Ooh I’ve been a naughty author-website keeper-upper this year. I have to confess it isn’t my favourite task – my website seems to have a life of its own and I spend a lot of time shouting at it while it moves pictures to places I don’t want them and shrinks text. But I am between writing projects and have told myself I cannot progress with novel 3 until this site is sparkling and up to date.
And really, I shouldn’t be so reluctant because I have plenty of exciting things to talk about. I think it’s safe to say that 2021 has been my best writing year so far because I have (finally it feels) got a book out with my name on the front! Mae In Quinquennia is a novella-in-flash about the titular Mae, telling her life story in five year intervals from conception to old age. I didn’t initially set out to write a novella-in-flash. It was only when I was sitting in a café, working on some flash, staring at the butcher’s shop opposite, that I had a lightbulb moment. What if all the recent flashes I’d written had the same protagonist? I mapped them out in age order and realised I had accidentally written the skeleton of a book. I went back, filling in the gaps with new flash pieces as needed – including one called Love At The Butcher’s Shop (I wonder where the inspiration for that came from?!) - and suddenly Mae became very real to me. She’s a strong, mischievous character who suffers and overcomes much in her life. She does it all with this naughty, dark humour and I love her for that. I suspect it’s a bit weird to say you love your own characters but I never feel like I’ve invented them – it’s as though they come to me whole and I just write them down. Mae was an absolute pleasure to write so I was over the moon when, back in March, I found out she was going to make her way in the world with Selcouth Station. It wasn’t the straightforward acceptance and jubilation story you read of. Initially, Mae did get rejected. She had been rejected by eight or so other places by this point so, although disappointed that after squeezing Mae tightly into the submission guidelines this wasn’t the one, I just accepted it. The rejection came with an offer of feedback though and sensing I needed all the help I could get, I accepted this. However, this proved to be a turning point because when the editor re-read it to give the feedback, they decided they did want to accept Mae after all. I think Mae was different to most of the novella-in-flashes submitted and perhaps this initially went against her. I don’t know, but her charms evidently won out in the end. Even though this was amazing news, I found it hard to feel it. It was still early days after the loss of my mum and I was struggling to believe the world held good things for me. Even when supposedly good news came, I didn’t really trust it, waiting for what felt like the inevitable sting in its tail. But that sting didn’t come and somehow, miraculously, Mae is now a real book sitting on my desk. As the publication date grew closer, my excitement began to grow. I loved working with the very talented Kerry-Anne Mayes to bring Mae to life on the cover. We chose to portray Mae at her eldest. She’s eighty and naked because she poses for a life-drawing class in the final story, Masterpiece. We see her tattoos, her wrinkles, her scars, her belly-rolls. It felt important to me that, when given the chance, I could choose a realistic image of a woman and an older woman at that. Mae doesn’t disappear into obscurity as she ages as society would have us believe - she only grows in strength and power. I wanted to show that. Uncharacteristically, I decided to have a launch party for Mae. If the loss of my mum taught me anything, it is that life is short and you must grab opportunities with both hands. I don’t know if I’ll ever get another book published - I’d love to but the universe is fickle – so I wanted to make the most of this. We had a brilliant night in our garden, with friends and family – some of whom we hadn’t managed to see for ages, eating, drinking, chatting and admiring Mae. She was the star. I’m not particularly comfortable in the limelight so requests for a reading were futile but I did enjoy signing books. I could get used to that. I have enjoyed all of the marketing a lot more than I thought I would. I like the creative challenge of finding new ways to get Mae out there. And unbelievably, something must have worked because Mae sold out online in 24hours! I was worried at points in this process that because I am not agented and Mae is a little book with a small indie publisher, I might still not feel like a real author. But I do. There’s nothing like seeing your book flying off the shelves to give you a bit of a confidence boost. I absolutely love seeing pictures of Mae being read and getting messages from people who’ve read her. I could get pretty hooked on the experience. Perhaps this is why I went back to my slightly abandoned novel 2 in June and became completely addicted to finishing it, which I did just a few weeks ago. The fresh enthusiasm and belief in my work has certainly brought some momentum. I am currently allowing novel 2 to sit. It’s being read by a couple of people and perhaps I’ll be ready to start submitting it soon. My brain gave me approximately three seconds peace before it began nagging me about novel 3, which is as yet a kernel of an idea but the main protagonist has once again come fully formed. I may go on to love her as much as Mae. Novel 1 is still out on submission with no one really biting but I think I know why – I just don’t think a traumatic novel is what people need during a global pandemic. Novel 2 is uplit and I hope that will have greater appeal. Anyway, that’s me. If you have bought, shared or tweeted about Mae, I am extremely grateful. A massive thank you to Haley at Selcouth Station for loving Mae too and allowing her to make her way in the world. If you haven’t read her yet, there are still some copies of the second print-run available here:www.selcouthstation.com/product-page/mae-in-quinquennia-by-nicola-ashbrook No matter how dark times can feel, do persevere. Do wait and hope. Good things will come. Nicola x
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