AUTHOR'S CORNER:

THE WINTER OF MY DISCONTENT

I ALWAYS START A NOVEL IN WINTER, AND NO, NOT BECAUSE I HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO, OR BECAUSE I LIKE TO WRITE IN FRONT OF AN OPEN FIRE.....(THOUGH HAVING THOUGHT ABOUT IT, I WOULD LIKE TO WRITE IN FRONT OF AN OPEN FIRE) BUT BECAUSE SOME OF MY BEST WORK IS IN WINTER.....WHY?  OKAY, READ ON....

I always try to start a novel in October or November; waiting until the good old British weather graces me with its wintry woes, blessing me with mist and fog and all shades of grey which seem to penetrate through my tender soul and invade my delicate senses!  Not to mention the depression that is brought about by the sheer death of my tree lined street, where the pavements seem to be coated in a mixture of dead leaves, slush and certain dog deposits which I don't care to mention!  The sheer force of the wind that seems to wait in hiding until I emerge from my house, and then whooshes down and whirls several times round my body, abusing my hair as it does so.  Or the spiky rain that insists on pinning me as I try to innocently make my way to the shops, washing my make-up away and leaving me looking like something out of Nightmare on Elm Street!  Oh yes, winter, who can fault it?  Always greeting us each and every single year, with abusive winds and darkened skies, rain that never ceases and a general feeling of complete and utter helplessness!  If aliens ever landed in England in the winter (which I suspect the poor sods did) they would deem earth as a forsaken planet and never come back again!

Needless to say, winter leaves me feeling somewhat...suicidal!  There seems to be no hope in the bleak skies overhead, and just taking the rubbish out becomes an Arctic chore!  Hell, it even gets dark by 4pm!  So then I find myself going insular and quite hermit like and a little dark in my spirit; which frightens the children and makes the family once again, question my sanity!  

COULD IT GET ANY WORSE?

OH IT DOES.....BUT WAIT, THERE IS A LIGHT THERE SOMEWHERE.....

You see with all these negative vibes, one can really harness them and make a great, intense and very powerful novel!

Depression and despair are great tools for a writer, you can draw upon your negative feelings and really write in an intense way that captures the very essence of your reader's soul!  It's just a matter of taking all that frustration, dark feelings, resentment, deep seated depression and applying them to your main character in your book; now your heroin can really feel pain, she can portray despair, she is DESPAIR!  Now your hero can take the reader down his own private lane of aggression; he can show your reader what a hurt and desperate man can do!  Your love will be written intensely and your pain will scorch a hole in the reader's mind!  Your words will be crisp and daring, battered by the winds of anguish, your pen fuelled by the winter's dying sun, and your page, your page shall be the battlefield that you fight upon! 

And on the plus side, your writing shall relieve you of your own dark feelings, it will be like having your own private therapist.  And your thoughts will flow like music, and your publisher will think you fantastic and deep and moody.  And your readers will think you genius and your husband will be spared your wroth. And your marriage shall survive!  And most importantly, your kids won't put you in an old folk's home when you are old!

THIS IS SIMPLY WHY I ALWAYS START A NOVEL IN WINTER; IT IS AFTER ALL THE WINTER OF DISCONTENT THAT BRINGS OUT THE BEST IN ME!