At last, after not really being able to do anything productive in the evening or at night, I've finished A Clash of Kings, the second volume in the Song of Fire Ice series by George R.R. Martin.

I'm relieved - because now I can start writing and taking care of my growing list of to do's again - but saddened as well, because I have to admit that I was completely entranced by the author's grand tale of political intrigue and personal tragedy. More on what I liked so much later...

(I'm writing this from Google Documents, as a test).

I haven't posted anything for a while, for a variety of reasons:


1. Reading. Yes, I've been reading. Lots of reading - rather than writing. I was a voracious reader in my teens and tweens, right until our son was born. I kind of stopped making time for reading then, but now, as I picked up my pen and tried to write stuff of my own, I realised I had gotten out of touch with the voices that I love, with the stories that make me ache and burn inside.

So I started reading again. I finished Gibson's Spook Country, which had been lying around for a while, rushed through A Game of Thrones (and am now barreling on in volume two of A Song of Fire and Ice) and now, ten minutes ago, turned the last page of Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. More on that later, I'm still too touched to analyse why it resonates so profoundly with me.*

2. Life. Work in times of Depression. Things that interfere and take away my drive to create.

3. Rewriting Total Immersion based on some valuable input from the SFF Writing Workshop people.

* Still listening to Sigur Ros, also to their previous album Takk, which is even more dramatic and makes for a great soundtrack to George RR Martin's epic fantasy!