It’s been quite a while since I published anything on here. In my defence, I have been quite busy, writing novels (three published in eighteen months), doing my freelance work and keeping the family alive. But you know, it’s time! It really is. These days, all the evidence points to me being a Proper Writer. I no longer tap away with my laptop balanced on my knee. I write in the Palace of Creativity sitting on a proper office chair I bought with my first royalty cheque and I’ve got business cards and a website and everything. Things are going well. And much of that is due to you, the people who read what I write and who seem to like it. So thank you. Believe me, I appreciate it.
The Palace of Creativity
I invented Isabella M Smugger for a laugh, her name spelling out, “I Am Smug”, her life ridiculously successful and sorted, no weeds in her garden, no cobwebs in her charming Grade II listed Georgian rectory. But you can’t spend an entire novel taking the mick out of a two-dimensional character, so in the first book, The Diary of Isabella M Smugge, I discovered that she’d had an unhappy childhood, was estranged from her sister and was married to a man who might just be a bit too charming and handsome for his own good. Readers often report that they find her extremely annoying in chapter one. And so they should. She was written that way. But usually by around chapter three, she’s starting to get under their skin, with her habit of alluding to painful memories then deflecting and describing something gorgeous and on-trend which she endorses. “What’s really going on under the surface?” ponders the reader, gazing at our heroine’s mellifluous prose. “Can a life really be that perfect?”
All my writerly tricks and wiles are laid bare for all to see
Well no. Of course it can’t. But if you’re writing humour (which I am), you need to temper the belly laughs and sly jokes with a bit of sadness and even tragedy from time to time and that’s something that gets easier as you progress. I’m now at the point where having spent what seems like years writing book three (The Continued Times of Isabella M Smugge) and then editing and re-editing it, all my writerly tricks and wiles are laid bare for all to see. Sad memory leading to tears and self-recrimination? Quick, write a funny paragraph about a chilled teething ring. Moment of revelation and discovery? Let’s chuck in a conversation with Mimi Stanhope, Isabella’s terrifying agent. It’s a bit like a sandwich. Too much bread (serious stuff) and the reader gets bored and goes off to find a Marian Keyes or Sophie Kinsella. Too much free-range pole-caught tuna with homemade lemon mayonnaise (the funny bits) and it’s all froth and no heart. It’s a balancing act and the more I write about Issy Smugge, the more I think I understand how to do it.
Where it started: The trials of Isabella M Smugge
One of things I enjoy most about writing about the world of Smugge is all the stuff I make up. I knew from the start that as a very successful influencer, Issy would endorse any number of products. From those Plump No Mores (lavender-infused, self-plumping pillows) to Scrummy Mummy maternity wear to Flash Gnash chilled teething rings (a lot happens in book two!), I’ve got pretty much free rein to invent whatever I like. It has to sound believable but I exaggerate just a tad for comic effect. Juxtaposing Issy’s professional tone promoting her products with her sadness and grief at the personal disruptions in her life often reduces readers to tears. Or so they tell me.
On the cover of book three, we see Issy taking a selfie. She’s been gazing at herself through the reflective lens of social media since we first met her back in January 2021, but three years on (in her life, anyway), that gaze is a lot clearer and it may be that she is considering a slightly different path.
On Wednesday morning (21st September), it’s I-Day when 400 copies of the Continued Times of Isabella M Smugge arrive here at the Palace of Creativity ready to be signed and slipped into the pre-labelled 200 or so envelopes sitting in front of me as I type. Once this book is out, I’m taking a break to publish something different next year. But for all you Smugge fans, don’t worry, the woman Gorgeous Home magazine once called, “Britain’s most relatable mum designer” will be back. There are too many dangling threads at the end of book three to leave her story there.
Which leads me to this. What do you think the fourth book should be called? Genuinely, I’d love your thoughts. If I pick one of your suggestions, your name will appear in that book as a character.
#soblessed #issysback #newissy #allkillernofiller
***
Please click here for more on the Isabella M Smugge book series.