GETTING THE MOJO BACK!

Tuesday, March 29, 2011March has been..interesting!
NEW NOVEL IN THE OFFING:
After five months of chronic sciatica, I'm finally on the mend and feel I can sit at my computer for more than half an hour at a time and compose, not only myself, but my next novel. I've already thrown the beginnings of one novel aside - it really wasn't working to my liking, so I'll save it for another time perhaps. The "new" new novel is in the embryo stages and I'm faced with quite a lot of research, though I tend to do this as I move on through the story rather than saturate my brain and my research archives with reams of information that I will never use. Quite often, I find that the size of the research file is greater than the size of the completed typescript.

What's that? You want to know what the new book will be about? Hmm, well, allow me to keep some details up my sleeve for now. I will, however, tempt you with the words "Ceylon" (now Sri Lanka): tea and herb plantations, love, passion, hate and murder - and monsoons. There, is that enough to whet your appetite until I can get it all down on paper and sent to my publisher, Robert Hale, who has faithfully published my work for the last ten years. Long may it continue to be so.

This week I received the published Large Print version of "THE RED HILLS" - a love story set in Kenya. Thorpe/Ulverscroft have made a really nice job of the cover. I am now awaiting the arrival of my latest published Hale novel - "THE RAGING SPIRIT" - a romantic suspense set on the island of Hirta (St Kilda). I've already seen the dust jacket for that and it's very atmospheric.

FRUSTRATIONS OF THE ARTIST:
At long last I have been able to get back to my art work, though I am going to have to disappoint the Culture Committee of my village, who normally count on me to put on a good show. With five months of ill-health - a huge bite out of my life - I feel I have a lot to catch up, as well as the need to relax and get my strength back. It's not like me to run out of energy, but this time - age does, I'm afraid play its dreadful part, even thought my mind tells me that I am still only 38 and not blah-di-blah. Old or young, it's all a state of mind, never mind what the body tells us.

Anyway, I'm back to teaching painting to my group of wannabe artists and I'm also enjoying the new studio I had built last year - it's my gorgeous home from home, my pied de terre and I couldn't be happier than when I'm installed in there with the sun shining in the big glass doors and me staring out at the trees and the distant hills - getting my fingers thick with paint and dreaming of my next project (there's always something being cooked up in mind!).

I did have a shock the other day when I opened a large plastic storage box and found that a mouse had been having fun making miniature streamers out of a couple of water-colours I'd painted. Oh, disaster!

CANDY and TOBY
My two miniature Yorkshire terriers are doing fine. They are finally starting to form a canine team and there are fewer spats. They were found recently helping themselves to their own food through holes they had chewed in the bag, which had been left standing on the kitchen floor. Toby is in training to stop his deafening barking when somebody comes to the door. I find a small plastic bottle with a few stones inside rattles loudly enough to make him stop. I wish it would work the same with his toilet habits - still not properly clean at 18 months. The vet says this is probably something to do with how he was kept in the first few weeks of life - he came out of a barn. He is now, thankfully, telling me when he wants to go out, but on occasion he's already done the business beforehand and is probably telling me that I need to wipe up. But I do love him as he's very affectionate and a real character. I adore Candy too, but she's a gentle little lady who is at this moment on her cushio snoring rather loudly.

GENEALOGY
I've just taken out a subscription to Ancestry.co.uk and I can see that I am going to get hooked, because in a few days I've already found a whole lot more information on my ancestors than I ever could with Genes United. Like most people, I have skeletons in the old family cupboard and how exciting it is rooting around in the ancient records to see what I can turn up. Unfortunately, the family names are far too simple to make it easy- Richardson and Williams are hardly rare, but i'm getting more feedback on Peel and Cummings.
Posted by June Gadsby at 7:30 AM 0 comments Email This
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Labels: Ceylon, New novel, painting, plantations
Saturday, February 19, 2011What happened to Christmas?
Well, I don't know about your Christmas, but mine was well and truly cancelled. The problems started in November 2010 when I was suddenly struck down with a variety of aches and pains and needed to have injections and scans, but well before Christmas the aches and pains turned into a full-blown chronic sciatica. Four months down the road and I'm just recovering from this painful affliction. I couldn't walk, could hardly move, so put on weight with lack of exercise and turned into a zombie couch potato. Anyone who know me will understand how frustrated I felt.

Happily, I'm now well on the road to recovery, but still taking things easy. However, I have managed to continue with my Avon work and so far it's going quite nicely thank you! Once I can get out and about again I hope to get more clients to make it all worthwhile, but as a pure beginner at the business I'm not complaining.

So, what else has happened in the meantime? Another book heading for publication in May this year - THE RAGING SPIRIT - set in 1890 on the islands of St Kilda in the wild seas off north western Scotland. I'm now starting work on what I hope to be my next novel - a contemporary thriller with a touch of "is it or is it not" supernatural. It's a big departure from my usual saga type genre, but I figure it's time I moved, not so much on from there, but sideways.

Painting, like writing, has also been sitting on the shelf waiting for my health to improve and here too I plan to take a sideways step and incorporate some bigger abstract works.

Well, I've had a busy weekend so far, back and forward to the vet with one of my lovely dogs, an Avon reunion and now I'm going to settle down with a bit of forbidden joy - a glass of red wine. I shall no doubt be asleep before my husband is finished watching football on the tele. Ah, well. Let's see what tomorrow brings.
Posted by June Gadsby at 8:02 AM 0 comments Email This
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Labels: Avon, new publication, St Kilda, thriller
Wednesday, December 8,