Finding Traction

I am sitting here, keys clacking, words stacking as the strains of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen fill the room. Why, you ask, am I listening to Christmas music when the season is done? Because, for someone that writes Christmas stories with a classic bent, Christmas never ends.

I am hard at work on my second Christmas book. A little lighter tale with not so much history. Okay, there is history in it, but the story is a bit more fun and not so melancholy as The Good King.



Before I forget, thank-you to all of my readers for making The Good King book launch so much fun. Thank-you for reading it and thank-you for your glowing responses. Not only did the story do what I had hoped it would, hit the right note, but the illustrations were a huge hit and married to the story perfectly. Meg Simmons is just as excited as I am about the responses. Keep them coming, good and the constructively bad.

Back to God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.

Fresh of the glow from the accolades, Meg is excited to dig into the illustrations for the second book tentatively titled Archibald and the Three Gentlemen. Ya, it’s clunky but I’m working on it.

I don’t want to get into too much detail because it is still in progress, but what I will say is that it is full of dark humour, ghosts, and the Christmas miracles that I like to seed into my stories. Yes there is a moral but I won’t beat you with it. Needless to say, I’m as excited as Meg.

What prompted this blog, is a fellow writer’s blog about music and the creative process. Kevin Craig, YA author and all-round goofball (in a good way), writes about the emotional soundtrack to a book, HERE<

Music plays a large roll in my creative process. It adds texture and emotion, it inspires and sets the mood, it takes me back in time and is the tapestry upon which my story unfold. All of which I’ve told you before… I think.

Music was the inspiration and the basis of The Good King and while not so prevalent in the second book, music, or rather the song, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, is the thread and will appear throughout the book.

This year is going to be an exciting year. The Ontario Writer’s Conference is fast approaching, as is The Muskoka Novel Marathon. Both of which I am considering attending. They say never to look a gift horse in the mouth. Well I did and grabbed it by the tongue and plan to never let go.

O writings of comfort and joy

Comfort and joy

O writings of comfort and joy.

Take it away Irish Rovers!