An opinion or three

Isn't the weather amazing at the moment? Loving it big time. Today I went for a long walk- I'd say about 5 miles- around Virginia Water lake, a beautiful place, and today it really was gorgeous.

I feel very healthy now - that and a wee bit tired. However, let me tell you about a fabulous production of A View from the Bridge that I saw at the weekend. It stars Ken Stott and having read and taught the play before, I really did enjoy the performance.

I am, of course, trying also to do some work towards my MA, and, recently I read I Coriander for a session. I have to say I loved the rich language of the text and the wonderful historical setting but the fairy world just wasn't my cup of tea. I thought the real world was so much more believable than the fairy world but it may well be my taste. I'm much more into realism than fantasy. However, I am open to being convinced of the wonders of fantasy and as I said I did enjoy the richness of the language.

Far be it from me to criticise a book that has been published when little old me has not managed to achieve this - in fiction at least, but as a reader, my reaction to the book was that it lacked unity; the realistic sections were engaging and well developed and the fairy sections just weren't as well executed, in my humble opinion.

Tomorrow it's back to writing and reading.... and redrafting a chapter for the Collins series.

A Clear Mind

This week I have tried to retrieve some of my former creativity which has been sapped of late. In the term time any semblance of energetic imagination seems to evaporate like early morning mist. I think it's the day to day events of life and its busyness. The waking up, going to work, meetings and report writing. That and fitting in my MA schedule (which currently occupies two evenings) and a few social events has become quite draining. I'm just not receptive to things in the way I would normally be. So to have these few weeks to re-charge and re-energise is brilliant.

To this end, I went to university earlier in the week and came back with a bag full of books. I am currently reading Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction. It's by Patrica HighSmith- writer of The Talented Mr Ripley. I find reading these sorts of books by published well known authors really helpful. I'm planning to get through a few others and some fiction in the hope that they will re-ignite my own writing. I have a bit of a problem with one of my books at the moment which is really annoying me and which I want and probably need to resolve this holiday.

As part of my efforts towards clearing my mind and re-energising, I have tidied my study. It was really messy- lots of papers everywhere that needed filing- and filed they now are! It's not as minimalist as I'd like but it is as good as it needs to be. Let the positive energy begin.