Getting there at last!

Following the successful re-launch of my novel Celeste Three is Missing in August, I am delighted to be able to tell you that my newest book, provisionally entitled Growing Apart, is close to completion.

The first part of the story is set in India. Rupert Chilcott is an English civil servant who is sent there in 1936 to work for the government. He has an affair with a vivacious Anglo-Indian girl who subsequently gives birth to twin boys. But she dies in childbirth while he is in England on leave. When he gets the news, Rupert rushes back to India by air, the quickest way to make the journey. At that time it took over a week (six overnight stops!) and by the time he arrives, one of the boys has already been adopted by a childless couple in Bombay.

I have a feeling that you have guessed why the book is called Growing Apart. The twins finally meet in England, when they are twenty-five years old.

Actually to be accurate, it’s the writing bit that’s nearly finished. But that’s only the start of the process. The manuscript will now be copy edited, line edited and prepared for publishing, while our brilliant designer Catherine Clarke creates a new book cover.

Between preparation and publishing, copies of the manuscript (and also segments of the work in progress) are sent out to a few readers (Beta readers) for evaluation. The opinions that I receive from pre-publication readers are for me a truly invaluable resource.

If you would like to Beta read for me and be acknowledged and thanked for that on my Author’s Notes page in the published book, please let me know. But don’t leave it too late. Although delighted to be able to ask, I’m sorry to say that I am physically unable to deal with more than a few such requests. I regret also, that as an author who works independently, publicly acknowledging and thanking individual readers is the only reward I can offer. Plus of course, availability of the book in advance, free and with my compliments.

Happy reading,

Chris