NaNoWriMo 2021 - update

Following the announcement of my new four-book deal, I can now share more details with you guys. My current NaNoWriMo project is actually book four in my Shetland series - it has a publishing date of September 2022, which works of me! Its birthday, like most of my books is 1st November, but I have until March 2022 to complete and submit the full manuscript. Though as you know from following this blog, I'll write towards an earlier self-imposed deadline in my head, like always.

Book 3 of the series was written a while back, this is the project that I'm polishing  this week as it's due on my editor's desk next Monday, 15th Nov. This was the secret project from earlier in the year that neither my editor nor agent knew about until it was written; it goes without saying, they were happy bunnies.

Anyway, back to NaNo - it's going well. The words and tea are flowing nicely, I've developed a girl crush on one of my ladies and I've had considerable help from readers, who helped me to name a Sheltie and her litter of six pups. My brain was literally hurting, so I asked for suggested names via social media. Boy, did the names flood in! The added bonus was that several suggested names fitted with a herd of alpacas which I was also trying to name and write about so win:win! Though it was a strange way to spend a Friday night! Anyway the dog names chosen were: Mum - Pepper and her pups Skye, Emily, Cass, Marble, Sheba and Sherbert - all pretty and feasible as dog names. The added bonus: the readers were thrilled at the thought of their suggestions being included in a book.  

That's basically it, to be fair. I'm doing two Nano session a day to hit my 1667 word count and the rest of my writing day is being spent polishing book 3 ready for delivery. 

(A little whisper) the little hand-writing experiment which I'm chilling with each day is coming along nicely too - again, don't tell my editor or agent; shhhhhhh a secret. 

---