Back into the groove

Well, I'm back from our holiday break and feeling pretty damn relaxed. My mind is as uncluttered as it gets really. It was so great to be out of contact and out of range. I had no idea what was happening in the world and it felt good. Just sort of real. Like the old days when I was a kid. I even had the chance to read three great books. Nice to have that kind of time again.

So I'm ready. Ready to pick up a paintbrush and my pencil and get back into the swing of things. I don't normally take time off halfway through a book but maybe I should do so more often. Having just taken my first look at my roughs in 5 weeks, it's weird how much clearer I see it all. And having spoken to my editor (the lovely Katrina Lehman at Penguin), there were several glaring structural issues that I hadn't seen or realised, that now seem so annoyingly obvious. It's often hard to step back when you're in the thick of a book with a deadline cloud overhead and see your work with any real perspective. When I say perspective I mean with a fresh unbiased vision. In many ways, only when you are able to walk away totally from a project are you then able to see it with any proper perspective - almost like it's someone else's work. It would be nice if I could just push a button during the process and a new pair of eyes rolled into place - an unjaded, impartial, clear and shiny back-up pair. That would be really cool! I suppose that's why we have editors. And why we should listen to them. Crap. I'm getting all wordy. Sorry.

Anyway, I'm back and will see you soon. Hope you are all well.