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2020 was an interesting year. It felt like it went like January, February, March, Lockdown, NaNoWriMo, December! I had reduced working hours this year, albeit at full pay (being a government employee in South Africa has its advantages, sometimes!), which left me with a lot of time to devote to the activities that I really, really love to do, such as reading. And writing!
This year’s project formed part of a series of books that I am working on, so there wasn’t much room for playing around. Nonetheless, I found myself following the lead of my characters more than I thought possible. Yes, I have heard and read of writers having to bend to the wills of their creations, but having it happen to yours charmingly was an interesting if pleasurable, experience. And I was very happy that I was not writing a horror story!
My birthday is on the 7th of November, and I spent that weekend at my parents’. No writing of any kind. That following week I had two days flat in bed with one of the worst migraine headaches, ever! So no writing for a few days there, either! What that meant in plain English, is that I spent the rest of the month playing ketchup (catch-up) to make this goal happen!
Obviously, it did, on the 29th of November, with a day and a lot of the novel to spare. Many scenes still have to be completed, and I hope to do it by the end of this year, but now there is no urgency. Then I can let it rest for a month before the editing starts.
In typical Tessa fashion, I have created the cover image already. Here it is!
I bought permission to use this image at what seemed at the time to be an exorbitant amount, but I am glad I did the honorable thing. Many books set in the medieval age or with a magical theme somewhere have more of a “graphical drawing” type cover, with symbols, instead of faces. I thought about that at one stage but then decided against it. I want my characters to feature as people, not merely names on paper. And I never liked the “dark image” of Morgana the Fey, anyway.
But I need to finish the book, first! And then we can chat about all the rest!
