May 22, 2017 – JO LAMBERT

thVMC4QCVC

Having just got back from a really relaxing break I’m about to resume work on my current WIP The Boys of Summer. For me this is always the hardest moment. Part of me is still back in Norfolk, locked into a pleasant daily regime where lunch and dinner are the only two defined moments in the day. Everything else we did was up for grabs, decided either the night before or over breakfast. Now, back home, once again daily routine holds sway and part of that routine is writing. Reconnecting with your characters after an absence is sometimes difficult, although having said that, they still managed to intrude into my thoughts even when I was miles from home, having my chill out week.

My first job over the weekend (besides tackling the inevitable overflowing laundry Ironing basket) was to set up three promos, read and review one book and deal with the e-mails I’d not been able to respond to on my iPad. Electronic life is relentless. Your plan is to get away from it all but you have to stay connected in order to minimise the time you’ll have to spend responding to things when you get back. So it was a daily trawl, either deleting or starring for attention on my return.

I do actually have moments when I think ‘what the hell’ and abandon all thoughts of being organised even though it’s completely against my nature. I am and always have been a creature of to ‘do lists’ and diaries. In fact one job I had earned me the title ‘Miss Organisation’. True to form, therefore, this weekend I deliberately concentrated on the distracting stuff, (including a pile of ironing – my least favourite domestic chore), wanting to get all of that out of the way so I could give all my full concentration to writing today, Monday. And now, here I am, thinking about the next scene as I try to round up my characters, who like naughty children, seem to be enjoying the game of hide and seek as I attempt to get them all together again.

When I worked on the storyline for The Boys of Summer I found it fell into two clear sections. Determined to keep to my deadline I burnt the midnight oil to complete part one before I left for my holiday. Achieving this resulted in a huge sigh of relief and a well deserved large pre-holiday glass of wine. I’d left central character Kat Trevelyan en route to Italy. Leaving a painful past behind her she was about to begin a new job working for a friend of her father’s. A year has gone by and I’m bringing her back to her home in Cornwall and the man who broke her heart. Watch this space…