THE BUSY LIFE OF A WRITER

Reading at the Canadian Institute, Athens,  Oct. 2015

 

It's been months since I wrote in LIVING THE WRITER'S LIFE.  And yes, it's a very busy life!

First of all, no sooner had Christmas and New Years passed when I was told I'd have to move from the suite I'd occupied for 10 years.  This in itself was a trauma but when I started to look for a new place it was even more nerve-wracking and depressing.  There is a crucial  housing and suite shortage in Vancouver and it's all due to off-shore buyers snapping up houses and paying exhorbitant prices which locals could not afford.  And everyone has gotten so greedy. Imagine asking $1200 for a basement suite!  So for someone living on a pension and considered 'low income' it was a very stressful time. At first I thought perhaps I should put my stuff in storage and go back to Greece but I knew I'd have to soon start edits on Volume 2 of SHADOW so the timing wasn't right.  I thought I'd end  up in a shelter, then a travel writer friend intervened for me and I was shown a suite near where I had been living and I got it.  I moved in the beginning of April but it took a good while to get used to the new place and especially all the traffic noise. But I have adapted and feeling more 'at home' now.
Finally I am able to get back to some more writing, although I have been working on the Greek Island's ebook guide and have completed the Saronic and Ionian Islands part.

Visiting the Cave of Eurypides on Salamina island

Last week I also started the final proof edits for SHADOW OF THE LION: THE FIELDS OF HADES and it is due to be published in October. If' you've read Volume One BLOOD ON THE MOON I know you must be anxious to get this second part of the book. And I can assure you it is one that will keep you turning the pages!

 The Temple of Poseidon

I got some inspiration from Lord Byron when I was visiting Cape Sounion

 

Meanwhile, I am planning a trip to the Islands, starting with Corfu. Flying to London first, on September 4, and visiting briefly with cousins in Caerphilly, Wales, then on to Corfu and a bit of Ionian island hoping until I reach Athens. Then later I hope to visit Crete and a few other islands including my favorite island, Naxos.

 Temple of Apollo, Naxos.

 Naxos Sunset

It's nice to be back in blog writing mode and I hope you'll see more of me in the future. 

DOING THE WORK!

Alexander rides Bucephalus eastward to his conquests

It's done!  After literally years of work writing, workshopping,rewriting,editing, compiling my historical fiction novel Shadow of the Lion is finally on its journey into the big wide world of publishing. First step, I sent it to my historical fiction author friend in the States who is going to read it and forward it to his agent/publisher. Then we'll see what comes next. I feel a great sense of relief (especially after a heart-stopping moment yesterday when I went to finalize the script only to find my entire document file of Shadow notes, versions, etc had disappeared.) I freaked out! But once I calmed down and searched, I found it in the trash box.  Don't ask me how it got there. But for sure now I will get everything on the external hard drive and a zip file. (I had other versions on zips but as I had just finished the editing and was adding things like acknowledgements and authors' notes I was waiting til later that day to save it somewhere else.)  At any rate, it's safe and now in the hands of my friend. 

I have a lot of people to thank for helping me, encouraging me and sticking with me during this long, long adventure which took about as long (if not longer) than Alexander's trek across Asia. But I know in the end it is a great story, a piece of literary fiction not just fluff. And paying out a lot of money to a pro editor was worth the investment in the end. What I sent off was as polished as I could get it. Of course, it was a lot of work. But if you want to succeed as a writer, especially a novelist, you have to be prepared to DO THE WORK!  Author Steven Pressfield has written several blogs on this subject, stressing that it is important to dedicate your time to your writing.  If all you do is poke away at it once a week or randomly, it will never get finished. Determination. Dedication. Discipline. These are key words for a writer.

