Thursday, January 05, 2017

Writing matters


The various versions of the traditional song ends with mention of lords a'leaping, of pipers piping or of drummers drumming to mark the twelfth and last day of Christmastide. The pious Theophanists confirm that after tomorrow we can return with a sigh of relief to something resembling business as usual.

My hope is that this will see an end of the 'writer's block' that has plagued me since the middle of the Advent season. It could, of course, be that my current work-in-progress was from the outset a non-starter.


Marcus Tullius Cicero asserted that "No one is so old as to think that he cannot live one more year." This moved me to imagine a protagonist about to mark his eightieth birthday and preoccupied by the question of whether the name of the Roman philosopher should be pronounced Kickeroh, Sisseroh or Cheecheroh. I also chose to set my narrative in Abkhazia on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, with flashbacks to the little nation's brutal 1993 war with Georgia. My hope is that I can now return to this seriously complicated story. In the meantime I have not been entirely idle. Updating and editing my lavishly illustrated memoir Nosce te ipsum has kept me quite busy. For a very successful self-publishing colleague (whose Kindle sales I envy) I am also happily undertaking historical research, keeping my hand in as a champion Google-Meister.



Very heartening is the appearance on Amazon (the American site) of a buyer's review of Chance of Reign:

"I really enjoyed this excellent novel. The characters were deep and well developed. Mr Thomson has a vast knowledge of the historical period which gives this book the wonderful detail that makes for great historical fiction!"

How encouraging!

No comments: