Muirfinn

 

Today I go back to writing, after a self-imposed one-month hiatus. (Well, mostly a hiatus… more about that later.) I had to move out of my home of 15 years and downsize into an apartment, over the course of the month of July. I figured, mostly correctly, that my Muse would spend July sulking – I’ve hated moving ever since a two-year period 30 years ago when I lived in six places over the course of two years. Add in the fact that this move was involuntary, and you have a perfect recipe for a sullen, pouting Muse. So it seemed like the perfect time for my first real break in close to three years of doing my damnedest to write Every. Single. Day.

Easier said than done.

I really intended to stay away from my next project. My last big project, the fifth Fae novel, was one of those stories where what starts out as a perfectly clear vision ends up feeling like wading through quick-drying cement, and I thought some “down time” was going to feel fabulous. And I was kind of right. I made it almost halfway through my “vacation” – it was almost two weeks before Muirfinn and Cass started hectoring me. I tried to placate them by outlining. Look, I’m not REALLY writing, I’m just, um, getting some ideas down. But one thing led to another, and pretty soon I was cruising Tumblr for pictures of hot models. And Googling the ferry and bus routes serving the Isle of Lewis. And checking out traditional homes in the Hebrides. And checking sunrise and sunset times (if you’ve read either of my Tales of the Grove novellas, you’ll know why that matters).

In other words, so much for all my good intentions. And the boys STILL wouldn’t let me be. Outlining wasn’t good enough for them, no sir no ma’am.

I’m not sure why I still set up these little tests for myself – “I’m a real writer if I do X.” Because I’m probably a “real writer” by any measurement that doesn’t involve hitting one or more national best-seller lists, winning a major national book award, or being able to quit my Evil Day Job. But I do. I test myself. And now I’ve passed another test. “I’m a real writer if I can’t stay away from the friggin’ computer for more than 10 days at a time.”

*rolls up sleeves* Back to work… I hear a reclusive Gille Dubh and an emotionally scarred artist yammering at me….

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