Becoming a speed demon

All the good stuff people want to nick from my car

 

There were lots of things I didn’t expect to happen as a result of me getting a publishing contract.

I didn’t expect loads of money. I didn’t expect people to recognise me in the street. I didn’t expect to be invited to glamorous parties or to have gorgeous men throwing themselves at my feet.

Lucky, that.                              

What I really, really didn’t expect, however, was that my car insurance would go up by £11.55.

£11.55! I used to be a sedate office administrator and now I’m that most frightening of liabilities – a writer. 

What amazing logic – my car insurance has gone up because I now spend 99.9% of my time not driving. It’s gone up because I never, ever take my car out during the rush hour. I never have to sit in a traffic jam reading a book. I never need to get anywhere by a certain time. I have the same vehicle, another year’s no claims bonus, and am still neither particularly old nor particularly young, but all of a sudden I’m much more unpredictable on the roads.

Is it just that the image of ‘being a writer’ implies a hectic life of celebrity debauchery, with a glass of champagne always in the cup-holder?  Maybe it means writers are more likely to be a bit unhinged, or to maintain such a level of inspired dreaminess that we don’t notice mundane things like other road users. Or perhaps it’s because we carry around manuscripts of such genius that people are always trying to nick them so they can send them to a publisher and make billions.

 Time for a nice cup of hot chocolate while I contemplate my new level of dangerousness.

My First Post

What if the novelty wears off?  That’s my first thought as I arrive in the blogosphere. I’ve been telling myself not to start a blog – it seems too much like hard work to me. What will I post? Why should anyone care? After enjoying a stint on Picnic Publishing’s  blog, however, I realised that I probably can think of a few things to say after all, so I’m going to go for it.

It’s unlikely anyone will be reading this unless they know me already, but if you’ve stumbled in accidentally, here’s a bit about me: my name’s Caroline Rance and I’m a writer excitedly awaiting the publication of my first historical novel in March next year. The book is set in the mid-1700s, it’s called Kill-Grief and it’s about a young woman who, compelled by desperate circumstances, has to take the job no one else wants – that of a hospital nurse. It’s a dark, gritty love story, and you can find out more on my main website, www.carolinerance.co.uk 

I’m not going to use this blog to tell the world about my own life, because – well – I don’t do much. Writing is fairly solitary and sedentary, so most of the time I’m just sitting here tapping away at the keyboard. I also have a toddler to keep entertained, plus three horses and a mutt to look after, so any spare moments of peace from that lot and I’m probably eating or asleep.

Not much bloggable inspiration there, so instead, I’m going to write about:

• What it’s like waiting for a first novel to be published.
• General thoughts about writing and getting on with my new book, For the Love of Freaks (that’s just a working title – in fact, I only made it up just now).
• Stuff about history, especially the history of medicine and surgery.
• The occasional review of a book I’ve really enjoyed.

So that’s that for now…