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Sunday 4 August 2013

People's Friend serial 'The Lemon Grove'

Phew, at long, long last, my serial 'The Lemon Grove' is appearing in The People's Friend. This has been a long and protracted birth but it is wonderful finally to see all those ideas come together on the printed page. What is huge fun is seeing how the artist has interpreted my characters. This link to the People's Friend blog gives an idea of how artists approach a story. They've entitled the blog post 'Talking Pictures', highly appropriate as they can so often bring a story alive. When I write, I sometimes base looks on people I know, and as the illustrations continue (Week 3 of the 8 part serial is out this week) my hero is looking more and more like the Italian friend I thought of while I was writing my hero Antonio. I didn't get to speak to the illustrator, it was the editor who made the decisions about the artwork. I'm really pleased with the work done and hope the artist enjoyed painting the characters as much as I enjoyed writing them. I am now working on ideas to pitch a further serial taking one of the minor characters, Mel
and giving her a story of her own. There'll be some adventure, lots of romance and some crime.... it takes a lot of plot to fill 8 episodes with cliffhangers at the end of each. So far I have a beginning and an end, it's just the middle I have to work on! I hope anyone else who's tried for a serial has had positive results.

10 comments:

Wendy's Writing said...

I am so impressed that you have written an eight part serial, Cara. I have just finished the first instalment of a short serial which I am waiting to here about and I found the extra three thousand words I had to write for that instalment, a challenge to say the least!(I am now having the nail biting wait to see if they like it) Incidentally, it was your post about writing serials, that prompted me to stop procrastinating and have a go. I read the first part of The Lemon Grove - it's really atmospheric. Well done.

Cara Cooper said...

Thank you Wendy, and congratulations on your short story successes. Let us know how you get on with your serial submission. I wish you the best of luck!

Chris Stovell said...

Wow! Congratulations and hugely well done! It's interesting that every writing medium presents its own challenges! All require hard work and determination.

Patsy said...

Congratulations, Cara.

Oooops - just started typing the verification word in here which wasn't good as it started dumb ...

Cara Cooper said...

The verification things are a real bind Patsy, half the time I can't see what those smudgy letters and numbers are to save my life! Thanks Chris, all forms of writing as you say have their easy and hard bits. I'm working on a full length novel at the moment and was going great guns until I hit 50k and then it just stalled. It's incredibly difficult getting back into it but I shall persist.

Rosemary Gemmell said...

It all looks great, Cara - well done on having the serial in print!

Nas said...

Wow! Congratulations Cara! And well done you! So exciting!

Cara Cooper said...

Thanks Rosemary and Nas, interesting to see all your activity on your blogs too!

Unknown said...

Congratulations, Cara, on the serial and the new one you are writing. It's good to see you again on the blog.

Cara Cooper said...

Thank you Sharon, it's great to be back again. I shall try and blog more regularly in the future!