Hello.
I hope you're all doing well. Good, good. So it's done. The sequel to my first novel This Thirtysomething Life is complete. I have to say that writing a sequel was much harder than I originally thought. The first book sort of wrote itself in many ways and I didn't write it with a sequel in mind. However, writing This Family Life I had to get 'back into voice' remember the characters, their stories and above all, make sure this didn't let the first book down. I've read too many sequels and watched too many second films that weren't anywhere as good as the original. Maybe this explains how difficult it is to write a sequel. I so desperately wanted this to be as good if not better than the first book. And I think I've succeeded.
I only say 'think' because at the end of the day, until you lot - the 'readers', get your mitts on it and start reviewing it then it's only my opinion. BUT. I think since I wrote Thirtysomething way back in 2010, I've become a better writer, a better planner and also because my agent helped me a lot and pushed me to write a better book.
So what's it about? For a start it covers a whole year from New Year's Day to New Year's Eve. The first book only covered nine months. We find Harry and Emily, now parents of four and half month old William, still struggling to adapt to life with a baby. Emily wants to get fit, correction, she wants them both to get fit, which causes Harry great swathes of pain - both physically and emotionally. They get two new sets of neighbours, one of whom we already know from the first book (I won't say who) and the other who causes lots of problem for Harry. There's a pub quiz battle, Harry gets an unexpected surprise at school, which actually means he will have to do some work and there's nakedness - I won't say who, but it shocks Harry to his core! There's a trip to a caravan park which almost ends in disaster, a fight about Ben Fogle's house, Harry has a near-death experience and the Spencer family go to Australia where Harry ends up dancing in his underwear and gets called bastard A LOT!
The reason it's called This Family Life is that the first book was about going through pregnancy and dealing with growing up, but this book really is about family. Both sets of parents figure more heavily and especially Harry's mum and dad. They also feature in the probably the most heart-felt and heart-warming scenes in the book. I won't divulge the details, but their story is as important as Harry and Emily's and it will probably shed a few tears.
I think this book is definitely as funny as the first, if not funnier and it's definitely a bit more emotional. It's a real roller coaster ride with lots of tears, laughter and poo. Oh yes, where there's a baby, there's poo. Harry is still eating far too much bad food and drinking in the shed, he's still worried about dying from some mysterious illness, he still makes some terrible mistakes and is worried William has a 'funny-shaped' head and will grow up listening to terrible music - Gangnam style anyone?
This Family Life is another life-affirming, hilarious, heart-warming story of family life. I hope it doesn't let anyone down. I've worked really hard on it and I love the characters so much and I know the readers do to - hence why I was so worried about this being great. At the moment it's being sent off to my publishers, so hopefully they will love it too and before long I'll be able to write a blog with some great news!
Until then.
Hugs,
Jon X
