I'm back!

After what seems likes weeks of battling bugs and preparing for Christmas, I am finally getting back into writing mode. I have finished the final draft of The Fourteen Years Between Us and am starting to source agents to approach with a submission. In the meantime I have written a synopsis for my third book and also the first chapter! I'm very excited about this new project because it falls into a different literary genre yet again. The Charm was a paranormal romance novel, TFYBU is for young adults but my third book – as yet untitled – is a thriller. It's a no-holds-barred story containing taboo subject matter and sexual deviation and I can't wait to get my teeth into it! I'll post snippets of it on my blog every now and then to give you a flavour of what's to come... Watch this space! :)

Feedback!

I've just sent the first four chapters of The Fourteen Years Between Us to three teenagers to read and report back. It's pretty nerve-wracking, to be honest! I can't wait to hear their feedback but am nervous about what they might say as well! What if they hate it?! Time will tell...

I've been working on the book again this past week, adding detail mainly and taking needless back story out. I am very lucky to be receiving advice from somebody who works within the industry. Just having someone guiding me and rooting for me to succeed is brilliant and I am already indebted to her for the help and support she has given me this year.

Fingers crossed, with all the editing done, I am one step closer to fulfilling my dream. And if I'm not, then I'll just keep plodding away until I do get there :)

Milestone Moment!

I've just checked in to Blogger Central and I've had my thousandth page view! Amazing! That's a lot of people. Not quite in JK Rowling's league but I'm still chuffed to bits :)

I've just started approaching agents with The Fourteen Years Between Us. I've sent the first three chapters to an agent who really likes my work and requested The Charm as a total manuscript to consider. She eventually declined to take it on because of the paranormal element to the book but she encouraged me to write for Young Adults and I was grateful for her advice. I'm on tenterhooks waiting for her feedback... it's pretty nerve-racking. 

Fingers crossed.

Wine and a storyline

On Thursday night I went to see an old friend of mine (who read The Charm chapter by chapter as I wrote it and is now demanding a sequel because the ending was too sad :)) and I ran my latest storyline past her. The plot was dreamt up in half an hour on Wednesday. I have always wanted to write a book with a dark, sinister and taboo storyline, and I touched on it briefly with The Fourteen Years Between Us, but as that particular book is for young adults, I had to draw the line somewhere. With book number three there will be no drawing of lines. It will be a no-holds-barred tale of intrigue, mystery and prohibition. It is based upon somebody I once knew and the way she lived her life always fascinated me. She lived a deeply religious, solitary life despite wanting more than anything to meet a decent man, who shared her values and with whom she would eventually share the sanctity of marriage. But my leading lady, who I have already named Judith, will see her morals being shattered as she is introduced to a life so surreptitious, her whole world is turned upside down.

My friend had goosebumps as I told her the story, and by the time I got to the end, the hairs on her arms were standing on end... which in my view, is a damn good reason to get it down on paper!

Book Number Three has been born! :)

Changing Seasons

So summer is officially over and winter is here... despite it being eighteen degrees outside with a cloudless blue sky! It's hard to believe it's going to be November on Saturday. Long may the warm weather continue because I HATE the cold with a passion. Although I do like storms. And wind. And rain. 

I have this week off work and despite having bronchitis, I am determined to get lots done. Decorating my daughter's bedroom is priority number one. She wants a swish, gold, hotel bedroom. Don't we all. Next comes a spa day, followed by trick or treating, a spectacular fireworks display and furniture shopping.

I always thought this week would be deadline week for The Fourteen Years Between Us but seeing as it's done and dusted, I can actually have a holiday from writing. Not that I want to. I feel a bit lost at the moment, to be honest. I feel like I should be tapping away in my bedroom, being creative and concocting story lines. I do have several ideas for my third novel, one of them being a sequel to TFYBU, but that very much depends on whether I manage to get lucky and get a publishing deal.

