Tara Moore  is an international author who lives locally and has several novels to her name including RSVP, Blue-eyed Girl and the recent psychological thriller best-seller, Fade to Dead.  I am very lucky to call her my friend. As well as being a brilliant writer, she is also an awesome photographer and if she ever needed another career, this would be it.  I've asked and received permission from her to use her one of her photos of Ramsgate as the background for the Gristle's Revenge cover.

I thought you might like to see what I have in mind. My favourite is the one with the lighthouse in the foreground. It already looks like a book cover on its own, but as Onk and Harty go there to seek out Tenamunday I thought this might make a great cover.

Its gone! This afternoon the novel that is Gristle's Revenge left my hands at 88,000+ words..

​It's with the copy editor now, and I sit biting my nails that it won't need a major re-write.

​Looking back, WOTW took 7 versions before it reached this stage and it was edited three times by various professionals. Aqua only had one proof edit after five versions. GR has gone through 3 versions. 

​I will be concentrating on my cover for this book and the illustrations, during half term. I think Ramsgate harbour is going to win the cover image with several characters on it. Maybe Tena, Malachi (who you've yet to meet) along with Onk of course.

I'm going to mock up a few to begin with and you might see them here, so feel free to comment.

​Once editing is completed and the cover etc underwayI'll be moving to formatting. I'm thinking maybe publish in Halloween like last time. Was that really 3 years ago?  31st Oct 2015. Scary, in more ways than one.

Sneaky peek of the first draft blurb for you.

GRISTLE’S REVENGE
WHEN GRISTLE IS THROWN THROUGH A TEAR IN THE DIMENSIONS, SHE IS NOT A HAPPY WITCH AND VOWS TO GET HER REVENGE.

​THEN  HARTY'S DAUGHTER GOES MISSING AND HARTY, ALONG WITH HIS BEST FRIEND, ONK THE CITY TROLL, BEGIN THEIR QUEST TO FIND HER.
WILL OUR UNLIKELY HEROES SAVE HARTY’S DAUGHTER IN TIME, OR WILL THEY END UP IN A WHOLE LOAD OF TROUBLE OF THEIR OWN?
ONE THING IS SURE - NOTHING GOOD IS EVER EASY

​Look out for more dabbling next time.

Coming to the end of my read through for Gristle's Revenge.
I wanted to try and achieve the same word count as WOTW.
I was worried I wouldn't make it. I didn't want to short-change readers who purchase it in the future (fingers crossed) and I also wanted the two books to look good side by side if folk bought both (in my dreams).

​I was up to 74,000 when I began the read-through and I thought, "I'm never going to do it. How can I find 8,000 words just reading the novel through, there can't be much that needs changing or tweaking after four draft versions?

Shows what a big headed idiot I am! I've 40 pages left to read and the novel is at 87,000 words. I've written 8,000 words more just by reading 240 pages. One step closer to publishing. Should have it finished this week ready for my copy editor to 'enjoy'.

​I've also written the list of the 26 illustrations I need for the chapter headings and I was wondering when to start on these. I need to consider a layout for the cover too. Something along the lines of WOTW.
​ I thought I might have the background as either the Viking ship on Pegwell or a view of Ramsgate harbour.

​Comments always welcome.