Kitty Johnson's Blog - Posts Tagged "prickly-company"
Editing Caves and Meerkat Tendencies
It’s a sunny morning as I emerge, blinking and bewildered, from my editing cave.
Last time I posted, I think I may have told you I didn’t have much to do to my 2025 book. Ha! I lied. If not to you, then certainly to myself. My editor, Tiffany Yates Martin, consistently asked me to dig deeper in her notes on my manuscript, so for the past month that’s what I’ve done, submerging myself in my characters and their worlds, living their lives, seeing through their eyes. I’ve been vague and unfocused in ‘real life,’ forgetting to do things, staring blankly, popping up only now and then like a meerkat checking for trouble.
Now my edits are submitted, and I have a long, nerve-wracking week ahead waiting to see how they’re received. I hope Tiffany, and Alicia, my commissioning editor at Lake Union, like what I’ve done. I’m vulnerable because digging deeper requires you to dig deeper inside yourself. Like an actor, to think, when have I felt this way? To find ways to express those feelings that don’t involve too many dripping tears - show, don’t tell!
Digging deeper means doing your level best not to think about people you know reading your words after they’re published. Although fortunately neither of my two brothers - who have always delighted in making fun of me (in a loving way, you understand…) will ever read one of my novels, so that’s one embarrassment less. But there are the members of my book clubs, my women’s Institute groups, my ex students, the people who live in my street, etc, etc.
Oh well, it’s done now, and this morning all the words I’ve written are still spiraling around in my head and I’m really missing my characters. There’s always a void after I’ve finished working on something; a slight sadness when really I ought to be celebrating meeting a deadline, making something I hope and feel is gripping and moving.
Still, there was an effective distraction at the weekend when I went to a local hedgehog rescue centre with my partner for a photo shoot. A UK magazine is going to be running a feature close to the publication of Prickly Company about my volunteering work as a driver for Hodemedods Hedgehog Support and asked for photos. Jermy the rescue hedgehog - with a little encouragement from Katie, his carer - was happy to oblige. It was a rare sunny day, the blossom was out on the cherry tree and it matched my hair. It wasn’t difficult to smile, even though Jermy was the prickliest hedgehog I’ve ever held, hence the gardening gloves. Ouch!
Last time I posted, I think I may have told you I didn’t have much to do to my 2025 book. Ha! I lied. If not to you, then certainly to myself. My editor, Tiffany Yates Martin, consistently asked me to dig deeper in her notes on my manuscript, so for the past month that’s what I’ve done, submerging myself in my characters and their worlds, living their lives, seeing through their eyes. I’ve been vague and unfocused in ‘real life,’ forgetting to do things, staring blankly, popping up only now and then like a meerkat checking for trouble.
Now my edits are submitted, and I have a long, nerve-wracking week ahead waiting to see how they’re received. I hope Tiffany, and Alicia, my commissioning editor at Lake Union, like what I’ve done. I’m vulnerable because digging deeper requires you to dig deeper inside yourself. Like an actor, to think, when have I felt this way? To find ways to express those feelings that don’t involve too many dripping tears - show, don’t tell!
Digging deeper means doing your level best not to think about people you know reading your words after they’re published. Although fortunately neither of my two brothers - who have always delighted in making fun of me (in a loving way, you understand…) will ever read one of my novels, so that’s one embarrassment less. But there are the members of my book clubs, my women’s Institute groups, my ex students, the people who live in my street, etc, etc.
Oh well, it’s done now, and this morning all the words I’ve written are still spiraling around in my head and I’m really missing my characters. There’s always a void after I’ve finished working on something; a slight sadness when really I ought to be celebrating meeting a deadline, making something I hope and feel is gripping and moving.
Still, there was an effective distraction at the weekend when I went to a local hedgehog rescue centre with my partner for a photo shoot. A UK magazine is going to be running a feature close to the publication of Prickly Company about my volunteering work as a driver for Hodemedods Hedgehog Support and asked for photos. Jermy the rescue hedgehog - with a little encouragement from Katie, his carer - was happy to oblige. It was a rare sunny day, the blossom was out on the cherry tree and it matched my hair. It wasn’t difficult to smile, even though Jermy was the prickliest hedgehog I’ve ever held, hence the gardening gloves. Ouch!
