Why Watford?

I have no idea. I suspect that the characters and locations in Psychic Awakening were already there, deep in my subconscious, when I sat down and began writing the novel. It was like drawing back a curtain, looking through the window, and recording the events outside.

I didn’t stop to ask how or why, afraid of disrupting the stream of creative consciousness. There were three exceptions, one of which never made it to the final edition. I remember checking the flight time from London to Prague and the train connections from Watford to Warminster. In the first version of the book, Peter has three passports and I spent hours investigating possible conflicts in citizenship laws. In the end it was easier to give him just two. It also gave me an excuse to cut several pages describing the complex post-War history of Peter’s family.

I’ve a feeling that, way back in Victorian times, the only terraced streets in the Watford area would have been around the station, housing railway labourers. Placing Rochester Street a short bus ride from the station was probably a goof, but one I felt powerless to change.

The same goes for the Prague and Wiltshire locations. I considered other settings that led to fewer complications, but my subconscious refused to cooperate.

As I noted in the Afterword, the book is probably full of egregious goofs, the consequence of my reluctance to spend time on background research. One of the merits of the Leanpub publishing framework is that authors can update their books as often as they like, and readers can download the updates for free.

I’d be grateful if readers could alert me to any goofs they find. My subconscious permitting, I’ll do my best to fix them.

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