My Novel - Same As You

I have just finished a novel -well for the time being - and my agent is sending is out. In fact she may have already started to send it. Of the 5 novels I've written, 3 have been published, and this one, which is called Same As You, will hopefully be my fourth - the two central characters are identical twin sisters.

I'm not entirely sure how long I've been writing the novel for, but I've certainly been thinking about it for about four years and I've been at work on it for at least two.  Of all my books, this one has taken the longest for a few reasons. There was quite a bit of research to do about identical twins, talking to mothers of twins, reading about twins etc etc. Then through facebook I was in contact with my old school friends from boarding school, and they helped me remember some details of that grim place, where some of the action in the past, takes place.

I wanted to write a bit about the darkness of those days at school,(late seventies) and how cut off we all were from any kind of parental input/love/guidance. My particular school was a grim place, run by grim staff, and compared to today, the philosophy of teaching children was so different. I tried to imagine something terrible happening there, as it so easily could have done, because neglect and boredom bred rebellion.

The boarding school days have been weaved into my novel as a sub-plot in the past, combined with  a story about the twin sisters, who are estranged (in the present) when the book opens. The novel is really a background of their estrangement- how it happened, and whether they can come to some kind of rapprochement in the present day, when they are brought together by the death of their father. The book delves back to their teenage years, when they both loved one particular boy, and were separated because of him - one going to boarding school and one staying at home. 

I have really enjoyed writing it and I hope you will all get to read it. Fingers Crossed. It's such a nerve-wracking time, and i've had to go through it a few times.

My problem now, is that I can't seem to get down to thinking about another novel to write. Ideas come and go but none seem quite right. I hope something will come soon, because I am bereft without a novel to be immersed in.