Published on April 16, 2024 00:38
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Tags:
editing, hedgehog, prickly-company
Eeeek! 12 Days Until Publication Day!
I've just emerged from my editing cave to the reality that PRICKLY COMPANY will be out in the world in 12 days! I knew somewhere in the back of my mind that time was ticking down of course, but I've been so immersed in rewrites of my 2025 novel - currently called CLOSEST KEPT, though I doubt the title will stick - that I pushed thoughts of launch day from my mind. Mostly. (I did emerge from time to time for exciting interviews with various publications and to write a hedgehog inspired short story).
But now my edits have been sent off - until they return no doubt for a bit more work - and launch day is catapulting towards me. It's very exciting. Nerve-wracking too!
I've already received 68 early review of PRICKLY COMPANY on Goodreads, and they've mostly been very favourable. Thank you so much to everyone who's taken the time to read and review. It's hugely reassuring to see that the majority of readers 'get' and enjoyed my book.
So much soul-searching, creativity, hopes and dreams go into a novel, and then it's time to pass it over to you, the reader. I can't wait. Not just because I'm eager for you to meet my characters and I hope you'll enjoy the emotional roller coaster of the read, but also because I hope the book helps to raise awareness about hedgehogs and, if you live in a country where they're a native species, the ways we can help them to thrive. Hurrah!
But now my edits have been sent off - until they return no doubt for a bit more work - and launch day is catapulting towards me. It's very exciting. Nerve-wracking too!
I've already received 68 early review of PRICKLY COMPANY on Goodreads, and they've mostly been very favourable. Thank you so much to everyone who's taken the time to read and review. It's hugely reassuring to see that the majority of readers 'get' and enjoyed my book.
So much soul-searching, creativity, hopes and dreams go into a novel, and then it's time to pass it over to you, the reader. I can't wait. Not just because I'm eager for you to meet my characters and I hope you'll enjoy the emotional roller coaster of the read, but also because I hope the book helps to raise awareness about hedgehogs and, if you live in a country where they're a native species, the ways we can help them to thrive. Hurrah!
Published on May 16, 2024 01:19
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Tags:
hedgehogs, prickly-company, release-day
Stop, Start
My favourite way to write fiction is to dive in and keep writing (or swimming) until I reach the end of a first draft. I don’t even stop if I come across something that needs some research - I just type research bla, bla, bla here and press on. That continuity, when you’re fully immersed in your story, is golden. The characters begin to speak to you. You can see the stepping stones ahead. You start to make connections and to see ways you can pull threads together.
Of course, the first draft is a total mess - something I didn’t realise that when I first typed the words THE END. A first draft is your raw material, to be shaped into something that looks like something, not to be sent joyously off into the world straight away the way I did back then. You can’t see what needs work at first - you’re too close to it. It’s vital to leave your words to brew, but it’s not easy to do this. I my opinion though, some distance is essential.
In all my years of writing, I’ve only ever submitted completed novels to editors. (Of course they still needed work - the editing process is lengthy, with many layers).
But this time around, with my current work in progress, that valuable period of continuity - of getting immersed in my draft day after day, and week after week, just hasn’t been possible. I’ve submitted a partial - which had to be very polished - and a synopsis, while much of the rest of the story doesn’t yet exist. I’ve also been doing developmental edits on my previous novel - Closest Kept - (out May 2025), and I’m shortly about to start copy edits. I’ve been busy with publicity activities for Prickly Company as well, including taking part in a panel - Behind Closed Doors - at the Primadonna Festival last weekend. This was a great experience - my sincere thanks to Winnie Li for her excellent interviewing skills, and to Bee Rowlatt, author of the excellent One Woman Crimewave, who appeared on the panel with me.
I may also have gone against my usual habit of putting aside research until later by making the most of the opportunity to perform stand-up comedy as part of the Make Primadonna Laugh event. Well, I like a challenge. It says so in my bio, so it must be true.
I’m definitely not complaining about all the different hats I’ve had to wear lately - it’s such a privileged position to be in, and I’m thrilled to be where I am today.
But characters, don’t think that just because I’ve been distracted I’ve forgotten all the trouble I’m going to get you into. The emotional roller coaster I’m going to make you all ride. It’s coming for you, sooner than you think.
