A new novel for a new year

And so, in the days between Christmas and the dawn of 2012, I reread my second novel and revised it (yes, again, it is truly necessary and all part of the work of a writer) and then, on Sunday, 8 January, 2012, I submitted it to my agent. At lunchtime, by email, if you want to know.

It is now being read and then it will be submitted to publishers so, by the time I write my next column, there will, perhaps, be a result. I will keep you posted.

And my resolution for 2012, and for every subsequent year, is to write; to write fiction specifically and, most importantly, to write from my heart. For if I only write from my head things, writing-wise, go wrong, or at least they take a very long time to get right. As Robert Frost said,

No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.
No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader.

And tears and surprise and laughter and love do not come form the head.

And now for the thing I wish I had made:

The Silver Casket by William Nicholson

Isn’t it utterly beautiful? And absolutely astonishing? How DOES William Nicholson make us know that all we have to do is reach into the picture and take out the casket and see what else it would reflect? I would love to have made this painting.