November 2012 – AMANDA BROOKE Author

November is a difficult time for me, a time when my mind draws me back to the past. I’m reminded of all the reasons my life, my perspective and my priorities have changed so much in the last six years but mostly I’m reminded of the little man who went through such awful things and who taught me so much. My son Nathan.

But even as I stand still and reflect, the world doesn’t stop with me. Everything moves on and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I haven’t moved on from the death of my son, I’m not ‘over it,’ but I have accepted that life has continued and that I’ve been swept along with the flow of time. So as I stood still for a little while this month, life has continued at a pace and with a deep breath I’m back in the present catching up with all my author duties.

That oh-so important contract for books three and four has now been signed although there was a little surprise in there for me. As well as two new books, HarperCollins would like me to write two short stories. Gulp! It’s most definitely a new challenge and after the initial shock I’m starting to quite like the idea of working on something that should take shape much more quickly than the year-long process of finishing a full length manuscript.

So what else is new…the dates for publication have so far been confirmed as 14^th March 2013 in the UK for Another Way to Fall and 12^th February 2013 in the US for Yesterday’s Sun. I’m also thrilled that along with Yesterday’s Sun, Another Way to Fall is also going to be published in Germany.

As I write this I’m on my way home after another trip to London where yesterday I met my new editor Kim Young who’s covering maternity leave for Sarah and to top the day I was invited to the Harper Fiction Christmas Party at the Ivy. I had an absolutely lovely time and it was really good to get to know more of the team at HarperCollins as well as meeting some pretty fab authors too. Writing can be quite a solitary profession so thank you to Harper for arranging this festive group hug!

And now I take another deep breath…I’m looking forward to another exciting year knowing full well how privileged I am to have good friends and family around me who help me look to the future without ever losing sight of the past.

The page proofs for Another Way to Fall have arrived and it’s so exciting to see the words I’ve written (and rewritten) transformed into something that resembles a book if only on the screen. But at the same time it’s also very scary because this is my last opportunity to make any changes and hopefully I won’t pick up any major errors as I’m only supposed to be making minor adjustments now.

This run through is probably as close as I can get to seeing the book from a reader’s perspective. I’m actually reading my story now, not writing it. OK there are two streams of thought as I read, one still asking if a sentence is flowing properly and picking up on repetitions or inconsistencies but the other part of me is enjoying the journey that my characters have embarked upon and yes, I am enjoying it. I can only hope that others will feel the same when it’s published in February next year, that part’s scarier still! Emma is the focal point of the story, holding onto her dreams whilst her cancer tries to yank them from her grasp. But it’s not just Emma’s journey I’m following, it’s her family and friends’ too and of course it’s Meg, Emma’s mum who I can relate to most and there’s a part of me speaking through that character.

There’s another character who pops up from time to time in the book and he’s clearly made an impression on me because I had a dream about ‘the shopkeeper,’ the other night. I won’t say too much about him but in my dream I was in his shop and he directed me towards a special room and told me I had to choose a word, one that would be with me for the rest of my life. I’m the first to admit that it was a pretty weird dream even by my standards but frustratingly I woke up before going into the room and picking my word. So of course I’ve spent the last few days trying to decide what word I would choose. There were no rules, the word could be anything…something inspiring, funny or completely random. There’s only one restriction and it’s a tough one, it has to be a single word. It’s taken a while to decide but I’ve settled on my choice and my word is…smile. It sums it all up really, enjoying the moment, doing things that make you and your loved ones happy, appreciating what you have and if things are tough then it’s a gentle prompt to find something to smile about, even if it’s only summoning up precious memories of happier times and the people you miss. Smile…and everything else will follow.

So….what would your word be?