Jenyfer Matthews

First things, first: thanks to everyone who stopped by over the weekend to help me celebrate Here To Stay‘s one year anniversary. I put the names of everyone who commented in a hat and Vicky B, you won! Drop me an email and tell me what format you’d like.

I’m in a better-than-usual mood today. Maybe it’s because I made a start on the list of pesky “to-do” list of chores yesterday which included convincing the housing department’s plumber that my toilet needed new innards – it sounded like a waterfall in the bathroom. I hung a couple of pictures in my living room, a small change that really made a difference.

Maybe it’s because I went to pick up my ticket for a get-away to see my friend in Dubai next month and sold a baby quilt to my travel agent in the process – an unexpected bonus.

Maybe it’s because I’m pages away from being finished with my book club selection. My happiest moment with that book will be shutting it forever. I have several new books loaded and ready to go in my reader including Shelley Munro’s Playing to Win and Micqui Miller’s Morning Star and can’t wait to get to them.

Or maybe I’m in such a good mood because I’m sitting here in my flannel pants and socks and have absolutely no where I need to go today. I really love a day when I get to play hermit in my house and try to set up my schedule so I get at least one a week. The day usually turns out to be a day like any other, nothing exciting, but it always seems so full of possibility. And on a damp, cold day like this is, just not going out is enough of a reward for me.

I had big plans for when the children went back to school after the Christmas break. I’m in the second half of my as-yet-untitled WIP. My heroine Aurora is traveling and is making a few stops in my part of the world. Finally I thought – I wouldn’t have to spend hours looking at guide books to refresh my memory of local detail and tourist sites – I live here! I assumed that the setting would be so fresh and relevant that the words will flow off my fingertips to the page and I’d be finished in no time.

I should have known better. It’s not exactly working like that. In fact, it’s as slow-going as ever, if not moreso.

I think the problem is that now I have too much local detail I want to share. I have to sort through it all and figure out what will support the storyline and enhance the setting and what is just me indulging myself. As usual, my story is one that centers more around inner conflict and a personal transformation so there isn’t any grand adventure / mystery to pull things along. I have some ideas but things are still stalled.

But on the bright side, I guess it’s better to have too much to say than not enough. That’s what editing is for, right?

Told you I was in a good mood.

Be Sociable, Share!

•