Today I must get back to my novel, The Haunted Tide. My main character, fourteen-year-old Lily, is tormented by voices that seem to come from the sea; she has just embarked on her first relationship with a boy she really likes; and a new girl has started at school, a bully who is targeting Lily. While all this is going on, she hears noises from the empty cottage next door and she is worried about her mother’s mental state – again. After the death of her father, Grace, her mother, has relied on her for support, which makes Lily feel responsible. In Chapter 8, she had a bad morning at school and had to be collected by Grace: she is ridiculed by other pupils for hearing voices, a secret she told Danny, her boyfriend, and she believes he has betrayed her, even though he defends her against the others at break time, takes her to the school receptionist and asks her to call home. At the end of the chapter, she is tucked up in bed, feeling safe with the sounds of her mother in the kitchen below her room, and has the deepest and longest sleep since the storm that opened the novel.
In Chapter 9, I have to move it up a notch or two and force Lily to: talk to Grace and Danny; go back to school; find out more about the place where she lives and who the voices belong to. Some of this will involve a little research, as I have based the village on the one I lived in when I first moved to Norfolk. It isn’t far from where we live now and I would like to revisit the church, graveyard, beach and dunes to help me with the details. I’m going to get as much housework done as I can before lunchtime and then head off to do some research. Thankfully, it’s a sunny day with a gentle breeze and I can’t wait to get out there.
writing in north norfolk 