Wednesday, May 28, 2008

A Brief Update

As usual I am scrambling for time, but as I prepare a longer post on what I've been up to, I thought I'd drop in with a few snippets of news.

The next full post will be about my grand day out in London last week, which involved the Prime minister's despatch box, Oliver Cromwell's head, Richard I's dining table William Marshal, Roger Bigod, and the most beautiful church interior I have ever seen.

Also last week I went to see the Dalai Lama at Nottingham Arena. What a lovely sane and sensible man he is, with a droll sense of humour and a wonderful fruity laugh. His spiritual message of respect and tolerance was one I wholeheartedly endorse.

The above excursions explain why I haven't had much time for writing and why I'm behind with the blog and need to put on my writing pants re the day job. However, concerning the latter I am happy to report that:

1. THE TIME OF SINGING is now copy edited Agent and editor both love it - which is a relief, although even more relief will be once it has passed muster with the readers. The cover is almost sorted too and I do like it a lot.

2. I have finished re-editing THE WILD HUNT, taking 15,000 words off it in the process while losing nothing of the story. I guess I've learned to control the waffle better these days! Editor is pleased with the rewrite, so again, that's another hurdle jumped. It has been interesting revisiting Guyon and Judith after all these years. I have a soft spot for them because it was their story that finally opened a publisher's door to me after almost seventeen years of writing as a hobby. It also won me a Betty Trask award and brought me to Whitehall to have my prize presented by Prince Charles - a bit different to stacking shelves in the local supermarket which is what I'd been doing before.

3. I am 3 chapters into the new novel - the story of William Marshal's daughter, and what a girl she is proving to be. Definitely strong-willed and uppity. That she became Marshal of England towards the end of her life comes as no surprise to me as I investigate her character.

Back in a short while. In the meantime, I'll leave you with a glimpse from the Luttrell Psalter film, due out June 6th. Just beautiful!

5 comments:

Curlew Country said...

Now this looks worth seeing, even just for the demo of how to carry a heavy object comfortably!
Really looking forward to getting reacquainted with Guyon & Judith, firm favourites with me.
Great to read about the HNS and your meeting up with Wendy - sounds great fun!
Stephx (sorry, behind on the Akashic but fab as usual, will report back soon!)

Anne Gilbert said...

Oooooh! Oooooh! I didn't know William Marshal even had a daughter, let alone that she was Marshal of England at one time! Wow! I can hardly wait for you to finish the novel and get it published. But I must be patient. I must be patient. I must be patient.
Anne G

Anne Gilbert said...

I've spread the word on my blog, The Writer's Daily Grind at:

http://writersdailygrind.blogspot.com

if anybody cares to go there and look. About EC's newest book, I mean.

Tess said...

Wow, you're one busy lady!

It will be cool to read the revised version of TWH - I have an old, second-hand pb one right now.

Looking forward to the story of Marshal's daughter :)

Rita Gerlach said...

As a writer, I only wish I could say I am as busy as you are, Elizabeth. All the new projects sound wonderful. I will add a link to your blog from mine.