Where and How I Work!

Hi, back as promised. Thinking of posting the occasional picture; some of where I work, warts and all – my own personal slice of ‘clutter mania’ with its aura of junk, cans and coffee cups. Sneak-peeks are always good interest generators. Will see what I can come up with – maybe some shots of days gone by.

Start writing at seven every morning. My work pattern sorts itself out. Usually kick off by sifting through the previous day’s work for typos and silly words. Silly words come out when I’m tired, crawling from under my keyboard; plot poisoners – slavering adjectives – hate the buggers. The odd one’s okay, then enough – verbs rule! Go for as long as I can, but by midday I’m verging on literary meltdown. No use carrying on, ‘cause from there on in, mush instead of storyline commandeers the pages. Walk time. Blow out the cobwebs and straighten my spine.

Been de-cluttering my bookshelves – a dangerous move. Like old photographs, old books have a tendency to suck me in so I end up nose down for hours, digesting the literary genius of past writers: Robert Moffat’s Matabele Journals, W. H. Worger’s City of Diamonds, and one of my favourites, Richard Hall’s The Ancient Ruins of Rhodesia, filled with contentious and often frowned-upon theories – that’s why I love it. That’s why I write, to share ideas and my passion for Africa. To take you there; let you see the gold, the storm skies, experience the discord, the greed and the sheer excitement that I have lived through.

Forgot to mention, Empress Gold is cracking along nicely – almost finished...

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