Scintilla Publishers

I have recently returned from a wonderful holiday sailing around Great Barrier Island and the Bay of Islands with friends and family. It was relaxing and great fun. We all ate far too much and spent our days talking and laughing and lazing about reading, swimming, playing boggle and discussing our many plans for this new year 2010. It has an auspicious ring to it -2010, as if this is a year to take note of.

I now have an ending for my new book. I am writing it for my sister who is courageously undergoing her second bout of chemotherapy at the moment; for it is her story. No matter how nail bitingly good the narrative may be, a story without a satisfactory ending is useless. I have been struggling with my ending for a while now and somehow, on the boat, during some interesting brainstorming sessions, everything came together and I have one which I feel will be a good conclusion for all my characters. This genre I am writing in, the supernatural, is not one I have attempted before and my research is taking me into realms I have never before explored. It is all very exciting and I am learning heaps about all sorts of – well, supernatural things, I suppose. This is my third attempt at telling this tale; the previous two faltered and died because I did not have the right balance between the real and the supernatural worlds. The trick I have discovered is that when one has created a world of magic one has to remain entirely in that world and not contaminate it with one’s own reality, or the magic is instantaneously lost. I am finding this quite a challenge but am enjoying the process. I hope this time, especially now that I know to what ending I am progressing, I will get it right. Third time lucky!

I have resolved to write a bit every day come what may so that when my sister has recovered from this round of chemo she will have her story to read.