Of course, in the early years of writing and researching Shadow I was also working full time or at least part time so I had to schedule my writing times. At first it was usually one week night and weekends and I jotted down notes in between. During the '90's when I was seriously working on the novel I had the good fortune to live in Greece six months of the year for several years running and this allowed me time for research and writing. Even when I was there I had to discipline myself though, and always wrote from 11 am to 4 pm before I allowed myself to venture out and hang out at the tavernas or beach. These past years since I retired from daycare work I have devoted all of my time to writing, including instructing writing classes in order to top up my pension.

To make sure I'm not wasting time I keep a daily time sheet and this includes actual writing/editing time as well as attending writer's groups, events, research etc. That way I can see if I am shirking (and it is also in case I ever get audited as a self-employed writer I can prove I am not just putting in time as a hobby).  And yes, some days I am working (writing) longer hours than I would in an office.

Now that Shadow of the Lion is finished, I still have a pile of projects to attend to. First, I want to finish the half-written Celtic novel Dragons in the Sky which I had begun long ago and set aside in order to write Shadow. And then I want to start browsing through old journal notes to compile my memoirs Life Below the Acropolis. In addition to this, I must get more travel articles written.  And I promise I'll try to be more diligent at posting here on my blog.

PROGRESS REPORT 33: MOVING ALONG

View of the plains behind Pydna and Mt. Olympus

I've finally started to feel remotely 'recovered' after a long bout with a cold virus.
In the last few days, as the sun was shining (though it was unseasonably cold) I ventured out on various errands -- prepared the handouts for my night school classes which begin next week, and delivered them; went to the lab for blood tests; and today I got up very early (6 a.m.!) in order to attend a travel agent/media breakfast for a Norwegian cruise line. The rest of the time I've been doing market research for travel, a bit of editing for my travel site, and finally tonight I got out the manuscript of Shadow, read through the last bits I had been so diligently working on up to a week ago, and prepared myself to move along.

A few years ago I had actually visited the site of ancient Pydna on the north-east coast of Greece. Fortune had it that day that I was introduced to the archaeologists who were working on the digs there. I met the archaeologist who had just discovered the trench that Kassandros had dug around the fortress blocking Olympias and the royal family inside for the winter, with dire consequences. At the time, they told me they were searching for a tomb for Olympias -- which, they said, would likely be just an ornamental memorial tomb as they felt her body had likely been moved to the royal tombs at Vergina some time after her death by stoning at Pydna. There wasn't much else to see there but it was quite a thrill to just be there, at the place, where the Epirote queen (Alexander's mother) had died. I imagined that from where she stood, surrounded by the kinsmen of people she'd had murdered, that she could look up toward Mt. Olympus and will herself to be transported in spirit to the home of the Gods. And here I am, once again, in that place - Pydna - on the brink of another crises that ends in tragedy.

I tried to find my own photos of the place but in their stead I have posted some that I found on-line. It gives just a hint of what it was like there. Pydna was a sea port with a garrisoned fortress commanding the seaway of the Gulf of Salonika.
Olympias had insisted on moving the royal household there from the palace of Pella - a crucial mistake, it turned out. Here's just the beginning of the next chapters where everything starts to go horribly wrong.

The ancient fortress of Pydna

THE MOVE TO PYDNA

The palace became a hive of activity as preparations were made for the move to Pydna. By mid November, they made their way south. The royal household travelled by horse and mule-drawn wagons, surrounded by bodyguards. They accepted guest-friendship from their allies along the way, pretending all was well. The army and the lumbering herd of war elephants had gone on ahead to confront Kassandros’ troops at the border. Soon a treaty would be signed and the threat of civil war would be over.

A week later, from a distance they could see the imposing fortress of Pynda lying in the shadow of the mighty heights of the holy mountain, Olympus, and the wild pine-clad range where wolves and lynxes roamed. A wreath of thick, dark clouds hid the dazzling peak where the Gods dwelt.

The weather was still mild, the breezes gentle. Below the ramparts of Pydna the white-crested sea churned. Soon the ships would come and the war would be over, Kassandros defeated.

View of the coast from the ramparts of Pydna's fortress