Friday, October 05, 2012

Tick, Tock...

Do you work best to a deadline or do you prefer to set your own pace?

Sometimes we don't have a choice. The pot is empty and soon enough hungry children gather, spoons in fist, and there's no use telling them we've only just tied the apron strings. 

Other times the project is all ours. Perhaps a garden bed in transformation, or a knitting project half done. The kind which looks pretty even unhurried in a basket of needles and yarns. 

Somedays you may be like me. You take a look at the calendar and wonder how we've came so close to Christmas, once again. Less then three months on the clock before another year fades, good people... and then it's more of the same. 

More ticking clocks. More deadlines. More due dates. 

I love the start of a new year. I think it's the teacher in me and my love of clean slates and fresh terms. I've always scribbled notes for January and February when December is still a mess of tinsel. 

But this year, I've done something different. I've started early. Earlier.

I've put a string around October, November and December and parceled these three months together. They're dedicated to a story I've had brewing for a few years. Set in the tent city of the Ballarat goldfields in 1855, it's a romance that's bubbled away for far too long. 

Sovereign Hill - Ballarat... How I love this place!

And I want it done by Christmas. It's my gift to me. Until it finds a home...

Early in the new year, when my research is nicely tied up, I plan to write Book 2 in my Phillip Island series. But for now, I have this little pot simmering away. And I'm having the best fun cooking a whole heap of trouble for my hero and his heroine. 

How about you? What do you have on your list which must be done by the end of the year?

(If you say Christmas shopping, I'll smack you with my wooden spoon.)

Whatever you're up to... have a wonderful weekend, dear friends.
Blessings,