2025 Newsletter
Oct 22, 2025 by Fi Whyms
Tah-da! Here it finally is, my first newsletter!
You may, in the dim, dark recesses of your consciousness, recall that once upon a time you filled in an annoying little pop-up box on my website www.fiwhyms.com – or perhaps otherwise indicated that you’d like to receive news of my late-onset and rather haphazard writing career. If you’ve done neither and you don’t want to read the musings of my butterfly mind, please don’t hesitate to respond to this email telling me so and I promise to immediately remove your email address from the list!
For those of you who are interested in hearing more, here goes!
Current state of mind:
Buoyant. This changes from day to day and sometimes from hour to hour, so I thought it best to grab the buoyancy by the horns, so to speak. I imagine them as quite velvety and pleasant to hold rather than rough and unpleasant.
Current state of creative output:
Fairly productive. I’m just over 30,000 words into my seventh book, provisionally entitled ‘It gets more complicated.’ (hereinafter referred to as ‘IGMC’). [Thrilled that all those years of legal training have finally been useful!]
The OH has repeatedly told me that word-count means absolutely FA to most people so, for perspective, most contemporary fiction novels are around 90,000 to 100,000 words therefore in theory I’m a third of the way there… however, there are many, many edits to come so it’s not as if I’m actually a third of the way there.
It’s a sequel to ‘Is it always this complicated.’ (‘IATC’) and to date, it’s proving to be the most difficult book I’ve ever written.
The main reason is because when I began writing IATC (2023) the concept of writing as a career hadn’t yet fully formed and a lot has changed since then, including my writing. If you've read ’Taylor & Artemis’ you’ll have seen evidence of that, and when the 6th novel is published (see below!) I suspect it will be even more evident.
But when I wrote IATC I was still manic with joy at the idea that I could create worlds with words, and I didn’t have any vision as to where anything was going – I’d had so much fun writing the D’Artagnan series that I just didn’t want to stop. I’d had the idea for IATC in 2009 and had even written the first nine chapters before shoving them in a drawer and focussing on other things like moving to a chateau and buying the horse of my dreams. Of course I then discovered that the gulf between what I know about horses (and chateaux!) and what I needed to know about horses was (is?) larger than the Capertee Valley in NSW, Australia (1.5km wider than the Grand Canyon according to Google). See? Newsletters can be informative!
Anyway, I wrote IATC in about 4 months and thought it was utterly hilarious. My editor did not (she was right) so I spent another 4 months rewriting it and, while I don’t think it’s a badly written book, the sequel (IGMC) is definitely better written and I’m concerned that the transition from book one to book two in the series might jar a little.
However, I’m confident that IGMC will make you laugh and possibly cry and might even create bags under your eyes because you just wanna read one more chapter before you turn the light off…
Also, I’m pretty certain there’s at least a third book in the series. However, there’s also another standalone novel that’s been lurking in the shadows of my consciousness for quite a while now.
Curent publication schedule:
As some of you may be aware, I sent my 6th novel (a standalone, working title ‘Orbiting’) out to 22 literary agents this summer.
If you’ve heard that writers tend to have fragile egos, know this: my ego is 17,543 times more fragile than the sole remaining Christmas bauble you bought on a whim from IKEA in November 2019 because they were only 1,99€ (£1.79) for a pack of six.
Rejections did not exactly come thick and fast; for the most part they didn’t come at all because most literary agents don’t bother/have time to respond individually to wannabe ’trad’ published authors. But I did get some formal rejections, and the last one really made me stop and think. It wasn’t a bog-standard response (I can identify those within the first five words and I don’t bother reading further).
This was a real response, written by a real person, and it basically said – I liked your submission. I liked it a lot. But the publishing industry is so constrained, our margins are so tight that unless I manage to convince my boss, and then their boss, and then their bosses’ boss – and then one of the big publishers that we're all going to make a profit from the publication of your book – I can’t offer you representation.
The odds of an unknown author getting picked up by a literary agent vary between 1:1000 and 1:6000 which should in a way be comforting but is actually just depressing. Unless you’re a celebrity, even a minor one. Or perhaps you once did something fundamentally stupid on video and it went viral – that might also help.
