After a wonderful (if slightly damp) holiday in Cornwall, we have spent all weekend cleaning, weeding and washing. I need a holiday to get over the holiday! We did loads of walking and climbing and kayaking and saw some of the best scenery the UK has to offer, especially in and around the creeks of the River Fowey.
I have had a lot of inspiration from my visits to the West Country over the years and an idea I had for a novel a few months ago is starting to take shape on paper. It is about a man who wakes up on a beach and has no idea where he is or how he got there. The funny, and more than a little bit spooky thing is, we were sitting having a picnic on a very crowded Caerhays Beach last Tuesday, when suddenly this young man appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, and started wandering – bemused – through the holidaymakers. He wore a pair of baggy cotton trousers, boots and a leather flying jacket and carried a rucksack over his shoulder. He picked his way through the busy beach and disappeared over the dunes. It was almost surreal and if I hadn't asked both Kyle and Florence if they could also see him, I would have thought I had lost the plot and was hallucinating! A similar thing happened to me just before I started writing The Charm so I am taking this mystery man's appearance as a lucky sign and have started jotting down ideas for the story.
This book will be set in the village of Lerryn, which I visited last week and totally fell in love with. I can't wait to start writing it but first I think I ought to finish Airtight... or maybe I will just shelve it for a while, like I did when I wrote The Boggins... Whatever I do, writing resumes tomorrow. I have just over two weeks left before it's back to school and the new cohort of Year Two moves up from Year One, so I am going to make the most of my free time and get cracking!
