How not to write a blog..by Sheila Claydon

 

Find my books here

I usually think about my Books We Love blog a week or so before I write it. Will I write about something that has happened in my life since I last blogged, or will it be about writing itself, or about one of my books. Over the years, like the rest of my BWL fellow authors, I have written about many different things. Today, though, is different.

For the very first time I missed my deadline of making sure the blog was ready to post at least one day before its due publication date. My excuse is that having had my son and family who live in Singapore staying for 5 weeks (wonderful), followed by contracting what is referred to as 'the hundred day cough' over here in the UK (horrible and debilitating), my mind was on other things until I saw the date! 

Anyway, here I am, writing this in a hurry so it makes it to the blog site hours, not days late! 

My book The Hollywood Collection was first published in the 1980s under a pseudonym, as were several of my other books,  Bouquet of Thorns, Golden Girl (my first ever book) and Empty Hearts. I was, of course, thrilled, but when, a few years ago the copyright returned to me, I was even more thrilled to discover that I could republish them as Vintage romances with Books We Love. 

I had to re-read them and tweak a few things but they remain much the same, so if you are interested in what life was like in the '60s (Golden Girl) and then through the '70s and '80s, before cell phones, before the Internet, before mass tourism when London and England were quieter places, and when Russia (Empty Hearts) was a very different country, then these books will tell you. The Hollywood Collection imagines a very different America too. 

I worked hard to get my facts right but research was so different then. The National Geographic Magazine was one of my main sources for books set in other countries, as was the local library and newspapers. I also leant heavily on personal experience. Nowadays anything can be discovered at the click of a button, which actually is pretty wonderful. 

Writing the books was different too. Using a portable typewriter to produce a top copy and two flimsies using carbon paper, it took a lot longer. Mistakes had to be painted out with Tippex, or rubbed out with a special typewriter eraser, neither of which produced a very pristine copy, so often retyping was the only option. Then the manuscript had to be printed, loosely secured with an elastic band and boxed up before being sent to the publisher, who might just send it back asking for alterations! It was arduous but worth it if a book was published. Some of my early ones were not!

Re-reading them was fun though. There were so many reminders of my life when I was much, much younger. Nowadays I am vintage too. Hopefully, like my vintage books, I have stood the test of time!