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A to Z Challenge Day20: T .  4 Stars Tootsie is upset that the weather isn’t allowing her to play outside so she decides she wants to dance. What fun is dancing when you have to do it by yourself?  Tootsie takes you along on the adventure of asking her brothers, papa and mommy to [...]

A to Z Challenge Day20: T .  4 Stars Tootsie is upset that the weather isn’t allowing her to play outside so she decides she wants to dance. What fun is dancing when you have to do it by yourself?  Tootsie takes you along on the adventure of asking her brothers, papa and mommy to [...]

I never write much in the summer which is why all my books take place in bad weather. My protagonists are always fighting the damp and the cold as I am when I’m working. They never get to lie about in the sun because when it’s sunny I am too busy seizing the day and replenishing my vitamin D supplies to write them into the experience. I write miserable books in the autumn and slightly more hopeful ones in the spring but I have yet to write anything more substantial than a post card in the summer – I have a writer’s version of SAD – seasonal airhead disorder. I don’t need a light box but an ice house in which to work – a few dark clouds and the promise of snow and my muse is pulling on her ugg boots and her woolly tights – the moment the sun shines she is out of here, lazing in the garden or checking on the sales. I like reading other people’s sunny stories but cannot find it in me to write one myself. My imagination likes a minor key and a monochrome palette.

Now that the dark clouds gather over Richmond and the barbeque summer has failed to materialise things are starting to stir, I can visualise my characters shivering in a stiff breeze and I start to feel hopeful – time to begin.