My novel Miranda Road grew out of a short story, 'Dancing to Schoenberg', published some years ago in Ambit. The characters and situation just wouldn't leave my head, even long after it was published: Georgina Hardiman (father American, mother second generation Polish immigrant) and her daughter Eloisa (father half French, half Senegalese) clamoured for attention and for their whole story to be told.
I tried to placate them by writing a few more short stories with this single mother and her awkward but intelligent daughter as the main characters, but this still didn't satisfy them.
Feeling almost bullied by these two strong females living in my head, and not quite knowing what to do about it, I sent the collection of linked short stories to The Literary Consultancy for advice. The diagnosis was as I feared: 'This is a novel trying to be born. Just get down to it.'
Easier said than done. It took many drafts to unpack all the implications buried in the snapshots of their lives represented by the short stories - a number of which played no part in the final narrative.
But now it's done. I have given Georgina and Eloisa their novel and hope they like the way I have told their story.
Miranda Road by Heather Reyes, £8.99, e-book, is published by Oxygen Books on 10 May 2014 'Rich, poetic, painterly, wise and tender' Maggie Gee 'Hugely readable, quietly profound' Beatrice Colin
Recent Comments