Only Time Will Tell

Blessed relief. I completed the last few minor changes to Only Time Will Tell and sent it back to my publisher this morning. On October 1st, I will receive the proof copy, which I'll take to Majorca and read through slowly before having to part with it for the final time. After that, it will be taken away from me, and I won't see it again until the first copy arrives on my desk several weeks later. The whole process will have taken ten months, and about a 1,000 hours. As it's the first volume of five (The Clifton Chronicles), it's been a massive challenge, bearing in mind it's the prelude to the other four. Although my thoughts have already turned to volume two, Above and Beyond, I confess that the thinking process won't really kick in until I've read Only Time Will Tell for the last time. My publishers have shown me a dozen ideas for the jacket design, which have already divided the amateurs from the professionals, and at some point I hope to show you two of the best, so I can learn your opinion.

Publication date is scheduled for May 20th, and I begin writing Above and Beyond on January 1st, 2011. Ironically, I will have finished the first draft of the second volume, just as the first volume hits the bookshops. So although I have little idea at the moment as to what's going to be in volume two, when the book comes out in May I'll have finished the first draft and will by then know exactly what's going to happen to Harry, Maisie, Giles, Emma, and Sebastian. One of the joys of being a story-teller is that, just like the reader, I start volume two not sure where it will take me. HELP!