On Waiting and Writing Companions

Waiting is something an aspiring author does a lot. And I mean, A LOT!! Whether we want to or not.
You have to have the patience of a saint (or three or four), because you’re always waiting to hear back from agents and editors and it all takes sooooooooo long! Or does it just seem like that to me? Unfortunately I’m not, by nature, a patient person.
Sending off submissions is, of course, a necessary evil. If you don’t send anything out, you don’t have the hope that something will come back with a yes, which is the holy grail of any aspiring author. And as long as there is some hope, you can keep on writing and telling yourself you’ll be a published author one day.

When it comes to patience, I guess we can learn a thing or two from our four-legged writing companions. Like Kate Hardy (see her post on Writing Companions here), I have a canine friend to inspire me and make me take a break occasionally. Well, actually I have three (see photo), but the youngest, the black one, is my constant shadow. He is quite possibly the naughtiest dog ever – he’s never yet done a single thing I’ve asked him to unless he was bribed with lashings of ham – but he keeps me company all day every day so I forgive him. He somehow manages to make himself comfortable by curling up underneath my chair, despite the fact that it’s one of those typical office chairs with four wheels. And he never complains about having to wait an extra ten minutes for his walk, just keeps reminding me until I give up struggling with my characters and take him out instead.

Luckily for me, some of the waiting was worth it in the end and my novella “Once Bitten, Twice Shy” is out this week.

So now it’s just back to waiting to hear about my breakthrough novel then ...

Christina Courtenay (Pia Fenton), “Once Bitten, Twice Shy”, My Weekly Pocket Novel No.1690
“Life will never be the same again for bookish Ianthe, plucked out of the shadow of her much-feted sister by the notorious Marquess – but does he love her?”