Francesca Armour-Chelu's Blog

I've committed the cardinal sin of blogging. My agent once gave me a piece of very sound advice that I've ignored; she said 'If you start a blog for God's sake keep it up or else it looks like you've abandoned your own life. Not good!'

I had such high hopes I wouldn't do that, so here's a very short post just to explain why; namely that the rewrite for Book Two of Fenn Halflin is taking SO DAMN LONG!

I had no idea a second draft would be this hard, but it is and it's taking me forever, so I've not had any time for thinking about other stuff. My new, improved deadline (yes, I had to ask for one -hangs head in shame, tail between legs) is in a few weeks so hopefully I'll be back to some normality then.

For those of you reading this because you're writing yourselves; good luck, you're not alone if it feels like a slog sometimes! It can be a real drag, you get back ache, you pray you won't get a trapped nerve again because you haven't the time to stop, your desk is a pit because you tell yourself you can't afford to stop for even 1 minute to clear away the empty crisp packets and apple cores. You get thirsty and your heart does a little somersault with glee because you find a day old half glass of wine hiding behind the monitor from your late night writing session and you think-'great that's two minutes saved not pouring one out' and knock it back after picking out the fruit fly....

But amidst the shameful, pig-pen moments, there are moments when you write something that feels like it works, and there was only that one way to say that particular thing. Then being a writer feels like the most brilliant thing in the world.

Now back to it!

1)

When I was writing the first book of Fenn Halflin, I wasn't on Goodreads, didn't have this blog, didn't do Facebook, twitter, instagram-I just wrote, went to work (I'm a part time librarian in a small, busy library), looked after the kids, did a lot of grubbing around in marsh and woodlands (I love poking around to see what plants/insects I can find) and sometimes I ventured out to see exhibitions in the big smoke- earwigs in my hair.
So I thought it might be a nice idea to use this blog to talk through the whole process of first draft to print because I've done it once (Fenn Halflin and the Fearzero) but I'm about to do it all again. I did my first author talk on the same, and for people who want to be published I thought it could be interesting...it also might be painful-not sure yet how much I dare/care to admit of my writing insecurities!

I had a great day yesterday at the Waterstones in O2, where I met some really great kids. Could have quite happily chatted away for longer with all of them, but I could see other people waiting...if you see a queue, especially with a Mum with younger children getting impatient you can't sit and shoot the breeze! I was helped by a lovely woman from Walker Books called Suzie who had enough bubble to fill a crate of lemonade and she did the tweety side of things because I'm still waiting for my FIRST smartphone to arrive! Afterwards I drifted around London like plankton not really knowing what to do with myself, bought chocolates for the kids, got the late train home and read a bit more Kes which I'm really enjoying.

Yesterday evening I had my book launch at Halesworth library-it looked absolutely gorgeous thanks to my sister and family effort; lots of young saplings around the library (Before anyone gets upset at wanton tree cutting; Birch saplings have to be regularly cleared!) all strung up with masses of fairy lights.... Lots of people....lots of wine, lots of kids running around between the bookshelves. It was so nice to celebrate Fenn's launch into the world with people who I've known all my life; family, friends, people in my town. Feel tired now though! Want to have another launch so I can have another go at my thank-you speech. I left off the people who helped me most and they won't stop teasing me.

I must be feeling more anxious about publication date than I realised as I've had a week of horrible dreams!
They are all muddled and, like books say, 'all characters are fictitious and any resemblance to real people is coincidental'
The dreams share key elements of anxiety; a meeting with editors (not my real editor who's lovely) but dream editors who shake their heads in dismay at my writing, giving each other incredulous side-long glances that I'm even in their offices. Then there are dreams about bookshops which crumble around my ears, or I'm on a train carriage where be-suited marketing people are trying to do a 'damage limitation' on my reputation because the book has had such damning reviews.
The strange thing is I had started to feel quite relaxed, looking forward to seeing all my friends at my launch, happy all my books have arrived on time, excited about how my venue is going to look, but obviously my subconscious doesn't feel the same way....I want a happy dream where a kid comes up to me and says; 'I loved it when Fenn.....'

The children and teachers at Holton St Peter School made me very welcome for my first author workshop, where we used images and objects to begin to build more stories and I explained how I created mine. Such great ideas from the two groups; honestly, I wish I'd thought of them first. Keep dreaming up those stories, you have wonderful imaginations.

Only seven days left before 'Fenn Halflin and the Fearzero' is published. It's my first book so feeling very excited but also VERY nervous. Having a book come out feels a bit like opening your exam results in front of the whole school, but I've been lucky enough to get some wonderful pre-publication reviews from two booksellers (Finchley Waterstones, and Pages and Pages in Sydney) Reviews like that quell the nerves a bit!
Read them here:

https://sschambe.wordpress.com/2016/0...

https://coupleofpages.com/2016/05/18/...









Fenn Halflin and the Fearzero