Friday 4 July 2014

What have I been doing over the last six months?



Where have I been over the last six months?

Oh, dear.  I haven't written anything here for over six months.  Just in case you think I've been sitting around, doing nothing, it's about time I gave you an update....

Like many writers, I'm entirely dependent on the whims of my Muse.  There are times when she'll wake me up at three in the morning.  "Come on.  Great idea for a new story.  Now sit up and write this down..." 
I have the choice of rolling over and getting back to sleep, or scratching around for my pen and notepad and taking dictation in my best shorthand.  I know that if I don't get it down, I'll have forgotten all about it by 6.30 and I might have missed a good plot.

Several of you will know that I write other stories - with fetish content - under the pseudonym C.P. Waterman.  And over the last six months, Muse has been delivering huge parcels of words to me that would be more appropriate for 'Waterman' than for Rachel because the content is so much ruder.  I've written ten titles during that time, none of which have been published under my own name.  'Waterman' is my outlet for all the filthy stuff I've wanted to write for so many years. 

But now it's time to change again.  Rachel wants her Muse back to write more romance.  In literary theory, there's a guy called Heinlein who came up with six rules for writing.  Needless to say, the first rule is If you're a writer, You Must Write.

The second of his rules, which I want to talk about here, is that You Must Finish What You Write.  And I have several stories which I haven't put out yet, for various reasons.  I have a series of romantic thrillers planned (with a heroine called Tee Riverhead - watch out for her), and I'm half-way through the second story with ideas ready for the third, but I want to hold back on publication until the first two are ready.  And I'm half-way through another family mystery (working title The Love-nest); if my editor gives this one a fair wind, I hope to have it out by the end of August.  And I have a sequel planned for that, too.

So you get the picture?  Brain is teeming with ideas, but I can only work with what Muse gives me.  I want to send C.P. Waterman on a long vacation so that I can get back to the genre in which I began.

Watch this space - there's plenty of titles to come here!

Best
Rachel

email: rc (at) rachelcray (dot) com
Twitter: @RachelCray1