I wonder if other writers reread their own work? Just recently I’ve been looking back at the various novels I wrote before I started my Thomas Radwinter series. I’d never intended to write more than one novel about my characters – in fact, I remember an American friend asking if I intended a sequel after I published my first novel. I was so thrilled that she had become so engaged with my characters that she wanted to know what happened to them after the end of the book. That was “Farholm” set on an imaginary island of that name. The main character, Deke was going there to find out more about her late husband whose death had revealed some unwelcome and shocking facts about the man he was. On the ferry going over she meets someone who is on a similar quest – to feel closer to someone very dear to him. There’s murder and mystery, kidnap and violence, and an attempted murder when a dense sea fog descends on the island. The answer to my friend was that no, I wasn’t going to write a sequel, and I didn’t – well, not for publication – I did continue to write about the lives of Deke and Michael but only for myself.
I started off here by asking if writers reread their own work – their novels and poetry, their works of non-fiction. I have occasionally reread “Farholm” and some of my other books. Some I only dip into, some I rather neglect. I do look again at my Radwinter stories when I’m starting a new one, just to make sure I get the ‘voice’ right, and to check on the complicated family history! Unusually, I’ve been deep reading one of my early books “Loving Judah”. Judah was the stepson of Aislin, who tragically died on a gap year in India, and – not unexpectedly, much as it affects her, it has a far deeper and more terrible impact on her husband, Peter. He implicitly blames her for “encouraging” Judah to travel, and is completely indifferent to her grief and suffering. Fortunately, her oldest, closest and dearest friend, Sandi comes to stay which helps Aislin, but makes no difference to Peter. Sandi leaves, to return to Australia, via the USA, and Aislin is struggling, almost broken not just by the loss of Judah, but by Pete’s antipathy. Trying to keep their life normal in their wreck of a house – they were in the middle of renovating when Judah left, she goes into the small local Yorkshire town to buy groceries. In the carpark she sees a man who has been mugged, and imagining Judah alone and in distress, she comes to the stranger’s aid.
For some reason, who knows what, I’ve been hooked on this book and dipped into it again, reread whole chapters, followed Aislin’s story, and become completely caught up in the tragic dilemma enmeshing her. It was one of the first books I wrote when I escaped work, and I published it, first as an e-book, in 2012. My writing is very different now – and I can’t imagine writing a book like “Loving Judah” now because I have changed as well as my writing!
Just in case you might like to dip into it, here’s a link:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/LOVING-JUDAH-LOIS-ELSDEN/dp/B08RLHZHD8
It’s also still available as an e-book.
Lois Elsden 