Okay, maybe it wasn’t my favorite kind of weather for writing, because I didn’t do much of it. Also, I’ve been a little distracted playing with my canoe buddies!
What I have been working on is character background sketches. I downloaded the latest J.K. Rowling offering, an audible book called From the Wizarding Archive. In it, the author shares some of her famously detailed background information on her characters, places, magical artifacts and creatures. This kind of information is an essential part of world building for any fantasy writer. It was great fun, plus it gave me loads of ideas and inspiration.
I thought about my own built world. While I am comfortable with the backstory for my main character, Josh, other characters are more mysterious. Why is that information important to an author? And why am I allowing it to distract me from the satisfying task of spending time with my characters as I throw them into new circumstances and watch for their reactions? (Like with my canoe buddies?) It’s not for world building, I placed my secret society in the wilds of my beloved Colorado.
Instead, it's all about motivation. What drives Josh to persevere in his new circumstances? What makes some Netahs helpful and others obstructive? So far, Josh has been very reactive. I want him to be more proactive in book 3. I want him to decide what he wants and to go for it.
What does he want? He has new friends, both of the male and female persuasion. He has a new found family. What he wants is romance. He wants love, a deeper connection to someone in his community, a soul mate, a person he can turn to in bad or good times. Don’t we all? This will inform his actions in book 3.
This is why I am such a huge fan of Ms. Rowling. She not only entertains, she teaches. Thank you, Ms. Rowling!

I haven’t written more than 15 pages in the last 3 weeks since I returned from a trip. I’ve had family visiting, including 2 small boys who love to create, hike, bike, build sand castles and lego spacecraft, play cards, build card cities, and even help wage the battle of the dandelions. You guessed right, I’m having a blast.

I’m also struggling as a lot of writers do with what could perhaps be best classified as performance anxiety. How can I consider myself a writer when I don’t write?

This is when I remind myself that lack of pages written has been replaced with a wealth of new experiences, from deciding to build our own fairy homesite in my backyard, to looking up how to make air-dry-clay (click here to find the instructions on Pinterest). What does a fairy homesite need? Why mushrooms, of course, and guard snails and a snake, plus a garden bench, a hot tub, and dishes and plates, pitchers and cups for the fairy to use. Don’t forget, you need a fairy!
​
(I apologize if I just scared you with my alien-looking fairy. In my defense, he is only 2 inches high so he could fit into his house! The eye dots give him a very menacing look, not to mention the green Spock ears.)

It all must be painted with acrylic paints, spray painted with clear lacquer to seal it against the rain and installed in the best place possible in the yard. All these decisions are performed as a team, with ideas building on ideas. About the fairy home, a trip to the grocery store for supplies, gave us a foil bread pan and a bag of 100 wooden skewers for grilling. The skewers were cut to size and glued to the pan sides, a door and window cut, and “camouflage” paint added to the roof to make it blend into the site.

​Did you know fairies especially like beds made out of fresh young aspen leaves?
Also, the vole, now named Vicious, who already lived in the yard, has been very entertaining to watch as he visited and inspected his new neighbors. In fact he inspected one of the guard snails so closely that a little glue surgery was required!

Have I gone off-topic? No, all this is to demonstrate how the creative juices nurtured during my trip are still flowing steadily, especially in my back yard. Writing more pages had to go on the back burner while we created memories. Now that’s worth more than…everything in the world, combined, doubled.

Did I mention the two boats we built from found branches and sticks? One was engineered with twine, the other with a power screwdriver and hand saw by the resident building and maintenance expert. They had to be raced of course. The twine one was lighter and therefore faster. Who’d a thunk?
​
Hope you’ve had a very creative summer as well!

 If travel is to gain new perspectives, how about straight up a bunch of stairs? Which means that new view comes with some exercise, so stay in shape!

This is a street in Dubrovnik. I suspect the bit on the left side of the stairs is for carts and baby buggies. Also, no cars can get through this town; it was built in Medieval times. 

I love the modern touch of the stickers on the drain pipe to the right. 

Why am I sharing this? 

In my recent Substack post (click below), I raised a question about the effects of travel on the places we go. In Dubrovnik, tourism brings visitors, but doesn't seem to have made much of an effect on the lifestyle of those living there. I wonder if the architecture and layout of the city makes a difference? It was designed to repel invaders. Food for thought. Any other theories?

Also, in searching for other locations for my Netah stories, I don't think this one will do. Can you imagine an elk walking these streets? Wait a minute...Netahs can shift into humans! What a perfect way to disappear!

​

This is my last blog for June, because I will be away from my desk. I will, however, post images on Instagram, so if you miss me, follow me there. It will be a study in just how awful my photography skills are. Let's hope I improve with practice. No promises.

I will be brainstorming and outlining book 3. I'm told that using a pen and paper like that will tap into the creative side of my brain, which is where I want to be to flesh out my next book. I just hope I won't quickly get frustrated by the speed with which I can write versus type! I will let you know if I am feeling inspired by the intellectual, visual, olfactory, and taste sensations of my new surroundings or exhausted from all the activities! Ah, the joys of travel! I will be on the hunt for a place or several places where I think Josh needs to travel during his study abroad stint in book 4. Will I drop hints in book 3? Will I throw my notebooks overboard due to frustration because I don't want to write, I want to live in the moment and enjoy myself? Stay tuned to find out how well I do.

Books 1 and 2 in my Netah series are available in paperback, hard cover, and eBook versions. You can support your local independent bookstore by ordering through bookshop.org or go to my book page for other ordering options.
  
Thanks for reading.