The book I'm working on at the moment is set in Jersey during the Occupation and researching it has been great fun. Although there are constant reminders from those days - walls along the beaches, countless bunkers and concrete towers across the coast and even in fields - I thought I'd pretty much covered sources for research.
Then Rob mentioned that he had some papers he'd collected years ago stored in his mother's loft and these are some of them. Now I have access to newspapers of that time showing the news - obviously - but also adverts and other smaller stories of the day. What a find!
The downside is that although I'd completed this book a couple of years ago, I've now decided to give it a major rewrite, which has meant changing one of the character's stories almost completely. So, despite taking this week off work to concentrate on it, as well as working on this book over the past month, I know that I'm not going to be able to submit a full manuscript for this years RNA NWS. I've never submitted a 'partial' before, but this will be the third book I've rewritten this year, so I'm trying not to be too hard on myself about it. I can't help feeling frustrated though.
Right, I now need to stop fretting about it and get on with the rewrite. Good luck to all my other NWS colleagues who are typing furiously to get their books completed by the 31st August deadline.
