Tuesday 5 August 2008

Veiled Dreams

I started reading the final proofs for this yesterday. I’m actually rather pleased with it, although here is the usual problem of wanting to alter last minute bits, and of course it’s actually too late for that.

I finished Veiled Dreams almost exactly a year ago. it was the project I took on after I’d completed my PhD, whilst I was waiting for the viva, and then afterwards.

And it is good. I’m even thinking that it is slightly better that the one I’m currently working on. That is a little disturbing. I suppose I should remember that I haven’t finished editing Spooked.

Both of these are young adult texts and they do contain some quite explicit details about sex. I feel this is a little daring, but I do get sick of it being glossed over in much of the material I read. So, I feel justified in including it, though worry about readers’ reaction, and perhaps more importantly, the reaction of those gate-keeping adults.

I think one of the reasons I like Veiled Dreams better is that I am more in love with Jan, the boyfriend of the main character, than I am with Tom, the main character in Spooked. We do get Jan’s point of view, and we are touched by how much he cares. However, most of the time we get Christina’s and we’re actually then drawn into loving Jan more because she keeps getting it wrong. She’s feisty and passionate, so we do like her too.

Tom? A good egg, generally, touchingly in love with Amanda. But de we get close enough to her? It’s perhaps something which will be more firmly there after I’ve completed all of the editing.

So, is this an alarming winding down or is it proof of the importance of editing?

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