Realistically, I know how hard that is going to be. With the average agent receiving two hundred manuscripts a week but only taking on one new author a year, the chances of me signing on the elusive dotted line are pretty remote. But, ever the optimist (about my writing, anyway... nothing else!!) I'm hoping upon hope that this book is 'the one'. I'm certainly very, very proud of it. And I totally love the heroine of the story, Loveday Girdlestone. She is so funny and weird and geeky, she could go places ;)

So for now, I will take a back seat, relax and let my mind wander for a while...

Fanfare moment No 2!

The title of my second novel is... The Fourteen Years Between Us.

It was dreamt up whilst walking around a very beautiful graveyard back in the early summer, which is very apt seeing as the book is based around a cemetery and features lots of graves, a murder, a suicide and a ghost! It's very cheerful! :)

Here is an extract from the second chapter...

Mum said I wasn’t allowed to have another bath because she’s not made of money. Apparently, from now on, I’m only allowed one bath a week. I knew I’d get told off for using all the hot water up. So I had a shower instead, which I actually liked just as much as having a bath. The water falls on you like warm rain. It feels so soft and gentle. And there’s a seat in there too. Although I’m not quite sure why you’d need to sit down in a shower. Nobody is that lazy, surely? I asked mum afterwards why the seat is there and she said she has no idea but she’s going to use it for shaving her legs. I don’t need to shave my legs yet. But I do need to shave under my arms. Mum says I’d smell like a French woman if I didn’t. They don’t shave under their arms in France. They don’t even use deodorant. Or very much soap. It’s a well-known, documented fact.

Fanfare moment!

I finished Book Two!!! I actually finished it last weekend but have been so busy, I forgot to announce it! So, it's done. Just over 60,000 words, eighteen chapters and pretty fast-paced. Now I have started the time-consuming task of going though the manuscript with a fine-toothed comb and will probably make lots of alterations along the way. I am really, really pleased with it so far though and as I read, I come across lines that I forgot I wrote which make me laugh out loud. I didn't intend on writing a comedy but it might just turn out that I have! Hopefully soon I will have a complete manuscript and can make a start on the synopsis – the most important piece of writing for any author. Get this wrong and an agent won't even read a single line of your first three chapters. I found writing the synopsis for The Charm extremely difficult and it took far longer than I ever anticipated so wish me luck second time round!

I've been notified of a couple of errors in the eBook of The Charm by eagle-eyed readers – only name spellings that got overlooked in the editing process – but I have had them rectified and the word-perfect (I hope) version for Kindle has now replaced the old version. Please feel free to click, buy and read and let me know what you think.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Charm-Tracy-Hefferon-ebook/dp/B00KWL9HVA

Thank you :)

Just a little request...

Hello! Please could I ask a favour. If you have read The Charm, on Kindle or paperback, please could you leave a review on the site where you purchased it? I would be very grateful. Thank you :)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Charm-Tracy-Hefferon-ebook/dp/B00KWL9HVA

http://www.lulu.com/shop/tracy-hefferon/the-charm/paperback/product-21700255.html

The End is Nigh!

I am so, so close to finishing Book Two! My target was Halloween... But I think it will be written by the end of September if not sooner. The good thing about autumn and winter setting in is the shorter days mean more time to sit writing. Or in my case, this winter, editing. In between sitting in front of my SAD lamp that is. I HATE winter.

The book is going to be around the 60,000 word mark and I'm very aware that a wordy YA novel is a big no-no. So no waffle!! I've learned a valuable lesson from The Charm days and that's 'cut the crap'. Excellent advice from a great agent and advice taken! :)

PS Sunset from my window... A very beautiful thing.

Four-fifths of the way through...

Over 40,000 words written, with roughly another 10,000 to go and 'Book Number Two – The One With The Secret Title' is FINISHED! Of course, this is the first draft and as it stands, I've no idea how it will end. Actually, that's a lie. I do. I just haven't figured out how to tackle one of the vital twists in the story yet. Once written, I have the task of editing it from start to finish. And then fine-tuning it. I am going to hedge my bets and predict I will have a completed novel by... Halloween!!!

