No Idea

It is hard to know what to write about.  Normally a blog is a snapshot of the writer’s life, yet I’m aware of how my rural isolation compares to the tragedy that is going on around me. As I write this, I’m irritated by the sunshine making it hard to see my screen and by trying to keep the sun umbrella in the right position.  As I type, there are riots going on all over the world following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, CV19 is rampaging its own path through people’s lives.

To write of my life of being lost for days on end weaving stories about imaginary people, growing vegetables, watching my baby goats play seems wrong while there is so much tragedy going on. Yet this is my world.

I watched a short film recently about creatives struggling to work while the world was in such turmoil. It angered me, how could they be so pathetic, whining about the lack of routine, the ‘bad vibes’ while so many people were doing proper work, day after day, dealing with death while risking their own lives and that of their families. How can anyone moan about their lack of creativity when the reality for so many others is so harsh.

I haven’t found it hard to work, perhaps I’m just more disciplined or driven, or, more perhaps just not as sensitive. I have completed the first drafts of six books that I had intended to re-write and have edited this year. My master plan was to have them all finished before I travelled to New Zealand later in the year. That trip looks increasingly unlikely, but I’m ploughing on with the books all the same. I’m half-way through the second draft of a non-fiction book which details the plotting, writing and independent publishing process. Once that is completed, I have two books of a crime series to work on. The first of the series came out earlier this year. There are also three contemporary romances which where originally written as stand-alone novels, but which I’ve decided to link by a character and also the location they are set in.

At the moment it is heavenly here, the weather is incredible, hot and dry, something very rare for the west coast of Ireland. Working, normally a battle against the cold, is currently a gentle spat between finding shade and still being outside.

I cannot stop the terrible things that are happening following George Floyds dreadful death, or help anyone who is ill with CV, but perhaps I can do my bit with my writing and provide some escapism for those who read them.