The Story of My Next Book...

Where have I been most of the summer? Not lounging on a tropical beach or hanging out in Parisian hotspots, I’m afraid. But I can’t complain. I’ve been doing something else I love: finishing up the edits on my next novel and a draft of the following one. 

But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. I’ll keep the subject of the latter a secret for now. However, the next one is getting close to announcement stage, and that’s pretty exciting. I can tell you that it’s called SECRETS OF A NOSE and is the story of a perfumer, set in lovely Grasse, France. This labor of love started many years ago and went through countless rewrites as I shed blood sweat and tears over it. (OK, maybe not much blood—unless you count a few paper cuts.)

I set the original manuscript aside for a long while, thinking the novel might never see the light of day. The problem was, I knew I had to start over. From scratch. And that terrified me. After all of that work, the idea of going back to page one was nauseating. What if I made the same mistakes again?

And then one day, my mother urged me to continue in that way only she could. She made me believe in this story again. A few months after that conversation, cancer took my mother from me, but her words, as always, remained. I started over. I started many things over, including SECRETS OF A NOSE. I traveled to Grasse for research, I studied up on perfumery, and I liberated the story that had been trapped inside my mind.

Now, I approach the finish line of publication with more serenity than I could have imagined. Sure, there are the usual fears: What if everyone hates it? What if there’s a—shudder—typo somewhere? Did I let it go too soon? Was there more I could have done? No, I tell myself. I have to ignore that writer’s instinct of endless rewriting. I have to listen to that inner voice that says “it’s time.” 

So here, I am… ready. Watch this space for more about SECRETS OF A NOSE.