Kate Constable's Blog

Thinking Time

Don't tell the Onions, but I haven't done much work lately, on account of the heat (see below), and the general back-to-school and starting-kinder-ishness of our house this week. I've only had the odd moment here and there, and I didn't want to stop and start on Crowfire (or whatever it ends up being).

Which has meant that those odd moments have been occupied with mulling over the Book-After-Next. It's hardly even an idea at the moment: it's an atmosphere, a theme, a single image floating in my mind, which draws other images to it like a magnet, accreting material like a slowly-forming planet. You know you're on the right track when everything you read seems suddenly relevant to the new idea, and every dream plants a seed of a scene. It's like falling in love, when all you can think about is the newly beloved, and all you want to do is spend time with them...

But I can't. I have page proofs of Cicada Summer to read (they do look beautiful), and Crowfire to fix, and plans to make for the Next Book, before I'm allowed to work on Book-After-Next. So, temptress in the ragged silk dress, wandering your grey stone ruin in the rain - begone!

But you know I'll sneak some time with you... later...