Half term is a great break for parents and children alike
most of the time. For me, there’s no lunch box to pack, no rush to get to
school by 8.30am and no uniform to iron to name but a few. It also means as a writer
that I don’t get to spend the time I’d like to at the keyboard which tends to
make me twitchy! Bearing in mind that I’m happiest writing every day, even if
it’s only fifty words as it helps keep me in the story, I find it so much
harder to take a break from writing as it takes a while to get back into it and
to remember where I was up to.
But being forced to stand back also makes me take stock and be
sociable again. It’s the chance to meet up with friends and family and to press
pause on life albeit temporarily and reacquaint myself with a social life.
There is fun to be had with real people and not just the fictional ones in my
head! So I have done more than poke my head out of my writing cave, I’ve gone
out and had a look around.
I’ve eaten out at Hickory's in Rhos on Sea,
visited Penrhyn Castle
been to a food slam in Menai Bridge,
and even succumbed to temptation and bought a pair of boots from Schuh in Chester. (Fabulous shop, just far too many wonderful shoes to choose from!)
Now however with half term over, I need to knuckle down and
get back to work as half term also brought with it the delivery of my RNA conference
pack, that wonderful bundle of paper from the RNA detailing all that’ll be
going on at the conference in July. I love pouring over it, selecting those
talks and lectures that I want to attend but there are the all-important appointments
with editors. And that means deadlines.
So now the holiday is over and it’s back to work and back to
my writing cave. I shall be holed up for the next few weeks preparing,
polishing and honing those chapters I’m taking to the conference this year.
