Why is a first novel different?
I’ve been walking on air for the past few weeks as my first novel, Recognitions, will be out later this month. This will be my fourth published book, but because it is a novel, it feels as if it is the first. Why is that? Perhaps because I’ve worked on it for a few years, perhaps because it is the first of a trilogy and I am now working on the sequel. Maybe because birthing a novel is the closest thing I know to birthing a baby – it might come out ugly, noisy or far from being perfect- but I’ve created it and I will always love it. Or at least the characters populating its pages, these characters who now feel as if they’re good friends.
Will others like this novel, will readers even ‘get’ it? It has themes such as the role of people we meet in our lives, past lives, Asperger’s syndrome and fencing. It is not a great masterpiece, but it’s a story that urged to be told, and so I did.
I would love to hear from you what think about my new ‘baby’, because publishing a first novel IS different. Not sure why – it just is.