Blog 7 - The Big Day, Cabin Fever and Reluctant Heroes - 13 August, 2013

Three days, including today, until my book, “Harcourt’s Mountain” is launched! It’s come so fast. There’s so much still to organize that “The Device Hunter” is on hold for this week. Although it does feel as if it’s been on hold, or at least moving extremely slowly, for a while now. Here I was hoping that for three months I would be burning up the keyboard with words, imagination and chapters leaping from one to the next with the abandon of ADHD gazelles! It hasn’t quite worked out that way. Retrenchment, a.k.a. freedom, has been wonderful! Not even the fact that my car has chosen this time to fall apart has managed to ripple the surface of peace and joy I have discovered in the last few weeks.

While the car was at the fix-its though I found myself pacing the cottage, muttering about plot and heroes who refused to play nicely, trying to decide whether the story should be smaller and more contained or to let my imagination run riot. Should it be a bridled and saddled horse that I can ride with precision and comfort or should it be more of a ride with a herd of wild horses and just see where we end up? Even if it is the edge of a cliff?

That’s when I realized I had a bad dose of cabin fever, induced by writing B.T.S.O.M.P. (by the seat of my pants) and a lack of transport and not being within walking distance of, well, anywhere really. Cabin fever isn’t pleasant. It’s not as bad as dengue fever, but it is a tad annoying. There I was, trapped in the cottage, unable even to go for a coffee and tearing my hair out. Thankfully, I do have amazing friends who came to the rescue when I needed it. Sometimes it was when they needed it.  So instead of worrying about what my ever so reluctant hero should be doing I was sewing capes for a school performance for eight year olds!

All creativity is connected, even day dreaming. Those golden threads that we pull out of the imagination, out of the sky all speak the same language, it’s how we interpret them that differs. I was chatting to an artist friend about the difference between writing “Harcourt’s Mountain” and “The Device Hunter” and how I was battling the rigours of writing the new book.  She’s just finished an eight meter canvas and she mentioned how she had worked in one section at a time rather than seeing the canvas as a whole. But when it was finished she had an interwoven narrative that worked as a fabulous whole.

Helen Keller once said, “Life is either a great adventure, or nothing.” So wild horses it is then, and I’m not going to worry about where it all fits together. I’m going to write anything and everything that comes to me. Get it down on paper. Tell each section as well as I can and then when there are no more sections to write, I’ll stitch it all together afterwards. Now that seems more like an adventure! And something a hero would prefer! I can’t wait to get started! Until then, keep your eyes peeled for the launch of “Harcourt’s Mountain”. From 15 August it’ll be available from Tirgearr Publishing, Kindle, Smashwords, Apple, Kobo, Nook, Sony, All Romance Books and Omnilit. I'd love to hear from you once you've read it. And if you enjoy it, please let all your friends know so they can download a copy as well!

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