School's out for summer...

Summertime, and the living is easy...

It’s officially the start of summer holidays here. The sun is shining, the sky is blue. My tomato plants have gone mad with an abundance of shiny red cherry tomatoes. Schools broke up a week ago, the builders took their annual leave as of yesterday. People from upcountry are blocking the roads as they get lost and drive too fast. Restaurant prices have soared for the annual influx of tourists. Oh yes, holiday fever abounds and I swear everyone is wondering around with tinsel hanging out of their ears!

I meanwhile, having finished the first draft of my YA space/sci-fi/love story, have been playing with a midgrade fantasy, first written several years ago, while the YA composts for a month or two to give me better perspective for the rewrite. In-between arguing about aspects of the house build, I’ve been up to my eyeballs in dragons and gnomes. It’s a giddy life, I tell you, between building a fantasy world and building a house. But there’s nothing quite like the process of creation, that business of seeing things in your mind and then bringing them to life – either on a page, or a piece of earth.

“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.”
George Bernard Shaw

“It is better to create than to be learned, creating is the true essence of life”
Barthold Georg Niebuhr

I’ve also been jumping around like an excited loon about the news of a two book deal for one of my long standing critique partners, Jackie Marchant. Jackie is classic example of perseverance paying off and I’m just so pleased for her! I’m hoping she’ll agree to do either a blog post or an interview here because her persistence and determination really are inspirational.

Right, and now I suppose I’d better go and get that damned Christmas tree up.

Ice-cream Sundays in the sun