Du Rose Sons by K T Bowes

When I set out to write the first three Hana novels, it took seven years. Whilst proving popular, especially now that the first in that initial trilogy is permafree, those darn books have been pulled down and edited more than I care to think back on. Hey, I’m a perfectionist. Try living with me.

Du Rose Sons is the seventh in the Hana Du Rose Mysteries and a culmination of everything I’ve learned in the last ten years about writing, publishing, editing and enlisting proper help. I’m excited - really excited.

I finished it yesterday.

Writing is an all-consuming pastime that operates to the exclusion of everything else. My husband wanted to go to the beach the other day. I eyed him somewhat nervously from the dining table - where my laptop and I had moved to have breakfast.

Really? Now?

I’d just got to a key scene and it was tumbling out of my head onto the keyboard, my fingers tripping over my brain. But here’s the dilemma - the poor man works a sixty hour week to keep me in pyjamas and coffee and he gave me the puppy dog eyes. I’ve based my lead male character, Logan Du Rose on him and I knew he’d wear his cowboy boots so...ok then.

But the laptop comes with me.

I typed some of the way to Waihi while my poor husband hummed to Lorde on the radio. Then on a whim, because we could, we did a road trip up to Whangamata - because we'd never been.

I’ll only be a second. I’ve just got to write this bit. Move this, change that, kill her...oh no, I think she needs to die later.

Like some kind of paper hit man, I typed and typed...and typed.

I put my laptop away, smiled at my husband and lay back in my seat. Oh no! Another scene sprang into my inner vision where my characters live. Na, that’s not gonna work. I need to add that there and then that will blend into that...

I unpacked the laptop and fired it up again.

See, that’s the trouble with the latter stages of a novel. It’s like the back of a complicated tapestry with all those little ends sticking out. Every darn one has to be sewn in and tied off, otherwise one day you’ll be staring at the cute little stitched doggie and his eye will pop off.

So, I finished yesterday.

Already my next novel is crowding into the back of my brain and it isn’t a Hana novel. ‘Pick me,’ it’s shouting, ‘pick me.’

Today is editing day, so the smug satisfaction will be wiped off my face as editing day turns into editing week. Then it will go to my trusted beta reader, who will tell me honestly if it’s crap, what’s crap and exactly what I need to change to make it not-crap. Then it will come back to be edited again and go out to other people who edit again...and again...and again...

So now I’ve depressed myself. End of January, for those of you waiting for Hana’s latest exploits. Man, are you in for a shock. The woman’s certainly found her mojo and she’s making her husband’s life hell. He’s being a complete...well anyway. I’ve had to live with them for the past six months, bickering, arguing and...no, I won’t upset you with the ‘D’ word. That would be unkind.

The cover will change. Someone will say they don’t like some small part of it and it will be changed and changed and then probably changed back. 

But hey, Hana fans, the important thing is...she’s coming!

#mystery #romance #newrelease #KTBowes