I always seem to begin my blogs by apologizing for not posting. I’m afraid that I don’t have that wonderful brain that can schedule stuff like that. I just suddenly look up and think, “Oops. I haven’t posted in a month.” Which is actually probably better, since that saves you from my rants. I have trouble editing those down to acceptable statements, so you get the full blast of my momentary indignations.
The good news is that I am rant-free at the moment. That’s because I’m in one of my most creative places on earth. We got to have a second week on the beach in Michigan, and besides playing dominoes, reading, reading, reading(I FINALLY got to read all the Harry Potters. Finished Deathly Hallows yesterday. Hooray, Harry!) and having happy hour as we watch the sunset, I’ve been doing some prodigious writing.
It’s the most amazing thing. I never write with other people around. I’m writing out on the deck as the rest of my family lobs breakfast products over my head. I never write in the morning(I rarely even see the morning), but here I am on the deck overlooking the lake pounding keys so fast I forget to space between words. I never actually write more than one book at a time. But in the last two days I’ve completed 20 pages on the regency historical adventure series I’m proposing(and oh, baby, is there action), and another 12 on the last of my fairy trilogy for Harlequin Nocturne. Orla is having her day in the sun, and she’s about to cause a world of trouble for the Dubhlainn Sidhe, the patriarchal fairy clan. I’m having a blast. I wish I had another week or two. Unfortunately(and only in the context of what I want to get written), my husband and I go to Alaska next week. I’ll try and find cyber places to post my impressions( I AM going to see the aurora borealis if I have to track it like wild ox).
In the meantime, a reflection. I’ve decided that what I really am is a water person. I don’t have to be in it. Matter of fact, I prefer not to be in it(especially Lake Michigan. We go in once a year, just to say we did, and last a good fifteen minutes). But I need the sight of it, the smell of it, the sound of it. And it has to be water you can see across(the Mississppi doesn’t count as I frequently tell my husband). Lake Michican, the Irish Sea, the Pacific. Any will do. I just need to be there. There’s something about the edge of the world by the sea that unleashes my creativity.
Imagine my chagrin when I came to that realization at the age of thirty, sitting in St. Louis, where the nearest ocean is over a thousand miles away. Sigh. Well, Michigan’s only 500 miles, so I do get here. But oh, boy, do I wish I could do it more. Til then, though, I’ll get back to torturing fairies and imperiling Dragoons. After all, I have twelve more hours of lake time left…..
eileenkathleen, the evil twins
Thank you so much for sharing this post.