The Distracted Author – Chapter 1

The Distracted Author Chapter 1

Now I know that books vary greatly in their gestation periods, my previous ones being good examples. But The Bells of Prosper Station was meant to be a fun, easy, fantasy write.

I’ve never written fantasy before so I figured that it could be dashed off in a few weeks or months, possibly the first in a series. Yet here I am, ten months later, still waiting at the station. (Babies don’t take that long to leave the womb fully formed!)

It was when I decided to create an historical fantasy set in my own lovely town that the estimated time of arrival began to encounter delays. (I’ve already blogged about this … and will again.) Despite optimistic and compulsive goal-setting, the allocated completion date keeps sliding ahead as if of its own volition.

However, one of the blessings of maturity is that I’m getting better at appreciating the moment. Take this summer. Two of my grandsons are here three days a week while their parents work. We have an agreement, the boys and I, that I’m allowed to write two hours each day while they entertain themselves quietly.

As you might imagine, against a background of jostling, squabbling, wrestling and teasing, these two hours are not necessarily ones of concentrated creativity.

Fortunately, I no longer consider a day lacking in a thousand words of flowing prose to be a loss. Perhaps this is what is meant by ‘mellowing with age’.

Where am I with Prosper Station? Well, it’s roughly plotted out to the end with twenty-five percent of the chapters in draft condition. What is the much-revised-and-latest completion date target? November 9, 2013.

Stay posted…