Today I’ve had a wonderful, windswept, walk on the beach
near Bamburgh, with my spaniel Meg, in the name of research. It’s been on my
mind to set the next novel bang on a wild Northumbrian beach, and though I
should probably be editing and working on the last novel, it’s been whirring
away in my thoughts. So I decided to get out there and live it, in the name of dog
walking, armed with a camera, a scrap of paper and a pen.
The dregs of Hurricane Bertha were beating away at the
shore, sending up mists of spray and the wind stole my breath, but it was
great. The elements were bashing my senses, and floating the dog’s ears at
right angles to her head - not that she was bothered. It gave me plenty of
inspiration.
It’s fantastic and exciting when a setting is just perfect
for what you want, and I really wanted a beach location with a sense of escape,
and isolation, yet the promise of change, of things to come - and a very
handsome next door neighbour enters the frame of my imagination and we’re off.
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My mind is now mulling on the details of the plot and the
back stories for these characters, who I can already picture. I’d love it to be
a story that makes you laugh and cry, and I hope I can do it justice. Writing
is wonderful and a bit crazy, hours are
spent in make-believe worlds inside your own head, but the roots have to be in
real life and real emotions. It’s challenging and exciting, and I love it. Well,
I’d better go get back in my head and make this story something special!
