Caro Geelen

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How to write a Part Two

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Song of the Towers

I cheated. I wrote a whole book, split it into three, and voila! A trilogy was born. When I started The Colour of Her Magic in 2006 I did not intend for it to be a trilogy. Most of my writing takes the form of standalone novels. By the time I got to the third draft my book was over 180,000 words and I panicked. Nobody was going to publish this. Hadn't I read all those articles about how first novels should be less than 120k words? But what I could do was split it. There are plenty of articles...

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How long does it take to write a book?

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works in progress caro geelen author

I remember once hearing that the guy who wrote "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" (Louis de Bernières) took ten years to write his book. Ten years! I couldn't imagine it. My drafts took 3 - 6 months to churn out, and I thought each and every one was magic, brilliant, and perfect. They were not to be touched. So I would put them away for a while and concentrate on the next book, the next idea, because I love starting new projects. Turns out, I like ending them too, but my start list is always longer than my finished list. Then, eventually,...

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New Release Coming Soon

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colour of her magic cover

I'm so excited to announce a new release coming in April: the first of my "Song of the Towers" series of novels! A Princess imprisoned for ten years. A Chicken Farmer who dares defy the High Sorcerer. A Bard who’s just along for the ride. Princess Daphne of Undersunne has been imprisoned by the High Sorcerer for ten years. She isn’t dead… yet, but she’s running out of time. Erin, the daughter of a chicken farmer, wants to rescue the Princess. She's got a sword, a bow, acres of willpower and a scrap of magic. But before she faces the...

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Life ah… gets in the way

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new study in progress building

As a wise Jeff Goldblum once told us that "life uh... finds a way" the same can be said of life getting in the way. I moaned the other day to my partner that I just didn't have the mental capacity to be creative at the moment, and he just looked and me and nodded wearily, feeling the same. I shouldn't complain, but I want to. The start of this year my website building business kicked into a new gear, making each day very busy. It's great to have the work, but sometimes I wish I could just chuck it...

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What have you done?

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title deed medieval

I've had these characters hanging around for a while now, but each time I tried to write them they always petered out... It was never right. Alison and Celia Griffin fought back each time I tried to put them into a book. They didn't like what I had in store for them, and each time the ideas just went slowly downhill and I stopped writing. I watch a lot of renovation programs and thought one day - why not renovate a magic kingdom? The very next morning this first chapter wrote itself, and this time it feels right. Check out...

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The Ideas Bible

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writers map

Recently I had an amazing catchup with my writing buddy Renee Dahlia (http://www.reneedahlia.com/) who is well on her way to becoming a prolific romance author. Now I do romance as part of my overall plots, and I love to read them, but it's not my jam to write. My jam is fantasy, as well you might have guessed. Her jam is romance. While we caught up about the usual (family, friends, work), we also chatted about writing, which is one of my favourite things to do. I am fascinated with the way other writers work, and comparing that to the...

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Ideas that just take their time

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caro geelen author in 2000s

See that picture? That's me in 2000. With the long hair up in a ponytail (that hasn't changed) and the bedroom wall positively covered with posters of movies and movie stars (Joseph Fiennes was the man of the moment I can see) and the grim look that says taking selfies with an actual camera is hard. This is also the year I had an idea. Or at least, I think I had the idea then. My notes from then are completely lost, which is a shame. I've transferred ideas from paper to paper, from note to note. At university I...

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