Went walking to the beach. 
Found beach re-sculpted after last week’s heavy seas.
OH walking with Old Dog.
Young Dog collecting shells.
Now believe it or not but if you look hard there is a faint black line out to sea, almost dead middle of photo. That’s a Southern Right Whale. My camera is a toy one and takes terribly ordinary long distance shots, so you really will have to ‘believe it or not’, as you like.
The hardest thing for me to do as a writer is to say goodbye to the story. Once its written, once it has made its way from the brain, through the fingers, to the computer, and even though there is more work to come with edits, I find leaving the characters behind exceptionally hard.
What does a writer do when she’s finished the book she’s writing and is waiting for the edits to begin?
Firstly she celebrates by walking on the beach.
And thinks about the man who inspired the saga.
The cover for the second book in The Gisborne Saga was launched this week.
I was always a fan of the BBC’s Robin Hood and after they had brought Gisborne to his ugly demise, I wondered what would have happened to him had his cards fallen another way. The idea took shape and I decided to write about a different Guy of Gisborne entirely, far from the original canon of the Robin Hood legend. Despite the fact that the saga is still situated within the twelfth century, there is no Robin Hood in the story, no Maid Marian and no Sheriff of Nottingham. It was a risk, but with the support of readers, it is gaining traction. The interest of members of the Armitage Army – a phenomenal group of Richard Armitage fans – has been a huge motivation because they firmly hold the view that Gisborne is ‘So Not Dead’!
I garden for the love of it. It’s a form of organic meditation. Worries become smaller within the scope of the outdoors and there is the tremendous reassurance that life is solid and strong and that good things come again and again. And in between 84,000 words here and 90,000 words there, it’s a regular part of life…
Last week, was at the 90,000 word mark for Book of Knights. Was thrilled to have reached that point, only two chapters to go. It’s the moment when you can see the finish line and you get ready to run, you are part of the story, you ARE your characters and you feel breathless at what will eventuate.
The shears were clicking today. If you listened to the song, it will require a whole other post from me to translate the different Aussie terms used, so we might leave that for another time. Suffice to say it’s an iconic tune that sums up the agricultural history of Australia beautifully.
Bearing in mind that Richard Armitage
is far too busy filming the last of Oakenshield’s role in The Hobbit to make himself available for a cover shoot for Gisborne: Book of Knights, I have had to find others who might conceivably take his place.
Driving along the highway to House today, I was listening to a song by Nick Hornby and Ben Folds.
The first two verses are so pertinent.
Charles Dickens created 13,000 characters in his life. So I decided to count up the characters in my books.
