can I blame mercury in retrograde?

OK, I'm not a devout follower of astrology, but I do enjoy reading Susan Miller at Astrology Zone each month. I find her very entertaining, particularly as she goes into so much detail, and apparently mercury is in retrograde this month, which means we can have all kinds of breakdowns with appliances, business deals and communications.

Well, snap.

Last week in Townsville, our oven blew up, the automatic washing machine stopped progressing automatically, the lift in our apartment broke down, and my internet connection died.

Yeah, might have been a coincidence, but I guess Susan would say otherwise.

I used the week to read and do research and make notes and collect pictures of characters and settings for my next book, and to generally dream about the new story.

Now I'm in Tarzali, and I'm connected 'internetedly" again, but would you believe that when I tried to post this, blogger was "currently unavailable"?

Anyway, I've started on the new book, and I'm getting to know my characters. Yay! It always feels so good to have another story underway, to feel that stirring of excitement, wondering how will it all evolve.

Are you surprised that I don't know? Thing is, I'd be bored if I knew every detail of my story in advance. I like to be surprised. I like to let my characters take me by the hand and lead me gently into the mist.

Back to work…

I’ve actually been back at work ever since I got back from Japan, but there have been other more interesting things to post about. I had the printout of Adopted: Outback Baby waiting for me to proofread when I got back and I had to re-read and polish my latest manuscript and send it off.

And then I had a new book to start. That’s the really hard work.

Editing, revising, polishing, dreaming new stories, conflicts, characters and plots are all fun for me. Those tasks don’t feel like work at all.

The hard part is getting that story down on the page. Filling that blank screen – making what’s in my head come to life. Finding the words and finding the best place to start the story. I sit at my computer and write rubbish and scrap it. I try again. And scrap it. I go for a walk, get a better idea, come back full of enthusiasm and try to write it down. Realise it wasn’t such a great idea after all. And so the painful process continues until finally, finally, I keep little pieces of the rubbish and then I stitch them together and I see that my story is at last emerging.

That’s where I am today. It’s always a relief to get my muse's green light.