Teaser

People always ask 'what's your book about?'  I hate that question.  I do my best to avoid answering it.  My trick is to look to the floor, shuffle my feet and mumble something about it being 'not quite ready' or 'hard to explain in a couple of sentences.'

Wrong, wrong, wrong!!  Because if i can't explain it in a couple of sentences then how am i ever going to be able to pitch it to a potential Agent or Publisher.  And who's going to want to read something that 'hard.'

What it comes down to here is confidence in my story.  I sometimes worry that if i explain the premise to someone they will laugh, or pull a face, or worse still say 'hmm, have you thought of doing it like this instead?'  None of which is good for the writer's fractured ego. 

If you are in a position where you are not sure exactly what your story is about then don't panic just yet.  You may have finished your first draft and have a narrative with beginning, middle and end, but the true heart of your story has yet to reveal itself.  Go back to your central characters; examine them, question them, challenge everything they do because the real story comes from them.  What are their goals and can they achieve them all over the course of the story?  What relationships do they form and how do they develop and change?  What do they learn about themselves and those closest to them?

Now I'm going to attempt to answer the dreaded question.  This is a taster of the Book of Whispers...

Amy often wonders what life would be like if she had been bolder in her decisions.  Her father runs a small provincial museum on the verge of closure, unless he can find an attraction that will pull the crowds in.  Her History teacher, Mr Roberts, is desperate to find a cure for his son's rare illness. 

There is a Book, a mythical tome, old as time itself, which could hold the answers to their prayers.  But that is not all that it holds as Amy and Mr Roberts soon discover.  At its heart is an evil waiting to be released...