WATCH THIS SPACE :)

PS. Thank you to everyone who has bought and read The Charm so far. I have some great reviews and I'm very touched so many people have read it. If you want to download it now, here is the link. It's cheaper than coffee and cake, a glossy magazine or a Big Mac Meal so, go on... have a read!! 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Charm-Tracy-Hefferon-ebook/dp/B00KWL9HVA

Rain Dance

I'm back in England and it is raining and, according to the BBC, will be for the next week at least. Which means I can put some hours in on Book Two. I managed to write several thousand words while in France and one chapter was particularly hard because the subject matter is very close to home. I suppose all writers draw on personal experiences and as I've had quite a colourful life, I've got plenty to draw on! One day, when I'm a well-known, rich and highly-successful author (?!), I'll write my life story and when I'm dead, it will be made into a film. Being slightly obsessed with death, I wonder how it will all end for me? Tits up in a vineyard? Choking to death on my own spit? Sudden heart attack whilst being forced to climb to the top of a mountain? Time will tell!! Here's a pic of an angel in a cemetery to look at in the meantime. Beautiful :)

Graffiti and five stars!

I've now got seven five-star reviews on Amazon! I am, as my daughter would say, well pleased!! Our two weeks in France are coming to an end. I've not written much but I've eaten a lot and sunbathed loads! Here's a pic of something I've seen a lot of... It's everywhere. Fine on the side or a railway carriage but a perfectly preserved medieval building...? Hmmm. Au revoir for now.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00KWL9HVA/ref=redir_mdp_mobile?keywords=The%20Charm&qid=1402520994&ref_=sr_1_1&s=digital-text&sr=1-1

Holidays and nice news

I'm writing this blog from the south of France, where the days are long and always warm and the local wine is just two euros a bottle!
We've got lots planned over the next two weeks but I'm going to fit in some writing too. My youngest daughter and I came up with a new name for book two, previously called The Boy Who Came To Play. We were strolling through Loughborough Cemetery and a flash of inspiration hit us! I'm keeping it secret until I've finished the book. I don't want anybody nicking my ideas! So Mystery Name Book Two has safely travelled with me to France on a memory stick and will be added to as and when I can tear myself away from the sun lounger!
I've also had some great news regarding The Charm. A book club in Stamford are going to read it! I'm really flattered and very pleased. If you too would like to read it (and leave me a review afterwards) please go to the below link and click to purchase. Thank you 😊

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00KWL9HVA/ref=redir_mdp_mobile?keywords=The%20Charm&qid=1402520994&ref_=sr_1_1&s=digital-text&sr=1-1

Thought I'd better drop by...

I haven't blogged for a while so I'm blogging today!

If you haven't done so already, please download The Charm eBook here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Charm-Tracy-Hefferon-ebook/dp/B00KWL9HVA

or buy the paperback version here:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/tracy-hefferon/the-charm/paperback/product-21700255.html

I've received some great reviews. Here are just a few snippets of what people are saying...

A brilliant story with everything you could possibly want from a book to remember. I couldn't wait to read the next chapter and the characters and setting came to life instantly and will stay with me. Please bring out a sequel...

Utterly compelling! Great tale with really likeable characters - but most of all you HAVE to know what happens, so it really is impossible to put down.

Totally captivated!! What a fantastic story this is and written beautifully. I just want to read it all over again as you fall in love with the characters. I hope a sequel is planned!!!

SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!! :)

Due to public demand...

The Charm is now available in paperback! It seems quite a few of you don't like reading books on electronic gadgets, and I must admit, I'm not a fan either. So it is now a actual book, made out of real papery paper and everything!

http://www.lulu.com/shop/tracy-hefferon/the-charm/paperback/product-21693792.html

Inspiration...

...comes when you least expect it! This week I received a history book illustrated by local school children. It was all about an area that is located just a few miles from my door but that I knew nothing about. After reading the book and researching it more online, a storyline started to develop in my brain, and, as if by magic, Book Number Three was born!

