Spring Awakening

It has seemed like a long, bleak winter. Dodgy weather and constant gloom about the economy, wherever you look. But now spring is officially here, and we’ve seen a few days of sunshine. So things start to seem better.

What is more, I’m feeling more confident about my current book-in-progress, The Serpent Pool, having belatedly made a couple of breakthroughs in the structuring of it. At last I feel really excited about it – something that, thankfully, often happens as I approach the later stages of the first draft. This puts me in good heart for the all-important process of revision.

And yesterday, I attended my first book fair of the year. This was at the Old Showground in Harrogate. It was great to meet up with a few book-selling friends. I was on my best behaviour too, only buying a single book, about which more another day. I did, however, pick up some book-selling lore, which fits in nicely with my novel - in which Marc Amos, Hannah Scarlett's bloke, and a bookseller himself, plays an important part.

Later, my doughty webmaster Jonathan and I wandered around the very appealing town in the sun. And I took these photos to remind me of a day when the tedious bits of winter seemed no more than a memory.