Friday 14 March 2008

Spring Fever

I don't know about you but I genuinely do go a bit mad around this time of year. There's something about daffodils that make me a bit giddy and gives me the feeling that I should be off somewhere exotic, like Casablanca, sipping strong coffee, having adventures and not worrying about the consequences. After all in the scheme of things it wouldn't amount to a hill of beans.

But of course there are a few practical issues with running off to far flung places on a whim. The school run is one of them, plus we have to use up that half eaten packet of ham in the fridge by Thursday. This may be the female writers dilemma because like all working women, hang that, all women, we tend to have a lot of things to do. Dare I suggest, though, that for writers it might be even trickier. One minute we are busy working on a highly emotionally charged scene that may result in the climax of the novel and the next we are sorting socks, walking the dog, finding best teddy or searching for the remote.

Plus when you get to a certain age (about 10 plus)running around in daffodils is not considered seemly, especially if you don't happen to have dog or a child at hand to lend an air of respectability.

Why now? Why at this time of year do I feel restless and excited and uncertain and scared and glad to be scared? I don't know, maybe its the wind, maybe its the glimpses of blue sky after an age of grey. Perhaps its the promise of summer on a mild day or the glamour of the spring flowers making an appearance in my garden. Or maybe its because my new book is due to be published in April.

Yikes.

10 comments:

CL Taylor said...

I LOVE Spring. I think it's my favourite season. I get inordinately excited about the smallest glimpse of sunshine or a flash of colour in my garden when a bulb I planted years ago decides to grow into a flower.

How exciting about your new book. I think you may have stumbled onto the reason why you're scared right there ;o) Good luck with it. Are you having a launch party/some kind of celebration?

JaneyV said...

Ah Spring. The season of gamboling lambs and a million baby spiders abseiling from your ceiling just when your arachnophobic Mum-in-law comes to visit. I digress!

Brilliant news about the book. The very best of luck with it. How knee-wobblingly exciting though! Do keep us in blogland up to date with all the gossipy highlights!
So...big London launch party or a bottle of fizz with the gurlz at The Gatsby?

Anonymous said...

"we have to use up that half eaten packet of ham in the fridge by Thursday"

LOL!

I can't work out whether to be dismayed or reassured that you are still saying "Yikes" about an impending publication when you have so many under your belt already (or at least that's the impression I came away with from reading the list of achievements at the bottom of the Novel Racers blog, forgive me if I've misunderstood).

That's a lovely description of the feeling of promise tthat spriong brings, and all that looking forward to summer afternoons. Although it doesn't feel much like spring up here in Manchester as it's bloody freezing, and wot with oen thing and another I never seem to quite manage any of those balmy summer afternoons and end up spending all my time indoors...

But as for running in fields of daffodils, do it! Apart from anything else I bet you'll make a few people smile. Indeed, how about you go to York and run up and down the banks of daffs outside the walls? I always yearnm for York (my home town) at this time of year, purely because of those daffs.

Unknown said...

LOL......sorting socks interupts the climatic scene or in my case the gas man cometh as i wrote my first sex scenen :-)

Enjoy the daffs:-)

When is the book out in April?

Marcie Steele said...

Just looked on amazon, it's out on 24 April, just in time for the NR meet x

Liane Spicer said...

You're so lucky - all these seasons to change and inspire you. I love daffodils. Only seen them in the garden catalogues, but I love them all the same. Lucky you.

Congratulations on your new book!

Helen Shearer said...

If I had a book coming out this month I'd be running through the Queen's daffodils, naked , at high noon, with a bottle of champagne in one hand and a black felt tip pen for signing copies in the other! Congratulations!

Zinnia Cyclamen said...

It's about time I read one, or more, of your books. Luckily I have a birthday on the horizon, so I shall decide which one(s) I like the look of best, and add them to my list.

manyAslip said...

I've just read your new book and I really enjoyed it. Oddly, I particularly liked Alison, she was lively and funny although obviously deeply flawed........still she redeemed herself in the end which is essential in a good read. And Jimmy, rock musician and devoted husband/lover/ all round good bloke. Just like my husband....

Rowan Coleman said...

Hi Helena - top marks for being the first person to read it that I know of! I liked Alison too, complicated. Complicated is always best.