Alison Croggon's weblog

Thursday already...

How did June go by so fast? June 1 seems like yesterday. Ten days to the end of the month and my theoretical freedom, but now I really feel that I am hacking away at the coalface of the imagination. I suppose it's good for the book that I feel so drained, since my character is too, but I think method writing is going too far (it makes me think of Laurence Olivier and his comment to Dustin Hoffman while they were making that famous dentist drill scene together, and Hoffman turned up unshaven, exhausted, at the end of his tether - "My dear fellow, why don't you try acting?")

Basically, aside from the labour of writing a ridiculous number of words, at this point I have to work out what this novel is actually about. So it's one step at a time, and it's like walking through sand.

I have promised myself a July of poetry.

Mind you, I'm not really complaining, even though it sounds like it. Beats any other job I've had.

I forgot to say that the rough covers for the UK edition of The Gift and The Riddle arrived from Walker Books the other day. They are really beautifully designed, in the best tradition of contemporary fantasy books, and it makes it all the more real. But maybe what gratifies me most of all is that they've used my map in the design. Though that's just a personal pleasure.

I guess I should stop procrastinating. Back to work.