Garden of Thorns

I've just sent my novel off to Torrid Books.  I hope they like it.

The Background

My heroine Jennie fled from her Shropshire home to live in Manchester, in my short story Everyone Gets Frisky at Weddings (Torrid Teasers #56).  Now she's finding things don't always go well in the big city, despite help from her friends Rhoda and Terry, whom she met in Everyone Gets Frisky at Weddings.  

Choosing the Title

It began life as Jennie, and this has been the working title for over a year.  Lately, I decided something more informative was required, and toyed with the title, It Isn't Easy, Being a Dominatrix.  But this is a bit cumbersome, and perhaps a little too humourous, too, though it describes the book very well.  I finally hit on Garden of Thorns, which suggests what the novel's about, and fits well among my other Garden novels: In an English Country Dungeon, In a French Country Vineyard, The Japanese Knot Garden, In a Welsh Country Garden.

The Right Length

At 78,000 words, Garden of Thorns is a little long for Torrid Books, but I hope they'll approve it.  I wrote 91,000 but have cut 13,000 of a parallel story strand told from the point of view of Carol.  I'll probably develop this into a short novel.