Standing in the heroine's shoes.

A classic start point for any book is a point of change - a place where hero/heroine is starting something new or saying goodbye to something that has passed.

And that's where I am now. As I posted last week, I'm taking small steps into a landscape where the scenery is familiar, but which I haven't visited for some time.  Not quite as drastic a start-over as authors like to inflict on their characters, but still a crossroads, of sorts. I've lost someone I loved, whose needs took up a growing percentage of my time for a number of years, eventually to the exclusion of what we might call 'Me' time. I don't regret that and would do it again in a heartbeat, frustrating as it often was.  And then I was sandbagged with health issues of my own, and am making my way back from that.

So - what's out there?

I hope there will be the chance to reactivate my writing career, and take it in new directions. The way it seems to be going is towards writing in two persona - light and dark, if you like. I'm excited about the lighter stuff that I am working on - holiday reads - sunshine and romance, but I'm not giving up on my dark side. I love writing romantic suspense and I will be returning to that too. It will take time. I'm not a fast writer, but I do want to get there.

I'm also an academic, half way along the road to my doctorate and that is also pressing me for attention.

It's familiar territory, but I still have to sort out all the demands of the things I need and want to do. I'm beginning to realise how the heroine feels when she'd dumped into a situation and told she has the length of the book to get herself out of it.

In my case I hope it will be the length of many books.

Wish me luck?