Revising and Editing Your Book with Kate Hardy

 Author Kate Hardy is visiting this week and talks about her revision process. She has a new book out this month, The Body at Rookery Barn.

Kate Hardy lives in Norwich with her husband, two grown-up children, two spaniels and too many books to count. 

She’s won three Romantic Novelists’ Association awards for her romantic fiction – and is thoroughly enjoying her new life of crime! When she’s not writing or researching, she’ll be out at a gig or the theatre, at ballet class, doing cross-stitch, taking photographs of the sunrise while persuading the spaniels to stay still for one second, fossicking around on a beach or in archives, or exploring ancient buildings. 

She loves learning new things, which is why you’ll always discover something different in a Kate Hardy book…

Kate Hardy on the web:

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Storm Publishing.        BookBub

So how do I edit a book?

One of the things both my romance and my crime editors say is that I need to dig deep. That means showing more emotion; and in this case that means showing my heroine’s reactions.

The scene is that my heroine (who wears hearing aids – just like me, so that bit is definitely accurate  ) just found a dead body. And she hears a voice… 

Ohgodohgodohgod.

Dead. 

Her teeth chattered, and she wrapped her arms round herself again. Right at that moment, all Georgina wanted was to curl into a ball and sob her heart out, though she knew that wasn’t going to be of any use whatsoever.

‘Call 999. Police. Ambulance,’ the voice in her ear said.

Originally, I had Georgina thinking that her hearing aids, which were connected to her phone, had picked up some kind of radio play. I had her asking who was there. 

But that doesn’t show you how she’s feeling.

So this was the addition during revisions (taking out the full stop after ‘said’ above)

 and Georgina jumped.

That voice again.

Was it just some kind of weird coincidence – or was there someone there? Someone who could see what was going on and that Georgina was lost in the past instead of reacting to the situation like a normal person would?

Either it was the radio signal she was picking up, and nobody would reply; or someone really was there and she needed to deal with it.

See the difference? You’re right there with Georgina, feeling the same concern that she does. She’s worrying. Is there someone there? Is it someone who’s going to help her? Or is it the person who killed the person in her barn and who might kill her? She’s working out what she needs to do next.

Those extra questions add to the tension and make you wonder what’s going on, and how the situation’s going to be resolved.

(Oh, and who or what is Georgina hearing? You’ll have to read the book to find out!)

The Body at Rookery Barn: A totally gripping cozy mystery (A Georgina Drake Mystery Book 1)

 

Outside, Rookery Barn glows in the mid-morning sunshine while fat bees flit lazily between the forget-me-nots. Inside, a body lies dead…

Widowed Georgina Drake has no regrets about moving to beautiful, sleepy Little Wenborough in rural Norfolk. Until she opens the door to her rental property and finds the dead body of her latest guest, irritable university professor Roland Garnett. And on top of that she’s suddenly hearing a woman’s voice through her hearing aids.

Completely shaken by the discovery, Georgina can hardly believe it when the police conclude that Professor Garnett was poisoned, with a dinner delivered by Georgina herself. Is she about to be accused of murder? Georgina needs to pull herself together, try to ignore the distracting voice, and clear her name!

Asking around, it seems Roland Garnett offended half the village during his three-week stay and made unwelcome advances to the rest. But who was provoked enough to poison him? Georgina’s best lead is the deadly oleander found in Roland’s system. Her gardener, Young Tom, had access to the plant, but before she can talk to him Tom becomes the killer’s next victim.

As the crimes mount up, so do the clues, but does Georgina have what it takes to follow them to their conclusion? Even when her amateur sleuthing puts her next in the killer’s sights…?

An addictive and completely gripping cosy crime novel. Perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, Faith Martin and Midsomer Murders.