Hold on tight!
Of course, the first draft is a total mess - something I didn’t realise that when I first typed the words THE END. A first draft is your raw material, to be shaped into something that looks like something, not to be sent joyously off into the world straight away the way I did back then. You can’t see what needs work at first - you’re too close to it. It’s vital to leave your words to brew, but it’s not easy to do this. I my opinion though, some distance is essential.
In all my years of writing, I’ve only ever submitted completed novels to editors. (Of course they still needed work - the editing process is lengthy, with many layers).
But this time around, with my current work in progress, that valuable period of continuity - of getting immersed in my draft day after day, and week after week, just hasn’t been possible. I’ve submitted a partial - which had to be very polished - and a synopsis, while much of the rest of the story doesn’t yet exist. I’ve also been doing developmental edits on my previous novel - Closest Kept - (out May 2025), and I’m shortly about to start copy edits. I’ve been busy with publicity activities for Prickly Company as well, including taking part in a panel - Behind Closed Doors - at the Primadonna Festival last weekend. This was a great experience - my sincere thanks to Winnie Li for her excellent interviewing skills, and to Bee Rowlatt, author of the excellent One Woman Crimewave, who appeared on the panel with me.
I may also have gone against my usual habit of putting aside research until later by making the most of the opportunity to perform stand-up comedy as part of the Make Primadonna Laugh event. Well, I like a challenge. It says so in my bio, so it must be true.
I’m definitely not complaining about all the different hats I’ve had to wear lately - it’s such a privileged position to be in, and I’m thrilled to be where I am today.
But characters, don’t think that just because I’ve been distracted I’ve forgotten all the trouble I’m going to get you into. The emotional roller coaster I’m going to make you all ride. It’s coming for you, sooner than you think.
Hold on tight!
Published on August 02, 2024 09:51
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Tags:
editing, prickly-company, primadonna-festival, writing
Happy Birthday, Prickly!
Last week marked one year since my novel PRICKLY COMPANY was published. The time seems to have flashed past since I wrote this story about a community trying to make life easier for local hedgehogs and dealing with the dramas that take place as a result!
When I set out to write Prickly, I’d just read Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere. I loved that story for so many reasons, but one thing I found really inspiring was the way that Shaker Heights, the setting for the book, was almost seen from above at times - as if the people and events were like ants, and then we zoomed in closer and they became people. Shaker Heights and all it stood for was like a character in itself.
I decided I wanted to do something similar with PRICKLY COMPANY; that I would show the reader the community in its entirety - people, hedgehogs and all - and then swoop down into - mainly human- viewpoints. As I wrote the novel, the occasional hedgehog perspective crept in too. I wanted these perspectives to be many things - sometimes amusing and entertaining, occasionally sad and moving, but also educational. I had things to say about how hedgehogs live and how human habits affect them, and I wanted to tell the reader about these things in a way that was part of the story.
I had a lot to say about people too, and the way that, all too often, we keep our pain and struggles hidden from each other when, possibly, if we were more open, we might get help and understanding from the most unexpected sources.
It was a lot of fun to write.
So, Happy Birthday, Prickly!
When I set out to write Prickly, I’d just read Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere. I loved that story for so many reasons, but one thing I found really inspiring was the way that Shaker Heights, the setting for the book, was almost seen from above at times - as if the people and events were like ants, and then we zoomed in closer and they became people. Shaker Heights and all it stood for was like a character in itself.
I decided I wanted to do something similar with PRICKLY COMPANY; that I would show the reader the community in its entirety - people, hedgehogs and all - and then swoop down into - mainly human- viewpoints. As I wrote the novel, the occasional hedgehog perspective crept in too. I wanted these perspectives to be many things - sometimes amusing and entertaining, occasionally sad and moving, but also educational. I had things to say about how hedgehogs live and how human habits affect them, and I wanted to tell the reader about these things in a way that was part of the story.
I had a lot to say about people too, and the way that, all too often, we keep our pain and struggles hidden from each other when, possibly, if we were more open, we might get help and understanding from the most unexpected sources.
It was a lot of fun to write.
So, Happy Birthday, Prickly!
Published on June 02, 2025 10:40
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Tags:
happy-birthday, kitty-johnson, prickly-company