ANYWAY. It only took a couple of months before I managed to crawl back out of the dismal, dark hole of misery that my life had become and force myself to answer pertinent questions like:
- Why do you write? A: Because I love to create complex characters and worlds that absorb me.
- Are you doing it for money? A: Hell no! My publication/advertising spend versus sales revenue is so hilariously out of kilter that our accountant is still wiping tears of laugher from her eyes.
- Can you stop? A: I suppose so, but a major source of light in my life will go out if I do.
- So what are you gonna do: A: Well, I suppose I’ll just have to stop whining and carry on regardless. Or maybe I should buy another Spanish horse. (Joking. Seriously, joking).
Moving on from Abject Self-Pity:
I shall be self-publishing ‘Orbiting’. For your delectation, the synopsis that I sent to agents is attached and if you have any feedback after reading it, I would gladly welcome it! I am aware that it sounds a bit dry, but that’s how one is told to pitch a synopsis. I can assure you that it’s also a warm, uplifting novel that will, quite possibly, make you laugh and cry.
Current schedule for publication is the week immediately post-Christmas (because the weather’s usually shit and everyone’s a bit bored). The title is very much a working one and will have to change because ‘Orbital’ won the 2024 Booker Prize (IMO one of the most beautiful, life-affirming and simultaneously soul-destroying books ever written) and the current title is far too similar.
I’m mulling over alternative titles. I’ve also contracted with an experienced freelance marketer based in London and I’m confident she really knows her stuff and will do her very best to give ‘Orbiting’ the best possible launch.
She’s also going to help me revamp my back-list, which will probably mean a second edition of Taming D’Artagnan (there are things in the draft that still grate – in my defence, it was my first!). And we’re also discussing the possibility that I’ll de-list IATC to allow a re-edit and re-issue, potentially with a new title some months before IGMC is released.
This will require a lot of additional work, but given that I’m writing the sequel and can easily see a third, and perhaps even a fourth book in the series – well, if ‘Orbiting’ allows me to develop my reader following, I want the ‘Complicated’ series to be enjoyed in a way that it wasn't initially written to allow. Because I can do it; I can make it a series that you will love as much, or possibly even more, than the others.
There are other side-issues currently under discussion, more of which I hope to be able to tell you in the next newsletter.
Books I’ve recently read and recommend:
- ’The Wedding Portrait’ and ‘Hamnett’ by Maggie O’Farrell (particularly the first... absolutely blown away by it).
- ‘Orbital’ by Samantha Harvey.
- ‘My sister & other lovers’ by Esther Freud.
- ‘Fresh Water for Flowers’ by Valerie Perrin.
And other news:
October in Bordeaux is absolutely glorious. If you’ve never visited the city, do try to. It’s beautiful in a way that very few cities are (disclaimer: I’ve only lived in two: London for 20 years, and Bordeaux on and off for about five; my heart used to belong to London but now unquestionably belongs here). I am more than happy to meet with you for coffee/lunch/Negronis in the evening sunshine while people-watching the chic Bordelaise.
Mrs Muffin seems fairly content in her new home, but definitely prefers the maison secondaire in Aubeterre. In human years she’s probably in her early fifties, so only a little younger than me. Neither of us had a particularly auspicious start in life (although hers was far worse) but fortune has smiled on us and I feel blessed that we’ve found one another. It’s another one of my long stories, but in brief it’s perfectly possible that I might never have started writing if it wasn’t for Mrs (and Mr., now sadly no longer with us) Muffin.
The OH is in good health (after all, we aren’t on holiday in a developing country which is where he normally decides to test out the local hospital facilities) so things are relatively good and stable. We are off to Egypt in less than a month’s time for his son’s wedding followed by a four-day cruise on the Nile, and the OH has been instructed that I shall kill him myself if he even glances in the direction of a hospital...
Finally, an enormous thank you from the bottom of my heart to you all for your wonderful reviews and continuing support. I don’t think I can ever adequately express how wonderful it is to know that there are people out there who love the characters I create as much as I love them, and who find their lives and their worlds believable, because that helps me believe in them and makes me feel that I’m not completely crazy!
And also, sometimes it’s quite hard work so it’s nice to feel appreciated 🙃
Fi
xxx
