There are times when the muse does not strike. Or only strikes for half a sentence. Or for a vague idea that struggles to be put into words.
I have felt this for the last 10 days or so, aware that I wasn’t holding to my part of the deal – the deal that says I write, hoping to entertain, and you loyally read, entertained or not.
I’ve also got this idea that says I have to have photos, and I haven’t got any new photos at the moment. But where does it say I have to have photos? Can you manage without? I ask myself, how can I put up a blog post if I have no photos to go with it? Then I wonder what comes first, the words or the pictures? Have I fallen into a trap of having to weave words around the story that the photos are making?
Real writers don’t do that. Real writers just write and the pictures appear in the imagination of the reader. I have a mental picture of a takeaway in small-town-middle-of-nowhere-in-somewhere-hot-and-dusty Australia. A real writer painted that picture for me. (Sue’s book Murder with the Lot arrived a mere week after I ordered it from her publishers in Melbourne – I wanted my own hard copy to show off on the bookcase… just think, I have a friend who is a published author!)
For the last 3 months I have found my head filled with not just pictures, but a whole world. I have been reading the Outlander series of books by Diana Gabaldon most of which I have already listened to as audiobooks in the past. They’re not particularly highbrow, but the subject matter is fascinating – a 1940s woman inadvertently passes through a time warp (some standing stones near Inverness) and finds herself in 1740s Highland Scotland. She meets the love of her life and ends up making her life there. That sounds corny but it’s so much more than that -a whole life is woven in the thousands of pages that make up this story. She takes her medical knowledge and applies it using the tools of the 18th century, she obviously has knowledge of “the future”, can she change the outcome of events like Culloden? How can a 20th century woman live in the 18th century?
Perhaps I’ve been living in the 18th century a bit too much myself, but I’ve finished the books now and can return to the real world.
Back to the electrics plan, then. Sigh…
This loyal fan still checks your blog, Kerry, looking, hoping, wondering “what’s she been up to?” (and I suspect I’m not the only one). Do you have one of those follower button thingies so we can click it and then we get a message when you’ve posted something? (Maybe you do and I’ve missed it.)
Too right we’ve noticed! …. just too polite to say anything…..
(no pressure like)
I cannot believe you have not been skiing again. Phil has been out three times in the last week. We are going on Sunday to Upper Weardale to try out his new skis, as one of his pairs broke near Kilhope on Good Friday.
You could always update us all on the house and its’ progress.
Also, can you let me know how to get hold of a copy of Sue’s book ?
Love to the two of you
Rutsxx
Well done Phil!
I got my copy of Sue’s book from her publisher (“her publisher”, doesn’t that sound great!) textpublishing.com.au – they’ll send it to the UK and mine arrived a week after I ordered it – all the way from Australia.