Waiting…

What does one do while one is waiting for the editor to do his thing on one’s latest book?

Well I can’t in all honesty begin a new book, because I might get crossed-wires and confuse character arcs. But I have done a little reading, future proofing, if you like – about the great heresies of the twelfth centuries which is background for the next book.

 

Once, some time ago, 22nd December 2018 to be exact, I had a dream about a young illuminator monk.

I took a screen grab of my Facebook comment at that time, to provide some basic legal evidence of the idea as my own, should I ever need it.

The monk has stayed in my mind since, waiting for his chance. His book will be Book Two of The Peregrinus Series.

But all that aside, what does one do to fill in the time until one has to return to the refining of Book One?

 

Apart from walking with the dog, stitching hearts for www.1000Hearts.com  and cooking – all fine domestic pursuits – now that summer is done, there is a huge autumn edit/clean required within the cottage. But it’s my way of marking that my book is at the editor’s, that summer’s dust and sand is done and that the seasons are changing. But it’s done to a rhythm, an age-old rhythm no different now to the times when a medieval woman may have taken up a broom and a rake to accomplish similar tasks.

 

 

Our garden is developing umber and garnet tints and I brought a branch of the Snow Ball Tree inside yesterday for my grandson to decorate as an ‘Easter tree’.

 

Today, as a nor-easter blew into our shores with seamist and mizzle, coloured leaves began to drift to the lawns. We can hear the roar of wind and waves on the beach as I write. That’s okay. It makes being inside to do the Big Autumn Clean that much easier.

I like autumn. There are days of the most glorious warmth and clear blue skies.

 

Colours are incredibly rich – like a stained-glass window. Equally there are cooler days when we can drag on a sweater. It reminds us that winter is coming – cold air, frosts to kill off the garden bugs and to give growing things time to take a breath.

Maybe autumn is a good time to finish a manuscript and work on editing. Because by the crisp days of winter, the edges will be sharp and the final shape of the novel will be revealed. Just like deciduous trees.

Anyway, that’s what I’ve been doing to fill in my time until an email with attachments arrives. Never let it be said that life is boring…