Enchanted April

Rain. Rain. And in case I forgot it's April ... more rain.

I wish I could report that I have a garden of tulips, daffodils and crocuses blooming. I always plan to buy bulbs in the fall to make this magic happen in the Spring but ... I'll be honest, it's hard to push oneself to labour for a reward that's 6 months away.

Hey! Much like writing a novel!

I'm working on Book #3. My original title was scrapped and for good reason. I don't miss it at all. After a bit of brainstorming I came up with THE RIVER BRIDE which my agent liked, so that's the one we're going with.

THE RIVER BRIDE is about jealousy and murder, art and forest fires, marriage and lust. A tangle of passionate, but doomed attachments, playing out in the high heat of summer.

It was going well until Easter. Then family dinners, children home from university, phone calls to siblings, shopping, chocolate, visiting--LIFE--knocked me out of my flow, and now I'm stalling, stumbling, and generally zoning out. It's as if my brain suddenly realized there was a world outside of my imaginary one and it ain't going back.

It would be easier on my brain if there were no holidays at all. Writing is turning me into a feral animal. A hermit who never gets out of her bathrobe. A person who will never have spring flowers in her garden because that would mean thinking about something that wasn't writing.

The most non-writer thing I've done since Christmas was lose 12 pounds. Yes! The 12 pounds I gained when I started writing in 2004 I have FINALLY lost. And you know? It was fun thinking about something that had nothing to do with writing. It was fun mooning about my diet instead of my word count, and going for hikes with the dog in the morning. Le sigh.

Time to wrestle my brain back into the car. Bathroom break is over. We've got a long way to go.

PS: Congratulations Prince William and Kate. I hope you will be very happy. (I get all weepy for Diana, like a faucet, whenever I see her little boy on television.) (Arghhh! Damn it! Brain, get back to work!)