Well, friends, “The General’s Wife” will be released in TWO days! I can scarcely believe that come Thursday I will open my computer and see another one of my books available for purchase. It’s nearly unimaginable. It’s been quite the journey. Especially for this book…
My first novel. Even though this will be my second published novel, this was my first completed novel. This was the first book I plotted out, wrote on, labored over, and wrestled with. I started working on it so long ago, when I was still in college. As I didn’t have the know how or the time to work on it, this novel took years of honing and polishing to become what it is.
My first query. And though it was not first published, it was the first one I queried. I received a lot of “no responses” and one response that informed me that there was too much “head hopping”. Like I knew what that was. So, I started querying “The Lady Bornekova” and it was accepted for publication and began my road to publication, going to conferences and joining a critique group and learning a TON in a short amount of time. And then I learned what “head hopping” was (switching point of view character within the same scene). And I fixed it. Then “The General’s Wife” was ready to go.
My first go at research. As I had not written anything before, I had never been involved in the kind of research I would need for writing historical fiction. And I have come to find out that unique type of research I need for each book is different. This novel takes place in a real period in history, but almost all of the characters and events are fictional (the Pharaoh and his Queen are based on the actual Ptolemy II and Queen Arsinoe) – so I had a lot of creative leeway. Another of my books, “Trail of Fears” involves more real people that actually lived as well as real events, requiring a whole different level of research.
I imagine that each book of mine that I am blessed enough to have published will be unique for its own reasons. These are just a few of the reasons why “The General’s Wife” is singled out for me. Of course, with so many “firsts” it will always hold a special place in my heart.