Hi

Hello from Sydney in spring where it can’t decide what season it wants to be! 28 degrees Centigrade one day, 10 the next. But the trees and flowers are all in bloom and the sky is mostly blue, so I really don’t have much to complain about. Although we are still in lockdown, I’m very lucky to live in a beautiful part of the world where I can still go for walks nearby. 

My new novel is coming along well – almost 50,000 words of the first draft done, so a little over half way through. Every novel is different and this one is unfolding slowly but surely. I didn’t plan it out in advance – I have tried to plan novels in the past and I found it took a lot of the joy out of writing. Every author is different but the best part of writing for me is when the scene I’m working on throws up surprises and takes the story in a direction I wasn’t expecting. I like turning up to the computer every day and being not quite sure what’s going to happen next!

As with most of my books, I’m researching as I go, and that can slow things down a bit too. My previous World War 2 books were set in cities but this one is set on a farm, so there’s a lot I need to learn. I found a wonderful TV series called ‘Wartime Farm’ on Youtube, which is fascinating. Watching it, I often forgot I was supposed to be using it for research! You can find it here: 

 Wartime Farm Episode 1 

In addition, one of the novel's main characters is German, and I have to confess I didn’t know that much about the German experience of it all before I started working on this book A totally different perspective. I love research!

Book of the Month

Rules of Civility by Amor Towles.

This delightful novel vividly evokes New York in the 1930s. Told through the perceptive eyes of a bright young secretary whose life is upended when a chance encounter with a successful banker introduces her to a whole new world. Sharply drawn and elegantly written, it is an absolutely irresistible book.

I didn’t want it to end but I couldn’t put it down.

Till next month,

Happy Reading!

Samantha Grosser

https://www.samgrosserbooks.com