Thursday 23 April 2015

It's all in my head !


I sometimes wonder how I manage to write books, not because I think I'm not capable of such things but because life seems to run at a certain pace which is sometimes hard to keep up with. Work takes up a lot of time and then there's time to spend with family and friends and then the general day to day living. However when you feel compelled to write you have to write and the early morning call of 6am is the time for me to write.

I have read my books after completion of thought to myself, "Did I really write that? That's really good." There are so many people out there writing books and if you search you can always find an author promoting his / her book. It's a tough world out there but that is the case with most industries. You just have to keep going.

Why do I write books? I certainly didn't set out to be a writer and sometimes I wonder why I carry on but It's like I have characters in my head battling to be heard.

I have recently finished what will be my fourth book and am at the reading through stages before parts are edited and changed if need be. This brings me to think what next? I usually start writing about anything or one of the ideas that I have but without any sense of direction as I believe if the characters need their story to be told they will tell it. This has worked and from an idea I have started to write a chapter and planned a few more. I write because I like it and it is such a compliment when someone reads a book that was created in your head and says that they liked it.

My childhood in Pudsey in Leeds played a big part in my life and in A Far Reaching Dream and The Hidden Path Home it features heavily. It's lovely to have grown up in such a beautiful place and be able to tell others about it in my books. I will return there in future books.

You can take the boy from Pudsey but not Pudsey from the boy !!

You keep reading and I'll keep writing.

Andy

http://www.andrewmilnerbooks.co.uk

 

Thursday 9 April 2015

THE NEXT CHAPTER


So I have finished writing my fourth book. It will be called NOTE TO SELF. It is about Emily a soon to be fifty year old. After twenty years of marriage her husband left her for another woman. She not only had to deal with that but the loss her dad who she worshipped. I have tried to capture every emotion in writing this book. So as I start my first read through and editing session of which there will be a few, I now start to think of another idea for my next book. I have characters in my head all the time but trying to find where they will fit into stories is another matter. I enjoyed so much writing about Fulneck and Pudsey which are in Leeds in A FAR REACHING DREAM and THE HIDDEN PATH HOME that I may return there for my next one. Indeed in CARD SCHOOL there are elements of Pudsey in that too. Pudsey was my childhood and a place where I feel at home when I visit. It has everything and in THE HIDDEN PATH HOME I relived the old tales told to me as a child about Greenside Tunnel. There are other myths and tales from my childhood which may get a mention or two once I have found the characters to do them justice.

I tried hard to make NOTE TO SELF amusing alongside the serious emotions and once you read the sort of things her mum and friends come out with I hope you'll agree. It's hard to leave characters behind when you spend so much time with them but new ones have to be born.

You keep reading and I'll keep writing.

 
Andy
 
Here's a picture over Fulneck taken from the Bankhouse Pub, Pudsey.
 
www.andrewmilnerbooks.co.uk