Well today I'm home with my sick daughter so thought I'd take the opportunity to work on some writing I've set aside for a while. Mensa and the Devil Tree is shaping up nicely as a story. I've tried to write it so the words sing when they're spoken. I want the sound of the words to have as much impact as the meaning. I've not performed anything like this before - in fact I've never performed alone on stage before, so there are numerous challenges, but I'm very excited. I'm sure I will get useful feedback from the other Temple members to help me sculpt Mensa to the best of my abilities.
I've set myself a goal to try and finish one of my novels for young adults this month (!). One regret is that I haven't spent as much time on these, and particularly that I hadn't finished one complete draft before moving on to the development of another. I have in my bedroom boxes upon boxes of handwritten notes and unfinished manuscripts. The novel I'm working on right now is one I started writing in August 2007 while vacationing in Ibiza with my family. This story is very special as the four main characters are modelled after my daughter, two neices and nephew. In fact, during one very hot day in our rented apartment, all four kids helped me write the first chapter of the story. When we returned to England, I set my notes aside and didn't look at them again until the following year when we made plans to return to Ibiza. So, in August 2008 I took the beginning of the manuscript with me and wrote for days - poolside, on the balcony, anytime I had five minutes to spare and needed some relief from the sun. With a good chunk of the story written and the entire bones of it fleshed out, I'm going to work very hard this month to finish the draft (in a lovely purple hardbound notebook), type it up, edit and submit to publishers. Fingers crossed - this may be my first published novel.
It's a great story, but still without a title! It centres around four children who are living on a small island near Sri Lanka with their Missionary parents. When a tsunami hits the island, the children are evacuated along with the other villagers. Separated from their parents during the chaos, their boat washes up on a strange little island which at first appears to be uninhabited. What the children discover about their new island home and themselves will change their lives forever.
I'll keep you posted on my progress....
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