It’s March Break and the weather has been lovely for those youngsters on holiday. My tulips and daffs are up along the side of the house, a nice west exposure where they get the heat of the house and the sun warmed brick to encourage growth. Spring is coming …in fits and starts. This weekend snow is forecasted. So, spring arrives, like an old standard jalopy with loose hips driven by teenager who drives automatic.

Mr. Angry and I have been talking about writing, writing, writing. It’s been wonderful. We’ve had some amazing Reading Nights the past while and we both feel an energy unwinding inside. It might actually be called momentum, but let’s not be too hasty. Mr. Angry has been hard at work on Maeve, his post-apocalyptic story, which has kept us both up late, me waiting for my bedtime story.

Meanwhile, I’ve been working at the tome: editing, writing new bits, rewriting old, planning the next book and so on. I wrote a short story recently, as a break from the trilogy, and as an exploration of an idea and character I’m thinking might take off as a new set of books. Self-contained, I’m hoping this time. The trilogy is exhausting. Anyway, I tried, as Ursula LeGuin suggested in her book, Steering the Craft, and as Mr. Angry seconded a number of times, to write gloriously. It worked somewhat. Aided, of course, by the nightly snippets of Mr. Angry’s work and the beautiful prose of another author friend whose work I’ve had the pleasure to read. Nothing like reading excellent prose to make you want to spout some of your own.

I think it made difference. But, you can decide that for yourself. Here’s something I rewrote at the end of January and was very happy with at the time.

Liv reined Cobar in at the top of the hill and stared down at the collection of buildings below her. The lodge rose from the trees, a squarish horseshoe, with the kitchen jutting out slightly into the back garden. A tower rose from the north-east corner, clearly visible from the outside. Inside was a different story. Liv could find no tower room, nor could she find the room at the end of the west wing, though her own bedroom sat a top it. There must be some secret entrance, though she could not discover the trick of it.

Here’s the rewrite from yesterday, this time concentrating on the words, not just the flow.

Liv reined Cobar in at the top of the hill and stared down at the horseshoe outline of the lodge. A hawk cried above her. Shadows lengthened in the early evening light as the sun sunk towards the trees. A whiff of cedar hung on the light breeze, an after-taste from the warm autumn day.

Liv had found no tower room, nor had she penetrated the northern arm of the horseshoe to the room that lay clearly beneath hers. More mysteries, she thought with a grimace. She had spent most of the day exploring, poking and prodding at the various carvings, trying to gain admittance to the rooms she had discovered on an early morning perambulation of the estate. Rooms that were conspicuously evident from her current vantage point. No amount of finger wiggling or pulling gargoyles tongues and snakes tails had produced a hidden door.

It’s not perfect… I will undoubtedly do some picking and prodding of the text myself. But, I think I see a change for the better. Of course, this just means more work on the tome. Sigh. But it’s all fun, even the pulling teeth bits.

Well, the sun is shining and my cats want to chase birds. I’d best go rescue the window screen.

Until later…

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We’re off to raise the mast and sail the boat today. It’s bright and sunny and should be a lovely day for a nice slow sail (seeing as it is the first time we’re doing this with our saillboat.) Yoga on Thurs night was good and yesterday’s bike ride was very nice. The massage on Thurs also helped but I’m a bit stiff today. So, I think a nice walk this evening.

Haven’t been able to write for the last few days what with course prep and all. I had a great day on Wed. though and, hopefully, sometime on the weekend, I’ll be able to get back to it. This term will be difficult to keep things going at a regular pace. I’m doing a lot of fun things other than writing and having two classes does mean that they come first. But, I’ll try to get better once mid Oct hits and sailing weather is gone for the year and Thanksgiving is over. The wordcount at the top of the page will change more frequently then. It may jump quite dramatically depending on whether I’m writing new scenes or editing older ones to fit the changes that have happened since they were originally scribbled down. I’m hoping that some of the later scenes will not need much editing.

Well, off sailing….