Happy Christmas, to those who celebrate.
Also, I’m late on this, but Happy Hanukkah too.
I’m sat on our huge orange sofa, cuddled up under a blanket with E while our puppy sits at my feet, wondering when we are going to take him out for a Christmas Day walk. The End of an Era is on. There’s tea and mince pies waiting. Life is good.
I guess this is the time of year when I take stock of everything that has come before. I think I’ll do some kind of Wrapped post separately, but all the same, I’m sitting in a very interesting period of my life.
Despite everything going on, I am feeling incredibly creative at the moment. I’ve managed to get my next book off to my agent and the edits on TCOA back to my editor before the self-imposed deadline of now.
That’s left me feeling open to new opportunities in a way that I haven’t been in a long time. I’ve been working on what I am hoping will be my next book throughout this year. To have that off my desk for a little while, as it is considered, means I have to keep moving with something else.
For a long time, I’ve had an idea in my head and in the last week, I’ve written both an opening and an ending that I am now looking to fill the gaps on. It’s different to anything I’ve done before and a pivot in tone, but it’s quite comforting and also justified. I don’t like to detail anything out in case it’s a story that doesn’t fully arrive or that I need to write just to write rather than to share. All the same, it’s coming together.
At the same time, another idea has presented itself that I want to take my time with. There’s a whole world I would need to build for it and a level of planning that looks different to anything I have done before. That means it’s unlikely to rear its head for a while so I’ll finish up the above and let it gestate a little longer.
For today, I’m giving myself a break and letting my tea go cold.
Feliz navidad.
Paul Schiernecker 