Writing a Jaspa’s Journey book is a time-consuming process. Especially since every morsel is absolutely real (except perhaps Jaspa himself). That kind of detail doesn’t come quickly. I have to research and fact-check every single piece of information I fold into a story, just as carefully as I did for anything I wrote as an environmental research scientist.
And then you have the editing.
And the re-editing!
Plus there’s always something trying (and far too often succeeding) to place the writing and editing firmly on the back burner. As a result, the weeks and months (and years) flow by, while the next Jaspa’s Journey book – currently The Ses Collector of Venice – seemingly gets no closer to completion. Or so it feels sometimes.
The Ses Collector of Venice has grown in the writing. Since I first started planning and researching it, back in 2014, it’s transformed into not one, but two books! Probably.
The manuscript for the first book (working title – The Prisoner of Venice) is already complete and has been edited at least twice. The outline for the second book is also complete, and the fleshing-out of the story is coming along nicely. Yet, to be honest, there’s still quite a way to go.
That’s why I vowed that 2023 is going to be different. I decided it’s time to cut through all the noise, ignore the distractions, and get some serious writing under my belt. With the aim of finally finishing Jaspa’s Venetian adventures.
Yet 2022 was barely in the record books, when my good intensions and resolutions hit a speedbump. With a close family member in hospital, I’ve had to return to the UK to help out. And my writing is once again on hold.
Oh, well. Is there such thing as a February resolution?
The above post is taken from this month’s Fiction Meets Fact Newsletter. To receive future newsletters in their entirety (together with a Free Jaspa’s Journey Booklet including the short story Freefall over London and Jaspa’s Journey images to colour), click on the image below.
Upper middle grade readers can now travel the World with Jaspa’s Journey adventure novels! The first four – The Great Migration, The Pride of London, Jaspa’s Waterloo, and The Hermit of Kennecott – are now available in both paperback and ebook formats. Click here for more information.
Jaspa's Journal 