctly impish soul, a Goth with an irreverent sense of humour and a tendency to give in to temptation.  Elegant Tina is a more serious personality with a wry way of speaking.  She is very kind and gentle, but underneath it she’s strong as steel, and more than capable of handling her irascible, rather older girlfriend, Carol.  In fact it’s quite fun to write the way the pair of them bounce off each other.  Even so, I always have to relearn Teen’s voice when I get back to writing her. ‘Fracture’ is set in 2007 and sees Tina aged 21.  She has finally moved in with Carol, despite her mother’s reservations, and we re-join the couple nine months after the end of ‘History Girls’ with Tina in her last year as a university law student and Carol deep in training for the World Athletics Championships.  I’ve already written the first and last chapters.  All that’s left to do now is the minor matter of the middle 80%!