Saturday 27th Jan 2024

Busy week, so reluctantly cleared away the character cards for the Anna Maybury books. Despite that, hoping that the manuscript for Radiant with His Glory will be back soon. I am longing to get my teeth into something. When I have all the time in the world, I lose momentum. And when I’m nose to tail, I find time to create. I guess it’s the adrenaline. Too much and I get anxious, not enough and I want to watch television and read murder mysteries.
I’m beginning to love the books written pre-war, so second hand book shops are a bit of a treat. Of course you have to look past the horrendous sexism, which has only defeated me a couple of times, but I guess that is true for most historical books. We write entrenched in our own eras, and pre-war was also post first world war, so there was a sense of darkness mixed with a desperate optimism, and a hankering after comfort and stability. Our times … crazy politics and monetary hankerings, celebrity and for some, the sheer unrelenting job of keeping their heads above water. But though it is a time of war, climate change, politicians who have lost their way, I am still constantly surprised by extraordinary kindness. Nuggets of joy, that are tiny in the scheme of things but enable you to crawl from the covers and attempt to live.