Needle in a haystack . . .

My embroidery bag

‘When I’m not writing or tweaking my computer, I do embroidery.’  This remarkably apt quote for my life comes from Lynn Abbey, fantasy writer.  I was googling quotes today and this is the one that popped up in respect of embroidery and I figured the Fates had conspired to entice me to write on my stitching.

Let’s assume the haystack of the title is the computer and all things technological.  The needle’s the thing that saves me at times of  frustration . . . I pick it up and thread it with wool or silk or whatever the latest stitching WIP requires and try to leave writing and the demands of a quasi-technological existence behind.

Not that they don’t follow me.  But words and what to do, have a habit of resolving themselves in some form or other as the needle shushes in and out of the hoop.  Certainly with the writing of the published books, the need to be the stitcher Adelina was made easier by picking up a needle and thread and feeling the craft.

Stumpwork wreath

At the moment I’m chafing at the bit, desperate to move to the next phase of the book-trailer. Brother is tied up filming for the national broadcaster, graphic designer still has the flu, and so I need to embroider to divert me. I’m stitching a baby rug for a fellow writer, SJA Turney and his wife who are expecting their first in Yorkshire in April.

There’s always a need to move away from your writing, to take a breath, to think, to immerse yourself in the sensations of other excercises.  When I think back on many of the things that my characters have done in various writings, I’ve usually been able to draw on an experience or two of my own.

Which brings me to another point and one I saw blogged about a week or so ago but can’t remember where . . . what do we authors go through for inspiration?

A question for another time perhaps.