Nine Months Later

It’s hard to believe that the last post I wrote on this blog was nine months ago when I had just returned from The Sahara Desert. I did try to write a blog in those last nine months, but each time I sat down to write about what I had been doing; future plans, projects I’d started, something stopped me writing. It may have been the fact that I was anxious about the health and well being of my family or maybe I felt guilty that I was creating while knowing other writers were stuck – either due to home schooling or writer’s block.

When I say I was creating I don’t mean working in my usual writing routine. I too suffered from writer’s block for a while. How do you write dystopian fiction when the world you live in is dystopian? I found new ways to be creative.

I knitted for Scotland. I made a blanket, a rug and many garments for myself and my family.

I kept a lockdown diary to record the bizarre and frightening time we were living through.

I researched how to write a comic book and completed a fifty page comic script.

I wrote bad poetry.

When the DIY stores opened again I painted and decorated my study.

And eventually, after things eased off in the lockdown I returned to some of my works in progress and completed them as final manuscripts.

I had hoped to start 2021 with a bright new blog post for the future. I do have exciting plans but as we find ourselves in lockdown once again I find that those plans may need to be adapted with each new twist this virus chooses to throw at us.

I can share that this week I have been working on a video. I’ve been invited to appear in an online book festival in March. It is great fun to learn a new skill yet again and I plan to share part of the finished video on here in the near future.