Of course, I still have to complete Book Number Two and I also have ideas on paper for Book Numbers Four, Five and Six (!) but I am very excited about writing a novel based on historical fact. It will be a different genre again and I'm finding plots are seeping into my conscience already! 

But for now, I'm concentrating on The Boy Who Came To Play. I'm still not happy with the title and expect it to change several times as I write. I've now written 26,000 words and would say I am about half way through. This book is so much easier to write than The Charm because it's based on fact and lots of different experiences I've had personally. Which might prove to be quite an eye-opener... ;)

A busy week... again!

Up at the crack of dawn promoting The Charm! I haven't even looked at The Boy Who Came To Play for over a week, so I think I will devote some time to writing this weekend. 

I've had several new sales of The Charm this week and have gained five five-star reviews, which I am thrilled about. I am hoping to get some reviews in local magazines and will then tackle the nationals. I've also entered it into a debut novel competition so I'm keeping everything crossed for a bit of good luck to come my way!

If you want a damn good read with intrigue, suspense, love and a bit of humour thrown in for good measure, please download it now... thank you :)

http://www.amazon.com/The-Charm-Tracy-Hefferon-ebook/dp/B00KWL9HVA

Book Promotion

The Charm is currently being featured on askdavid.com

If you've read the book and want to leave a review, please do. Thank you :)

http://askdavid.com/reviews/book/witchcraft/8709

Three FIVE STAR reviews already!

The Charm has received three five star reviews already! I am over the moon!

Quite a few people have contacted me to tell me they haven't got a Kindle and so therefore can't read the book. If you have an iPad, iPod, iPhone or an Android device, you can download the Kindle App for free in just a minute or so and then go on to download the book from there. So please do! 

Publishing an eBook is brilliant but also hard work, purely because there are so many books out there for sale and it's quite easy to become lost in a literary sea! I'm working hard to promote the book via promotional / review sites but if anyone out there has any advice for me, please get in touch!

The Charm is now available to buy!!

My debut novel, The Charm, is now available from the Kindle Store on Amazon Worldwide! I hope you really enjoy it and if you do, then please post a review afterwards! Thank you x

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Charm-Tracy-Hefferon-ebook/dp/B00KWL9HVA/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1402520994&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Charm

Goodbye to my best friend

My best friend, since the age of six years old, died yesterday. I am honoured to call her my best friend. We went through everything together and I have some amazing memories that I will treasure forever. She was funny, beautiful, clever, witty and always there. Thanks for being my best mate, Jacq. You were one in a million. I hope you're flying free somewhere amongst the clouds XXX

Down in the dumps

After sending the first three chapters of The Charm off to the agent of my dreams, then getting a letter back to say 'WE LOVE IT! CAN WE HAVE MORE?', to sending a further eight chapters, followed shortly by the entire manuscript – I really hoped I was in with a shot of getting published. I'd read so many times that most agents only take on one new writer a year – if you're lucky – and most debut novels never get published anyway, so when the agent of my dreams took The Charm the whole way, I thought I was going to be the one-in-a-million to strike it lucky first time.
But yesterday I received my first rejection and I have no shame in admitting it made me a bit weepy. It was a lovely rejection, mind you, and the agent of my dreams said, and I quote, 'I enjoyed it. I love your gorgeous, sumptuous descriptions and I like your writing', which was great to hear. But at the end of the day, a no is a no, however nicely put. Apparently, The Charm needs to be faster paced and there were doubts over the supernatural element to the storyline, which apparently may put some readers off. I always knew writing about witches and ghosts was a risk but I like witches and ghosts so I threw caution to the wind!
Having said that, I'm not disheartened. Far from it. I have learned a lot from writing The Charm and I am confident it will be published one day. I just need to find the right agent! And I do have a silver lining to my cloud. The agent of my dreams, who first pointed out that my writing style may be better suited to the YA market, wants to read The Boy Who Came To Play when it's finished... maybe it really is a case of if at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

Mad Week

I've been so busy this week I haven't had the time to sit and write for five days, which is very frustrating! But the sun is out and I've got my flip flops on so who cares! Here is an excerpt from The Charm, Chapter Two.

