Catch a Falling Star
Yesterday I went into a café which I had not visited before. The waitress was a friendly, chirpy soul who immediately made me feel welcome and quickly took my order for coffee.
I have always found that I am very creative when I am in a café on my own. Some of my best ideas have floated into my head without any effort or conscious thought. This did not happen yesterday but I did begin to think about my writing career.
I have three novels already published, two in my ‘The Lost King’ series and ‘Artful’, about the continuing adventures of the Artful Dodger. I have written a novel about the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the years when it fell to Saladin which is ready for editing. The provisional title for this is ‘The Last Knights of Jerusalem.’
I am also writing the third instalment of The Lost King. In the pipeline is a novel about the Vikings in America, the second in my Artful series and one set in the time of Ethelred and Canute. On top of this there are my published and planned short stories and my sequel to The Wind in the Willows.
As I sipped at my coffee I decided that this is the way that I like to work. Doing research for one novel, writing it, putting it on one side and then editing the novel which I have finished some time before. Then researching and writing the next one, putting it aside and doing an edit of an earlier novel.
This gives me plenty of time to get distance between the writing of the novel and the editing, a distance which gives me perspective and greater objectivity.
As I decided that this was the pattern I should pursue from now on I felt something touch me on my hand. At first I thought it was a drop of rain. But when I looked I saw that it was a seed from the tree above my head. I examined the seed and smiled. It was in the shape of a star. 
More stars sprinkled themselves upon me and I took it as a good sign and put one in my pocket. Then, of course, I thought of the Perry Como song:
Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket
Never let it fade away,
Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket
Save it for a rainy day.
For love may come and tap you on the shoulder
Some starless night
Just in case you feel you wanna hold her
You’ve got a pocket full of starlight.
Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket
Never let it fade away,
Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket
Save it for a rainy day.
For when your troubles starting multiplying
As well they might,
It’s easy to forget them without trying
With just a pocketful of starlight.
Words and Music by Lee Pockriss and Paul Vance
I like stars, I like falling stars, I like to think that I’m storing up my writing for the future.
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