What we're writing--multitasking Rhys

If you have a vision of the writer, sitting in a lonely garret, waiting for the muse the strike, please think again. I am trying to keep on schedule for my new Royal Spyness book, due at the end of September. And then I get the edits from my other editor for the next Molly Murphy book, THE EDGE OF DREAMS, coming out next March. She wants them by the end of July. They are not huge but they involve moving some action around to bring it nearer the beginning of the book. So a trifle complicated.

Oh, and did I mention that I have had up to 16 people in my house this week? My son got married on Saturday and we had family from all over the world staying here. Not the most conducive atmosphere to letting the muse hover around my shoulders.

Also my next Lady Georgie novel QUEEN OF HEARTS comes out on August 5th, and guess what--I'm off on a book tour. Help!


It's hard to write when real life intervenes. When I'm writing I am really caught up in the lives of my characters. I think through upcoming scenes in the book when I am driving, when I am throwing clothes into the washer, or when I awake in the middle of the night. If I have no quiet downtime I can't be creative. So I'm trying to be patient this week and enjoy family and not worry about getting those edits done and staying on schedule for the next Lady Georgie book, which is called, can you guess......MALICE AT THE PALACE.

It takes place at Kensington Palace (you know, home of William and Kate, and, as it turns out, quite a number of distinguished ghosts)


And if you'd like a tiny peek at what has happened so far:

                It was not raining for once as the car drew up outside Kensington Palace, but a large puddle had formed outside the entrance to our apartment. “I’ll stop a little further down, your royal highness,” the chauffeur said, “ so that you don’t get your feet wet. There’s a raised pavement beside the house where you can walk back.”

                “How kind. Thank you,” Marina replied.

                We climbed out of the back seat. Marina went ahead of me. I was about to follow when I glanced back and thought I saw that strange greenish glow coming from the archway below the clock tower. I had to see for myself where the light was coming from and began to walk toward it. Then I stared harder. Surely something was lying there? Something white. My heart was beating faster and I wanted to turn and hurry into the safety of our apartment but I couldn’t help myself. I was drawn toward it. If it was the ghost of Princess Sophia I had to see it for myself. But why would a ghost be lying anywhere? Surely ghosts wafted about as they wished. As I approached the thing lying on the cobbles I saw it was indeed a dark haired young woman in a white silk dress, lying slumped over, face down. I kept moving closer, walking more slowly now. Surely the specter would vanish when I came too close?

                But it didn’t. I stood there, taking in every detail—the rather flashy rings on the hand that lay outstretched a few inches from my foot, the very modern short haircut with its permanent waves, and then, as I moved around to get a better view I saw her eyes, open and staring at me blankly from a deathly white face, contrasting with the bright red lips.

                Whoever she was she was no ghost. She had been recently alive and now she was very dead.

And I'm very proud of myself. I've managed to kill somebody on page 70. Usually in my books nobody dies for at least a hundred pages!  And I'm curious to now how other Jungle Reds handle multi-tasking.