Inspiration and Motivation

During half term, I managed to enjoy some dry, sunny (if chilly) weather with the kids and some friends and revisited the mine ruins at Wheal Peevor. They were behind the inspiration for my novel # 1 and they did not disappoint again. Walking around the buildings reinvigorated the story in my head and prodded my conscience as to why I had let other things crowd out my heart to write. Along with some good friends encouraging me to get back to it, I decided to examine why I had stalled.
Simply I had lost my way in the book and therefore my confidence to keep going with it. I spent an evening replanning the second half in chapters, feeling very pleased with myself too. A few days later I wrote another 2000 word chapter, the first in over eight months. It felt great to meet up with my characters again, like a reunion with old friends. Now I am resolved to maintain the impetus and get this first draft done!!

Chocolate - The Food of Love?

I entered a 100 word writing competition recently on the theme of chocolate. I didn't win anything but enjoyed writing this little piece about chocolate and love, which I thought I would post in view of it being Valentine's Day tomorrow. My story is about the complex relationship between love and chocolate with a little twist at the end. Enjoy.x

Cocoa Loco

Carrie methodically rolled the velvety brown, alcohol-laced balls of chocolate mixture between her hands. Only once she was satisfied with their accurate spherical form did she carefully douse each one with dark cocoa powder. Michael’s birthday treat had to be extra special. She knew that her homemade chocolate rum truffles were his absolute favourite. The recipe was a closely guarded secret and on this occasion she had decided to alter it to make it personal to him. Carrie arranged the truffles in three neat rows of four in a dark blue box, before securing it with a large silver bow. As she cleaned up the kitchen Carrie glanced down at tomorrow’s entry in her husband’s open diary. It read ‘8.00pm Maria, Room 55.’ “Oh I don’t think so sweetheart,” she murmured as she scrunched up the laxative chocolate wrapper and stroked the box lovingly, “Chocolates for a cheater.”