Walks, Guy Fawkes and Writing Stuff

This country never ceases to amaze me – one day grey skies and pouring rain and today the most amazing cloudless blue sky and brilliant sunshine.  So on a gloriously sunny afternoon what better an activity than to walk off Sunday lunch?  As usual I took my camera with me, it’s always an opportunity to take shots and we do live in a most wonderful part of the country.  It’s recently been included as part of the Cotswolds and is also in an area of outstanding natural beauty.  I do bang on about this I know, but growing up in a small village on the edge of Salisbury Plain I have always been in awe of not only the countryside around me but how, if you walk and then look at it again, the aspect of it all is subtly changed.  Yesterday was a good time for a walk as the trees are now the most glorious shades of yellow, red and orange.  In a month’s time they will be totally bare and we will really feel winter has arrived.  But yesterday in sheltered spots it was really warm.  Certainly I found my quilted jacket quite hot; however as soon as we were back in shade is struck not only cold but damp as well.  I didn’t realise how much rain we’d had, it was only when we reached a spot in the lane where water was pouring off the fields that it was apparent.  I’ve included some of my shots with this blog.

Moving on, I’m beginning to wonder about our annual celebration of Guy Fawkes night.  When I was young it used to be one night of bonfires and fireworks and we either had a family event in the garden or went to a public display.  This year, however, the whole event  appears to have lasted all of a fortnight!  The fifth was a Tuesday and locally public parties on Bath Rec and the University took place the weekend before, so it was always going to be a protracted event – but I heard my first fireworks even before November had arrived and last night the bangs and crashes were still in evidence.  I am hoping it will have run its course by this evening – whoever is letting them off may be having fun but I do have concerns for those poor animals who must be hiding somewhere, paws over their head thinking ‘Oh no not again!’

Now onto writing.  Firstly I’d like to take a moment to congratulate the lovely Linn B Halton on her Innovation Award at last weekend’s Festival of Romance.  Here’s a lady who truly lives life in the fast lane!  If I was her I would need to clone myself to cope with all she does – and she still finds time to write great books!  Well done Linn – very much deserved!

Since my last post my newest project has moved on some.   It all started out as a single ‘what if?..would that work…?’ thought and now it’s progressed a little farther down the track.  There are some ideas I’ve had in the past which I realise after a while simply aren’t going to work.  This isn’t one of them thankfully, although at the moment I’m running some ideas through my head in order to expand the story.  My books start with a beginning and an end and the rest tends to come as the writing begins.  It’s a bit like making a sandwich and not yet deciding what the filling will be.  This book is set in a village as my others have been but don’t be fooled into thinking I write cosy country-based stories, far from it!  This time unlike my previous Little Court novels which have worked from the mid-sixties to the mid-nineties this book is bang up-to-date in its timing. So this project will be completely new territory for me.  The last books have been easier due to the fact that I’ve been working in a familiar environment, adding new characters to existing ones as we move on in time.  On this occasion, however, I’m starting from scratch – scary or challenging?  Well a little of both but one thing is certain it’s definitely going to be a voyage of discovery: a journey I don’t have a map for. Hopefully once I’ve written several chapters and the book begins to bed in it will seem like I’ve known them for ages!