The second month of my writing residency at the superb Norburton Hall is coming to an end, and it is with great sadness that I will be on my way back to the South East after another amazing month down in Dorset. Inspiration has been all around me, and I am confident that I am now equipped with enough material to complete the first draft within the next six months. We have also been house-hunting in the area, but that's another story. Let's say that we leave with a tiny hope of getting a lovely old house by the sea which would be the ideal artist's and writer's HQ for all our projects... In the meantime, let's concentrate on The Right Place, my third novel, set in the county of Dorset. Quite a lot of the action will be set around the Abbotsbury area, and the fantastic St Catherine's chapel will feature heavily. Indeed, I could even say that it will be a major character in the novel. We went back there two days ago and took a few new photos (you can see some more on The Right Place's page HERE... Below, to illustrate the pictures, I am posting a few raw extracts of my manuscript in progress (which means they are the first things that came out when I sat down to write and nothing has been worked on properly yet!). Obviously, they still need a lot of work, but you'll get the gist of what I am trying to achieve here! Kat put her pen down [...] She realised that she hadn’t closed the curtains and that beyond the white window pane, the perfect black hole of the Dorset night was gawping at her: just a mass of opaque, complete, homogeneous jet-black nothingness. Kat dared herself to keep looking at that blackness without flinching. The Right Place, draft 1.1 Some of the wishes had obviously been scribbled in haste in the midst of some sort of emotional whirlwind, on the first paper support the writer had found: a sticky note, the torn lined page of a notebook, or even the back of a supermarket receipt, often in biro or pencil. Then you had the ones that had obviously been composed carefully, thoughtfully. Those had been written down at the back of a postcard purchased in a local art gallery, on letter paper or on a posh bit of card. The Right Place, draft 1.1 Tomorrow, I will be posting about the Ashley Chase estate which I am also using as inspiration for my book. There will be a hidden chapel!
Comments are closed.
|
AuthorI think therefore I write. Archives
August 2024
CategoriesAll Art Books Cinema Culture Events Idea Ideas Inspiration Inspirations Literature Music People Places Promo Publishing Reading Reviews Self Publishing Self Publishing Self-publishing Society Theatre Thoughts Working Work In Progress Work In Progress Writing Writings |