Angela – a plump, highlighted housewife who thrived on village gossip – leaned over the table towards her three friends, her blouse straining at the buttonholes, hardly able to contain her ample breasts and bulging belly.

‘Did you hear that?’ she hissed, taking a shifty glance over her shoulder to make sure the recipients of her impending lambasting were out of earshot.

‘Bits and pieces. What were they on about?’ asked Jan, jabbing her forefinger at minute crumbs of chips at the bottom of the bowl.

Jackie looked puzzled and started fiddling with her new phone.

‘Spells. Magic. Making charms. Burying them in the bloody garden!’

She took a hefty gulp of vodka and almost choked on an ice cube.

The other three women abruptly stopped what they were doing and stared at her agog, mouths gaping, eyes on stalks.

‘I always knew there was something funny about her from the florists! Nobody would listen to me though! And the other two she hangs around with… freaks, the bloody lot of them! Especially that one with the long white hair and funny teeth!’ Angela spluttered, her hands twitching nervously as she fiddled with the hemline of her navy cardigan.

‘Can you believe it, Liz? Can you actually bloody believe it? Here! In Casworth! I dread to think what the vicar’s going to say…’

She looked at the women, the fear of god instilled within her. They gawped back in disbelief, shaking their heads in unison. Her voice was low, rasping and barely audible as she whispered shakily.

‘Those three… those three, sat there just now as bold as brass… are bloody WITCHES!’

Graveyards

My favourite places, ever! Not that I want to end up in one. I want to be buried in a field and have a cedar tree planted on top of me. But I do love graveyards. They are so beautiful. The old cemetery in Loughborough is a favourite haunt (ahem!) and here is a photo I took there on Saturday. Graveyards feature in both The Charm and my latest novel... they are becoming something of a fixation :)

A productive weekend!

The Boy Who Came To Play – Chapter Five written, edited and awaiting approval by my two main readers! So far, so good and apparently it's 'brilliant'.

I'm finding writing in the first person really enjoyable and love the way I just write whatever comes into my head without having to think too much about story lines, plot and characters. In this book there are only two main characters, Loveday and Sam, so the conversation between them just flows. It's kind of like writing a diary or a running commentary on their lives. So different to my first novel!

The more I write, the more inclined I am to change the title of the book. Sam IS the boy who came to play but he's also so much more than that... hmmm... decisions, decisions :)

A poem... but not by me :)

I know this blog is supposed to be about my work, but my daughter (who is 8) wrote this poem and it's so lovely, I thought I would share it.

I had a horse and Caramel was her name,
She had a really shiny coat and a long and silky mane,
She loved to gallop across the fields, she loved to run and play,
But she was the only horse in the field,
Until Toffee arrived one day.

My lonely days are gone, she said,
Now I've found another horse,
As they ran off into the sunset,
And lived happily ever after, of course!

She's a natural!

An extract from The Charm, Chapter One

George unloaded the mower from the trailer that he towed from the rear of his battered old Land Rover and wheeled it down the side passageway, through the gate and into the garden. The grass was lush and long and green, but within ten minutes it resembled a miniature football pitch, resplendent in alternating pale and dark green stripes. He fetched his trowel and started turning over the earth in the borders, fishing out weeds and stray stones as he worked.

‘What the devil is that?’ he muttered as he forked over a clod of earth, revealing a pink, waxy, coin-shaped object from the soil.

He picked it up, wiped it on his trousers and studied it closely.

‘God only knows what that is,’ he said to himself, tossing the charm into the garden refuse sack, along with a pile of rotten leaves, grass cuttings and wilted flowers from a spring now past.

