C.A. Logan Author

We have been hearing a lot of speculation on the reasons that my second novel is taking so long to finish. Let us first reject the suggestion that my book was crap and now I am trying harder. Critics! Cannot live with them …

However, it is a fact that I freely penned my first novel (The Irish Within Us) as if no-one was watching—because no-one was watching. Despite that, what I released in March 2023 was not the first, nay, not even the second draft. It had been drafted, rewritten, evaluated, rewritten again, edited, partially rewritten, and proofread.

When I began the new novel, I knew my challenge as a writer would be the action unfolding at the same time and place as in the first book, although told through the perspective of two secondary characters, Benjamin (Bugsy) Carter and Kathleen McKinney. This allows the reader to revisit the action, not through Kara and David’s experiences, but through those of Bugsy and Kathleen. To do this, I must align the actions and events to the first book’s events. Occasionally, I am permitted a short stretch of time when they were “out of sight” to the reader, and I do try to make the most of these moments.

Why, you ask, would I do this crazy thing? Simple—they have back stories that round out their characters. It is no secret to anyone who read The Irish Within Us that Bugsy, a gay man in his late thirties and Kathleen, an ambitious twenty-something law graduate, find love where they weren’t looking. But the viewpoints and themes of that book (a middle-aged search for family, connection, and belief) left little room for young romance.

In the second book (I can hardly call it a sequel since it isn’t sequential), their actions and inner monologues show how, why, and when precisely, they each fall in love. Hence, today’s title: Hair, Jawlines and Sex.

My research includes physical appearances because more visual descriptions are required. For example, I spent three days building a chart to compare and contrast two individuals that look different, or similar, or identical depending on who’s looking (that’s a hint for future readers). Are they heavy on their feet, or do they float? Are they lanky or lithe? Messy ink black hair, or wavy raven locks? What’s the difference between a sharp jaw and a tapered chin?

In The Irish Within Us, the colour of a character’s eyes often indicates a blood connection. I know, I know, that’s so basic. I now have a chart that lists each character’s hair, skin and eye colour, hair style, height and build, their voice tone, and things like eyeglasses, freckles, or tattoos. Hopefully, the reader can decide what is attractive or not in a character, or whether another character perceives them “correctly”.

And finally, sex. It happens. Appreciatively. Casual or perhaps significant, often with unsynchronized emotions that, of course, lead to misunderstandings. I admit two personal shortcomings that are slowing the process. Firstly, writing sex well is like dancing on the head of a pin. Any wrong word will plunge you down into the pit of cringe. Facedown in cringe. Just wanted to write the word ‘cringe’ twice. There, I have done it thrice, trying to avoid sex.

Secondly, emotion. As I write, I experience my character’s feelings. If they are elated, I boogie around the living room to my Spotify list. If their heart is broken, I drag myself through the apartment searching for a cigarette leftover from 2002. Both take time away from the computer. And it’s bloody exhausting, feeling things.

In conclusion, gentle reader (as one fiction writer likes to begin), please forgive my tardiness. Those of you who have stepped up to be beta readers for the second, and as yet unnamed, book, should see something before year-end.

Carole