Distractions

I was hoping that by now I would be about half way through writing the first draft of my third novel, "A Dangerous Touch." It concerns a young woman with psychic abilities, who helps her local police force solve crimes and as a result becomes the target of a bloody conspiracy herself. However, that writing plan has become rather fluid over the last couple of months, for a number of reasons.

Firstly, I went on holiday to Scotland, which was extremely enjoyable, but too crammed with other activities to leave much time for writing. It did however, provide the opportunity for visiting another castle - this time Brodick on the Isle of Arran. It's set high above the town/village of Brodick itself and enjoys spectacular views across the sea, back to the Scottish mainland. At least it did on the clear, sunny day when we visited. I would imagine that on a cold, wet, windy, winter's day you would be lucky to see beyond the harbour. Inverary Jail also made another interesting excursion, with its details of old criminal trials and the bizarre punishments which were meted out. Some of them were definitely not for the squeamish!

The second distraction has been conducting guided tours of the Castle in French. School French is fine for holidays and everyday conversations, but does little to prepare you for describing the different parts of the castle, the contents (especially the armour) and not forgetting how a traitor was actually hung, drawn and quartered. Many visitors mistakenly believe the traitor was hung until he was dead - he wasn't. The executioner waited until the condemned person lost consciousness, revived him and then carried out the rest of the sentence.

The third distraction has been starting to write a series of short stories with a friend. This project is still in its infancy, but between us we are hoping to complete a mixture of humorour, tragic, sad and everyday tales of a group of women. More of that later, when progress has been made.

Tidying the garden is also a time consuming, but pleasurable task this time of year, especially now that the roses are in full bloom. My favourites are the old-fashioned ones, that look and smell incredible. I also find that working in the garden is relaxing and often a source of inspiration, so I'm off to do some dead-heading and hopefully collect my thoughts for the next chapter of my third novel.