Kate's Blog

Starting a new book

It always feel a bit like jumping off a cliff when I start a new book. I make notes, I sketch character bios, I think a lot about the story and possible scenes, I research the locations... and then comes the time when I actually have to sit down and write. And when I actually put the first sentences on the page, it feels so... strange. So new, and it's exciting, but it's also a little daunting to think in just two months I'll have a book (I hope!) when all I have right now is a paragraph. Yet the first few paragraphs really encapsulate my vision for this story, which I had over the summer, and I thought I'd share them with you so you can see my process. Here's the beginning I just wrote:


'Did you know my wife was having an affair?' It was a simple question, Rafe Sandoval thought, deserving a simple answer. Yes or no. So very simple. Yet Freya Pearson stood before him, her grey eyes unblinking, her face a mask of irritating composure. She didn't speak. Rafe's hand curled on the smooth mahogany surface of his desk; outside a dank grey London sky pressed heavily upon the city. Still the nanny said nothing. 'Well?' Rafe demanded, and he heard the raw note of pleading in his own voice. It made him angry. He was not the guilty party here; he had done nothing wrong. Yet he felt condemnation in that cool grey stare; he saw judgement in the thin line of her plum-coloured mouth. He shook his head slowly, his own mouth thinning to match hers. 'You knew, didn't you? You knew--you saw it all along--and you never thought fit to tell me.'
Finally Freya spoke. Her voice was pitched low, calm and even unconcerned. 'Yes,' she said. 'I knew.'

What do you think? Are these people you'd like to read more about?

posted by Kate Hewitt at 6:31 PM