Beth Miller

Everyone over a certain age – and some under it, too - has a David Bowie story. This is mine.

My first proper gig was on the Serious Moonlight tour, in the badlands of Milton Keynes. It was 1983. I was too young, alas, to have seen Bowie in Ziggy times. Here’s what I remember. The horrible crush outside the Milton Keynes Bowl; an uninspiring support set from The Beat, who’d I’d been keen on up till then; the thril...

On 28th August 2014, my first novel was published. Even now, I can scarcely believe that I can type that, or rather, I can scarcely believe that when I type it, it’s not a lie. But it is so. In fact, there is only going to be one lie in this post, and one mild inaccuracy. And I’ll point them out when they come, so you aren’t left wondering.

So, my novel was published, and I was very excited and did all the new-writer thing...

I finished the first draft of my difficult second novel, and showed it to my esteemed agent. The novel has three main characters. Let's call them A, B and C (it's that kind of experimental novel, where people are just, like, not bogged down with the baggage of names). Well, said my esteemed agent, I think Character B is upsetting the focus of the book and it would be better if he wasn't in it at all. Even as I started to protest, I knew she was right. That's why she is esteemed. We talked so...

A: About eleven-and-a-half years.

The first book, When We Were Sisters, took about twelve years to write. Well, I wasn't writing solidly for twelve years. I took a few breaks, had some children and jobs and things, and a lot of cups of tea. But from the moment I wrote the first sentence, to the moment a publisher said yes, was about twelve years.

I started the second book - working title: The Good Neighbour - in September 2013, and finished th...

Publisher's edits - tick.

Copywriter's edits - tick.

Feeling like it was all going nice and smoothly - tick.

Oh yes I did. I just signed my contract from my publishers. My PUBLISHERS.

I never particularly wanted to be able to say 'my hairdresser' or 'my gynaecologist' or 'my plumber.' But I did always want to be able to say 'my agent' and 'my publisher.'

The reason this sounds so smug is because I am writing it whilst wearing a big shit-eating grin.

Continuing in the pattern of posting once a year, in March, here I am. Since this time last year

• I have sent the book off to three or four agents, all of whom hastily rejected it
• I've been taken under the wing of The Literary Consultancy, whose reader really liked the book, and they have sent it off to three or four agents, all of whom hastily rejected it
• I have sent it to ...

I see that almost exactly a year ago I was knocking down walls. Well, here I am now, with what I'm tentatively calling a 'finished novel.' I've sent it somewhere; I'm waiting. Actually, I'm not waiting. I'm sitting back with my feet on the desk, enjoying the peace. My novel is like a disruptive child with ADHD. Suddenly, after I've spent years being the sole carer, it's been whisked away to a holiday camp for the loud and over-energetic, and someone else has responsiblity. Just fo...

I started writing this novel in 1947, and have interrupted it on several occasions to run a business, have children, eat more cake and so on. So, because I am a better writer now than when I started - not through any clever planning, simply by dint of the passing years - I'm having to make some tricky decisions with the rewrites. It's akin to restoring an ancient building. At what point do I give up on shoring up unsteady old beams, and just knock the whole thing down and start ag...

My writing friend C said, 'someone wise told me years ago that I had to 'give up' being a writer over the summer as long as I had a child/children to look after... and so every summer I have to relearn the fact of that'.

 

I must remember that for next year.

 

The irony of summer is that you socialise so much, and all your friends and acquaintances ask how the writing's going. 'It's stopped for now' is the most accurate reply.

 

B...