"Safe Sext"

It’s been a while since I’ve posted to my blog so I thought I’d write an update of where I’ve reached in the process.

I completed my re-write of “Safe Sext” and I think it’s a far better novel than it used to be. Thanks must go to my friend Sarah Garrett who suggested I should do a search and destroy mission on the word “that”. It’s one of my worst habits - over-use of the dreaded “T” word. I went through the whole manuscript and managed to delete about a hundred unnecessary “that’s”. Result.

Whilst I’m thanking friends I must also mention Fran Quinn who has consistently made incisive suggestions about the plot and the storyline. I’m grateful for the time she has devoted to helping me when she’s concurrently trying to re-write her historical novel “The Smallest Man”.

I’ve also been trying to work on an elevator pitch for the novel, which seemed to be a harder task for me than writing the whole book. Neatly encapsulating such a complex plot in three sentences has been a tough ask. However, I wanted to share the elevator pitch I’d developed,

“Safe Sext” is a contemporary and realistic love story that follows a group of teenage friends. It explores the phenomenon of sexting and how easily a simple situation can dramatically escalate through the misuse of social media. It focuses primarily on Nick and Chlöe and how their new relationship is threatened by a malicious Facebook post of a naked photo of Chlöe.

It’s hard for me to get sufficient critical distance to know whether this ticks enough boxes, but I wanted to try and get a sense of the marketability of the novel. I remain convinced that the basic premise captures the zeitgeist of teenage life, even though it’s some years since I was a teenager myself. I can only hope that one of the agents I’m currently submitting to agrees with that assessment and can see the potential in the novel. My fingers are crossed, which might explain those typos!