For a fleeting moment, a lonesome cloud drifted in front of the sun and the garden fell into shade. A gentle breeze whispered through the newly-emerged leaves of the ancient rowan trees that stood guard, like soldiers, around the perimeter of the garden. And precisely one mile away – across the fields of flourishing wheat, peas and barley – a certain Joseph Edward Hardy breathed in a long, deep lungful of sweet, fresh air. It felt good to be alive.

From Joe to Lorna

Don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me 
Anyone else but me, anyone else but me, no, no, no!
Don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me
Till I come marching home

Don't go walking down lovers lane with anyone else but me
Anyone else but me, anyone else but me, no, no, no!
Don't go walking down lovers lane with anyone else but me
Till I come marching home

5000 words...

This last week of the school holidays has been better than the first (I spent most of the first in bed ill) and I've had lots of opportunity to write. I've completed the first two chapters of The Boy Who Came To Play and have clocked up 5000 words already. Only another 45,000 to go...

I'm not following any schedule for this novel at all. I'll try to write as much as I can every day (quite tricky when you work full-time) and go with the flow. But a little part of me hopes to get it written before the summer holidays so that I can enjoy six weeks off work! Last year, even on holiday, I spent the whole summer on my laptop writing The Charm! But I loved every second of it :)

Chapter One complete!

I spent yesterday writing the first chapter of The Boy Who Came To Play and finished editing it today. I'm taking a very different approach with this novel as I did with The Charm. I planned The Charm meticulously and before I even wrote it, I knew what was going to happen in every single chapter, making it extremely straightforward to write. Of course, things changed and evolved as I wrote it and one very major twist in the story only sprang into my mind about ten chapters in, changing the dynamics of the book drastically.
But this time I am going in totally blind, feet first. I know the plot of the story, the beginning, the middle and the end but that is it. I've not even written a synopsis. I am also writing this book in the first person present tense, which is making it great fun to write, and to read back.
The main character is a thirteen-year-old girl and when I write, I almost become her. It helps having a fifteen-year-old daughter around the place. She's an endless source of amusement in our household!! She read the first chapter last night and loved it, saying some parts made her 'really laugh out loud'. Which is exactly what I wanted to happen.
My target reader is Young Adult – aged twelve to possibly fifteen – so this book is at opposite ends of the spectrum to The Charm, which falls into the Dark Romance genre and is most definitely for big people!

Welcome to my blog!

Hello! This is my very first blog on my brand new blog site!
I have wanted to write a book for as long as I can remember and have tried several times over the years but usually, due to lack of time, my projects have fallen by the wayside and got forgotten about.
But in June 2012, while I was driving back home from my lunch time stint at the village school, something happened to me which I couldn't explain... and so the seed was planted for my debut novel, The Charm.
After spending the summer going over and over the storyline in my head, I then spent several months writing a detailed synopsis, drafting the chapters and getting ready to actually write the book! In April 2013, I wrote the prelude and so it began.

Here is a passage from the prelude. I hope you enjoy it.

She looked out of the window and up at the sky. The moon above her, suspended in an inky infinity of stars, was getting larger by the day, moving from new moon to full moon. Tonight the moon was a waxing moon. Tonight was the perfect night for casting spells.

She moved into the centre of the room and walked slowly round in a full circle, sank to the floor and, with trembling hands, carefully lit the candle. She placed the rose petals on the china plate and unscrewed the lid from the bottle of lavender oil, tipping it forward slightly so that three precise drops spilled out and landed silently onto the petals.

‘Love’s truth burns bright, I welcome my soul-mate on this night’.

She tilted the burning candle so that hot, molten wax dripped onto the petals. Her delicate fingers moulded the warm wax, petals and oil together into a coin-shaped disc and when it was cold and hard, she pushed it underneath her pillow. And there it stayed for six more moons, until one cold, dark, frosty night in mid-November, when she retrieved it from the safety of her bed, tiptoed barefoot into the sparkling garden and buried it beneath a rose bush still in full bloom.