PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE

Pitter, patter! Yes, here it comes, a little late and out of breath, making tiny prints in the snow. The Year of Mouse has arrived.

Hello! I'm a children's writer and this blog will be my story of the year of Mouse. Apart from facing the writing page daily, there are three things a writer needs. Determination, cussedness and patience. Especially patience.

Rather more than a year ago an editor fell in love - as she kindly said - with my manuscript. A Boy Called Mouse. (Actually more than one editor did, so that was a complicated time. Thank heaven for agents!)

Now if my life had been a fairy tale, or I was a celeb with a ghost writer at my elbow, my book might have been thrust into little fingers everywhere within three months. That's not how it happens.

That's when I learned that books fit seasons of the year. Think of those blue-sea-and-sky covers calling out to summer readers. Now Mouse isn't a bright and cheerful tale. It is dark and dramatic and slightly Dickensian. So no summer-time Mouse. On the other hand, the Mouse plot doesn't have much snow. Or Father Christmases. QED, Mouse must be an autumn book. 2009? I mumbled.

Er, no. Too tight a fit for all the pre-publication work, and the publishing schedule was already full. Plus there was a certain general slowing of world finance. And they wanted to make the book really special. So, sensibly, Mouse was moved to autumn. 2010! It seemed ages away back then. See what I mean about patience?

But now 2010 has come. How do I deal with it? How am I supposed to manage this year? How do I do this? Do I have to become some kind of Mouse publicity person, or sit gladly in authorial seclusion, eating chocolates, while my helpful publishers do it all for me? Annd how will I fit in all things Mouse-ish with my usual line of work: early readers, oddments for anthologies, school & library visits and so on. How does one actually start to tell other people about one's wonderful new novel? "I can't help noticing that you've also got Weetabix in your trolley. By the way, If you are looking for a terrific new book for your kids . . ." etc etc.

Even worse, how do I keep my mind on the draft of my next novel, known as Tome Two, which is scaring me no end (and not in a good way) when my mind goes into a flutter whenever I think of the Mouse book actually arriving at some future date?

Follow this blog and discover what it's really like being a children's author. Just you and me, okay? And Mouse. Pitter, patter, pitter, patter.