Fiona

Time for another update on my much-neglected news page, and apologies if it sounds suspiciously like the last blog entry. That’s because I’ve just delivered yet another draft of ‘Making Whoopee’ after a marathon edit that kept me up night and day once again. Every time I leave a room these days, even if I’m just popping out to fetch my abandoned cup of tea, Winnie and Dora chorus ‘Bye Bye! Mummy’s going to write’, which makes me think I’ve still not got the work-life balance quite right. I do hope it was worth all those extra hours; the book is much more tightly plotted now, and the big cast has been a real joy to bring to life. I’ll miss it like mad, although it’s heaven to know I’ll have some family time over Easter.

I’ve loved writing about Tash French again (now Tash Beauchamp); she’s a character so close to my heart, although imagining what life is like ten years on, with marriage to Hugo and children in tow has taken a lot of thought. That and finding a happy ending for Faith and Rory from the Lodes series, developing new characters and trying to fit all the action around the three day eventing calendar has been a fantastic challenge, and one that I’ve relished. I’m an appalling self-deprecator, but I’m starting to dare to hope that this one could be my best book yet.

Of course there’ll inevitably be a bit more perfecting and cutting to be done before it’s published in March 2011. It also needs the right title. Having moved on from Mounted Games (which as a horsy type, I think of as fun work-play but has been sensibly vetoed as ‘too crude’ by those for whom the phrase means nothing), we are now also turning away from ‘Making Whoopee’ (a bit old-fashioned, it’s felt, and not horsy enough!). So the hunt is on for a perfect, fun, sexy and horsy title. I’m currently attracting odd looks all over the West Country by making excited calls from my mobile to shout ideas at my agent ‘Well Heeled!’ … ‘Horse Play!’ … ‘Jumping for Fun!’ … But as yet nothing’s hot the spot, so any ideas are more than welcome…

And my mind has already turned to starting the next book, which has been cooking away in the mental bottom oven for several months now and I’m dying to get cracking. But first, I have Easter eggs to hide in the garden, a pile of post to go through, the dressage yard accounts to tackle and a lot of neglected friends to call.

Many thanks to all of you who continue to visit this site, and for your emails which I just adore reading and always try to reply to. I may be rather random on Facebook, and a complete twit on Twitter, but I’m trying hard to master both, and meanwhile I’ll keep updating this page as paperback publication of Love Hunt fast approaches and the new book starts to take shape. Happy Easter!

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