Last month, I wrote about my book launch back in February for Trouble at Home, a little tale about Georgia and how she set out to solve the mystery of the missing family home, find her baby brother Godfrey, who is only almost-three, and vanquish a dragon.
Time has a habit on flying on by without me as I get distracted by life, and the next thing I know... well, time has flown.
Writing sort of happens for me in between being a Mum, a Wife, a Teacher, and a Housekeeper (albeit a very poor one – cleaning the house generally comes last on my list of things to do, so I keep it in a state of barely controlled chaos, whilst looking longingly at the beautiful homes featured in magazines and wonder how big their army of cleaners and stylists is, and whether anyone actually lives there. I generally get good at house cleaning when I know someone is coming to visit or Christmas is nearly here – and not always then).
Once I had recovered from First Term at School – a bit of a big deal because I’m at a new school and learning the ropes, back on class (yay!), and back on with the big kids after a hiatus working at the junior end of the school, which is a whole other kettle of fish – I gave myself a week of Writing Time (heaven) - where I could pretend to be a Writer.
Whilst my boy (also on holidays) either slept or otherwise amused himself, I settled into my Writing Room (currently doubling as the Spare Room, so becoming a little crowded – although the nice big bed is a great place to spread your notes out on) and opened a long closed file.
Quite some time ago, Georgia had persuaded me, um, I had decided to pen (key?) some further stories about Georgia’s adventures with Trouble... just in case.
Two stories had been brought to what I like to call late draft stage, and a third had been begun and abandoned in favour of working on getting some eggs into some other baskets, ie a couple of other stories which are now sitting in a wait state. It was this third (or seventh, depending on your point of reference) that I returned to. I had left it at the beginning of chapter five with the intriguing sentence,
And I am sure it was something to do with having spent recess on a time-out when I answered, ‘Well, why don’t you come up for the weekend, too?’
Luckily, I knew where I was going, even though I was working off a plan that consisted entirely of a brief paragraph stating that
... and really, maybe, perhaps she shouldn't have told him he was too little to play.
I told myself that I would allow myself to complete that draft during the school break then set it aside to let it settle.
Um, yes.
I finished the first draft on Day 1 of my planned writing time, and, although it will need work (for a start, it is nearly one and a half thousand words over length), I was pretty happy with it as far as first drafts go.
I spent Day 2 recovering from my typing-fest and procrastinating about what to do next. The planned fourth (eighth) book (also a paragraph) did not inspire at this time, although I think I will enjoy writing it, if and when the time comes, and I was mildly tempted to write something entirely different based on one of those little items of news that come up on social media.
Temptation won.
After some serious thinking time, I set out to write one adventure, realised that it had taken on a life of its own (Georgia does this to me), renamed it (leaving the great title I had for another story at some other time – insert smiley face!), and wrote – flying by the seat of my pants--to complete the story over three exciting days.
You might gather, by now, that any chance of completing a much overdue overhaul of my house had been completely abandoned – although I was keeping up with the laundry and the dishwasher, both being tasks that I can do while thinking of something else, and both take just long enough to provide a decent break and get me off my behind in between chapters. Luckily my husband does the cooking, so I didn’t have to worry about that.
By the time School went Back In, therefore, I had been ‘living’ my writing life dream and was feeling happily content.
The last few days of the break gave me time to reset to School mode, sort out my timetable, gather (and make) some resources, and pack my lunch ready to go.
We got about – ooh? – two kilometres down the road on the First Day Back before the Incident With the Kangaroo...
Hmm.
With some creative panel beating we were able to limp home in our somewhat damaged car (no injuries, thank goodness, although the poor kangaroo had met a very quick and unhappy demise) and I found myself on an unplanned extra day off.
Upon which date I did receive – and even now I’m feeling super excited – the page proofs for book 2, Trouble and the Missing Cat, complete with gorgeous, amazing, lovely illustrations (which I hadn’t seen as yet) by Stephen Michael King, who has taken over as illustrator.
So... I got to spend the day being a Writer again, going through the pages and then going through them again. And again. Which just wasn’t getting old, and I kept find more and more lovely things hidden in the pictures whenever I took my eyes off the words long enough to just enjoy what I was looking at.
Anyway, this Writer is very pleased to let you know that even more Trouble is on its way!
Oh, and I’ll definitely be planning another launch - I had so much fun last time!