Esther Chilton

It is with great pleasure that I welcome the wonderful Jane Risdon to my Guest Writer Spot, with this super article about her incredible writing journey.

Decades of Patience.

This past week has seen the culmination of more than 5 years working on a novel with my co-author Christina Jones. It seems such a long time to work on one book when I notice other authors publishing two and sometimes three a year. I don’t think we are slow writers. I can work to a deadline and submit well before the designated time when writing on my own and have done so throughout this time. She can as well, and does. I don’t think it is because we are two very different authors either. Christina is an award-winning, best-welling author of what she calls ‘Bucolic Frolics,’ whereas I write crime and thrillers mostly, but I don’t think this has – or would – hold us or anyone back from a joint venture, especially when there is such a fabulous tale to tell.  For us it was easy to write together, but it has taken so long for several reasons. In fact it has taken decades for us to write together and for our baby to see the light of day.

Let’s go back to the beginning of our story first; when I say story I mean when Christina and I first ‘met,’ although not in person, in the last years of the Swinging Sixties. My boyfriend was in a band and she was a young rock/pop journalist who wrote short stories. Christina went to one of his gigs and his manager thought she would make a great fan-club secretary. We didn’t actually meet in person until some years in the future, but we formed a relationship via the band and their newsletters which endures today.

Fast forward many years from the 1960s and she is established as a successful writer and my then boyfriend, now husband, has left his band and he and I are working in the international music business – constantly travelling, living overseas most of the time – managing recording artists, singers, songwriters, and record producers as well as working with TV and the Movies in Hollywood. Time is not our only issue –Christina and I were rarely in the same country or on the same continent, and so the idea of writing together – something we have always wanted to do, if only we could think of something we both knew well enough – was a distant dream. An ambition.

We’d discuss it and pledge to do it ‘one day’ but it never happened. That is, until I moved house in 2012 and, during unpacking, found old diaries from when my husband’s band were touring, recording and enjoying getting zillions of fan-letters, which I found and loved reading – could even be a whole new book project if I ever run out of crime stories to write. I found tour schedules, venue names, and various bands who were on ‘the circuit at the same time. Posters from the 1960s with their recognisable bright colours and quirky print. So much material we’d forgotten about. I began to make notes in diary form, and before long a germ of a story began to emerge – about two girls, Renza and Stella, and Scott, lead guitarist in Narnia’s Children.

Christina was busy with various deadlines for her publisher but I had new-found time on my hands having – with my husband – began to off-load our artists and music commitments, so that we could both ‘get a life of our own,’ before it was too late.  And so Only One Woman began to take shape and I sent it via email, text, and Facebook messages – all very 21^st century – to Christina, and when she had time she wrote her parts too. Suddenly we had found what we both knew really well and could write about together: our shared music history and love for the 1960s.

Unknown to us both Christina and I shared the same publisher, and in 2014 when we felt we had completed the book she sent it off to our publisher, Accent Press. Great news, they wanted to publish it later in the year and so we waited to be asked to begin edits with our editor. But it never happened – our editor had left soon after getting our MS. So the publication date was moved to February 2015, then May 2015, and November. We waited and got on with other projects whilst reassured the book was coming out, in February 2016. We discussed edits with our editor, but she left too and so the book was moved back to May 2016, and then another editor left. We waited and got on with other projects – patience is something we writers have to possess in shed-loads. A bit like making a record in so many ways, and dealing with record companies – another long story one day perhaps.

Another date in February 2017 was set and we got down to some hard work on edits from our new editor and then the date was moved to May. That was all right because we had been asked to write another 30,000 words by our next editor – yes another one – who loved the book and wanted more. It was already 130,000 words when we first submitted way back in 2014. No worries, Christina and I began to write more diary entries for Stella and Renza. Only One Woman was rapidly becoming War and Peace.

But, you can guess what is coming – yes – that editor left as well and for a while nothing happened and then another editor stepped into the breach but by this time May 2017 was not possible and so we worked hard, got the book completed – all 772 pages, 160,000 words, before the book was printed – and we were given 23^rd November 2017 as our publication date, which has just been and gone last week. And yes, reader, Only One Woman was published, and to really fab reviews so far.

So, for those who are working hard on a novel and thinking that once a publisher is on board it is all plain sailing – nope, not quite. I can honestly say the hardest work has been doing promotion. It is fun but there are only so many ways to tell your story, engage new readers, and take them on your journey with you. I love writing about our writing Only One Woman but it has to be the most challenging part of being a writer. That and delving deep inside oneself to find that evaporating well of patience. But it has been worth it.

Only One Woman has taken decades to come to fruition. We cannot believe we have made it happen at last, all 160,000 words and 486 pages now it is in print. And in case you are wondering about the title – it is named after The Marbles hit of 1968 – Only One Woman, sung by Graham Bonnet – later singer with Rainbow – and his cousin Trevor Gordon, and it was written by The Bee Gees.

Jane Risdon

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