Followers

I'm very flattered at finding that I have a follower! Even more so because Kirpal is a fellow-artist living not so far away from me. I'm looking forward to meeting her. The second follower is me - I'm pretty new to this blog business and don't know what I'm doing half the time, which is why I seem to be following myself!

I spent most of yesterday putting my office in order. It's nearly there - just a few tweaks here and there and I'll feel more like working in it. Some people can work in any old muddle (like my husband), but I prefer things to be orderly. Things get out of order very quickly when I'm writing, especially if there's a lot of research involved. I reach a certain level, then I have to give in the urge to tidy the place up or I find the chaos shuts down the creative side of my brain and causes stress.

There is an advantage to clearing a space on the desk - I invariably find little treasures or long-lost important documents. My new puppy likes to think of himself as my little helper in that department - if he gets high enough he will take, run off with and chew anything he can get in his mouth, and for a wee Yorkshire Terrier he has a mighty big mouth!

THRILLER IN THE MAKING

Getting back to normal after going through a long period of episodes you would rather not remember is far from easy. However, at long last I feel that "normal", if you could ever call my life that, is taking hold again.

The shelved novel is getting it's final edit and will soon be off to the publisher. Better still, the thriller I've been carrying in my head for a while is starting to flow onto paper. I've always managed to get suspense in my novels, but I'm finding an out and out thriller much more difficult to write. It's so easy to get caught up in the tangled web I myself am creating. Setting clues and red herrings is easy, but working out the who, the where, the why and the how is far more complicated than I imagined.

However, it's refreshing to write something entirely different, something I have dreamed of writing for as long as I can remember. Right now, the biggest mystery is who the hero or heroine is going to be - not to mention the murderer! Maybe I should do what Agatha Christie is said to have done and not decide until the last chapter.

Well, I'd better get back to the editing of The Raging Spirit today and think more about The Second Man tomorrow.