Starting the day with thoughts of turbulence. Mid-August and it’s blustery out there, grey, drizzly, a far cry from summer, and a world away from the heat wave of last year. It feels like a bizarre contradiction to the devasting heat and wildfires that have ravaged so many places around the world with an ever-continuing climate crisis. Plus the thought that life is unpredictable, and so we move, alter course, expand, hopefully – themes shared in recent poetry, and in art. And they are themes that are blossoming, mushrooming, expanding in my current work-in-progress novel, Blood Gift Chronicles Book 3. Since Book 2 I have allowed myself the time to pause, to take a breath, to see the way for characters old and new, and they spoke back. I’m listening, allowing them their rightful space, their authenticity, their power and potential. Spanning both time and space, their journeys are huge, but human.
Fantasy takes us on a flight,
Fantasy allows us to ground,
Fantasy gives us space to grow,
Fantasy reveals colour tone.
As the writer I was waiting for that deeper shade, that revealing essence. Once found, the words flow. Until the unpredictability of life calls for a pause. This week the garden was calling, or more specifically a bench, and so I’ve been elbow deep in DIY. Monday is just around the corner, and a woman called Ze awaits, for me to write her through the next phase. (Smile.) Her journey is complex, universal. But the higher the mountain we climb, the further we can see. Or at least it’s true for Ze, since she has lived, loved, and lost. And when everything is lost, there is everything to gain…
On a personal note, an ability to expand can involve changing your mind. And I recently changed my mind about a thought I was holding onto, the thought that a book is best read direct from pages held in your hands. And while I still think this is true, especially for a writer who works on screen, there are definite benefits to ebooks and so I relented. Now I’m excited to think that if ever I’m away, I will have a library with me, and for titles only published as ebooks, they will no longer be out of my reach.
My current read is The Book of Yokai: Mysterious creatures of Japanese Folklore. Mysterious sounds… something watching in the dark… creatures from the in between… – stuff that might keep you up at night, or in Mia’s case, lull you to sleep…
Have a great weekend!
