Freedom From The Mundane

Autumn Approacheth

Image: Suneko

It’s the first morning I’ve felt like autumn really is on its way. The sky is clear, it’s chilly but fresh, and the normally prevalent early morning birds remained huddled in their nests to keep warm. Yes, autumn is approaching and the motivational refill I got from the Edinburgh Book Festival now moves into the most inspiring part of the year for me.

I don’t quite know why autumn is so pleasurable. It could be the colours, the sounds, the pattern of dark mornings and early nights, but something about it appeals to my life rythm. The moon always seems so much more alive during autumn, burning brighter and enjoying the sky, like a silver painting device weaving its way across a clear canvass.

Nature, too, seems to be a lot more active, a lot more noticeable. During the summer everything seems to get lazy, then the drop in temperature and promise of winter sees all the wee animals getting ready for the cold months—me included, though I’m hardly small and furry.

I went to bed early last night because I was really feeling it after a week of late nights. I feel much better this morning, but being so tired last night meant I got less done than I wanted to.

I had a few minor things to tie off for a couple of web clients. One of them, a Bed and Breakfast in the Borders, is having to sell their business due to family illness and has probably only got another year left as a going concern. I’m very sad for them because the couple in question are good friends and it’s a sad thing to happen. Running a guest house had always been their dream so to lose it must be very disheartening. We’ll be going to visit them soon, and maybe do a wee bottle of wine or two with them.

Some poetry found its way onto the page. I’m experimenting with a new form that involved digging into a character’s psyche and personal history. I don’t normally characterise in a poem—usually that’s fiction territory—which is where the exploring comes in.

The results so far are very, very rough. I’ve been working long hand because it’s requiring a lot of thought I simply can’t do at my desk in front of a PC. Also, there’s a LOT of scoring and editing, and doing that kind of work on a monitor just doesn’t help.

I’m enjoynig it, though. I think I can learn a lot through this form of poetry and take my writing to a new level. I’ve been inspired a lot by a lot of poetry I’ve been listening to on Podcasts and at the Book Fest.

A couple of last things. I’ve moved the time that these blog posts are emailed to subscribers from 08:00-10:00BST to 11:00-13:00BST. This is so I can accomodate morning updates and bring the email into line with breakfast time for the many US readers I have. Optimum publicity!

Finally, if my mother is reading this, here is a list of everything I ate yesterday: