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Planning ahead
Planning ahead
So, having submitted my latest novel, I know you, don’t I?, to literary agents and publishers, I am now in that peculiar stare of limbo, waiting for replies.
This gives me the opportunity to consider future projects.
My husband and I are volunteer room guides at Coleridge Cottage in Nether Stowey and for some time I have wanted to write a novel about the three years Coleridge and his wife Sara lived in Somerset, how and why their stay here produced some of the greatest poetry in the English language, the happiness and difficulties they experienced here and the reason they moved away. After some thought I have decided to entitle this book Coleridge and Sara, the Stowey Years. Importantly, this is not a biography, it is a story, but the historical facts will be correct. Having worked in the cottage on quiet days I feel I can sense the happiness and unhappiness of their lives there, the ups and downs of a newly married couple, the adjustments both made, the resentments that built up. I’ve already written the first few paragraphs, just enough to get me in the mood.
Coleridge Cottage, Nether Stowey, Somerset
My second project has been on the back burner for some considerable period of time. This is a children’s story set in a National Trust type property similar to Dunster Castle, entitled No Entry. A young boy visiting the property funds himself transported back in time to World War Two when he slips through a roped off area marked No Entry.
Finally I’d like to write a sequel for my novel Out of Step called In Step continuing the stories of the characters in that book. This is in response to several comments I had from readers asking if there was to be a sequel. Before I embark on it, however. I shall have to give it some thought as I’m not sure how far into the future to go. At the end of Out of Step, Charlotte was bat to marry Jeremy, Anna had split up from Steven, Alice was contemplating her future with Marcus and Octavia had just found out she was pregnant. I’m not sure whether to scoot on a few years or whether just to pick up where I left off. I have a few ideas for the characters but I like to live with a story for a while before I start to write it.
Bethany Askew is the author of eight novels: The Time Before, The World Within, Out of Step, Counting the Days, Poppy's Seed, Three Extraordinary Years The Two Saras and I Know You, Don't I? She has also written a short story, The Night of the Storm, and she writes poetry. Two more women’s fiction books have been accepted for publication in 2020 and 2021 respectively and she is currently working on a new novel. In her spare time she enjoys reading, music, theatre, walking, Pilates, dancing and voluntary work. Bethany is married and lives in Somerset.