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I don’t know about you, but I personally love reading about real places and then going to visit them. There’s something kind of amazing about living vicariously through your favourite character’s adventures, and then going and seeing those places for yourself. (One of my personal faves was reading about London and New York in Sophie Kinsella’s Shopaholic novels, and then going shopping in London and New York myself and channelling Becky Bloomwood!)

As an author, it’s always exciting to set parts of your story in real locations, and hope that your love for that place shines through in the writing and that you can give your readers an authentic experience of the place … and hopefully a burning desire to visit themselves!

 

Well, we are only a few weeks away from the publication of Great Sexpectations, the third novel in the Laura the Explorer series. How relieved I am to have finally reached this point! It’s no secret that this novel took me WAY longer to write than I ever thought it would, and there are a few reasons for that. Some are personal, which I won’t go into, but in terms of the book itself there were some huge plot challenges that I faced when trying to wrangle this book together. I always end up with a lot of deleted scenes and deleted storylines from the final version of the book, but this was the first time that I think I’ve deleted a HUGE number of characters as well as some fairly hefty plotlines. So today, I’m going to deep-dive into one of the big challenges I faced when trying to write this book and how I came about solving my problems to finally get the book working!

 

I can honestly say that I am so relieved to be where I finally am. Because Great Sexpectations is actually finished!! It has felt like the biggest uphill battle getting this book over the line, and I’m still pinching myself that I’m really there. It’s done. The book is complete and the best part is that I’m so happy with it.

 

Today is a special day. October 6th, who knew?, would be the day my author year officially starts again. And by that I mean, today is the day I finally feel like I’m getting back into the swing of author life.

If you read my blog post back in April (the one where I confidently announced that Great Sexpectations would be published on September 10th – hah!) then you’ve probably realised that September 10th came and went and there’s been nothing but silence from me about the book.

So what happened in the last 6 months?

 

Well, winter has well and truly arrived here in Sydney, and I’m trying to take every opportunity possible to escape to my house in Mudgee where we can enjoy the country air as well as an actual fireplace. It’s been almost a full year since we bought the house, and sometimes I have to stop and remind myself just how much renovating we’ve managed to achieve in that time. Of all the projects on the house, redoing the living/dining area was probably the biggest – and also the most hilarious. I realise I haven’t shared many photos of what we’ve been up to, so, instead of book updates, today I though I’d share some progress shots from our house!

 

 

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Welcome to the website of Sarah Begg, Australian writer and independent author.