The third draft of my novel is going well. The Crooked House is a great place to write. I tried various spots: the little dining table, the bedroom and the terrace. Now I’ve settled on a writing desk in the lounge with the office chair. It’s comfy and well lit and near the kettle. Behind me, out of the photo, there’s a TV with DVDs etc., but I haven’t watched…
This morning I’m working from the residencia at the observatory. Why? Because I’m tour guiding at 11:30, but the Santa Cruz road is closed for road works from 9 am – 1 pm (and again from 4 pm – 8 pm, although that won’t affect me.) I chose to leave home very early and work on my laptop rather than drive for an extra hour. As I drove through them…
I got back from Lanzarote last night. I managed to get the suitcase unpacked and the washing machine on yesterday, but my To Do list today was quite long. Clean out old food from the fridge Buy more food Laundry Get to a cash point Polish the goat Phone friend Send August invoice for tour guiding Polish the goat? No, I don’t have a new pet, or a new bronze…
Recently I’ve been reading “Creating Stories” by my friend Hank Quense. It covers slightly different, more advanced ground than -“From Story -idea to Reader. I think they’re both excellent books. Take it away, Hank! My recently published Creating Stories has everything I’ve leaned about writing stories over the last twenty years. Below is an extract on plotting. Learn more at Amazon. From Chapter 6: Constructing a plot A plot…
I’m very, very close to the end of the second draft of my novel, “Murder by Starlight”. 99,000 words down, about 2,000 to go. I can’t bear to stop. When I get to THE END I will have a coherent novel. There will still be things to fix, but unlike the first draft I won’t have things like: [Write a scene here in which they quarrel and stop speaking] People…
A bit late, but here’s a video of my favourite thing from Los Llanos day carnival on Saturday. Carnival is like a giant street theatre: almost everybody joins in, demonstrating their creativity for everybody who cares to see. So here’s the Canarian Unsynchronised Swimming team with their mobile pool. The other thing I like about the video is the music. That’s my husband playing the drums in the band, and…