More New Beginnings – And What a Relief That Was By Margo Hoornstra

In my last post on January 11^th, I talked about walking in new shoes on New Year’s Eve and, due to the resulting intense knee and hip pain, changing to my old tried and true shoes for a longer walk on New Year’s Day.

But, who knew that January 1 walk would turn out to be my last exercise for quite some time. Even the record high 50-60 degrees we were blessed with mid-month couldn’t lure me out.

A veteran of the stomach variety of flu the week before, I enjoyed a gastric friendly New Year’s Eve and 2013 lay ahead with all of its potential and promise of, well, new beginnings.

Then, on January 5, my luck ran out once again.

A telling sore throat forebode this particular new beginning. Being of the respiratory kind, with the virus strain I contracted this time, too much physical exertion could bring on intense, dry heave like coughing fits.

And so began yet another stint of being home bound and, for all intents and purposes, inactive.

Luckily, my latest contracted novella for the Dearly Beloved series of The Wild Rose Press, Night Stars and Mourning Doves was finished, delivered to my editor and awaiting cover art and a release date. No obligation there.

But now what would I do with the days of immobility that stretched before me?

That question leads me to blatantly copy an idea from an earlier post by my Roses of Prose colleague, Barbara Edwards titled Idle Hands Make Mischief. Like Barbara, I sought a silver lining in yet another bout of illness and, lo and behold, found one.

Sage advice for writers is “keep your bottom in the chair, honey and write.” Forced to comply with remaining relatively immobile, I began to actually get some decent sentences down on paper.

Only If You Dare, my second and not yet contracted effort for the Dearly Beloved series was only half written and had been giving me fits since I’d started it a couple of months before.

Suddenly, the words began to flow for me through chapter after chapter all the way to The End. Who my characters were, what, why and how they did the things they needed to do. It all began to arrive—indulge me to wax poetic here—in waves and waves of unencumbered inspiration.

Of course, I have some extensive rewriting to do. Rewrites are all part of the process.

But, there’s something about being physically ill that lends itself to clarity of thought. Not that being sick has become the preferred method I’d care to always use to finish a book.

But, it was what it was, and I’ll take it.

Stop by for a visit at: www.margohoornstra.com

Or to download some stories for free at: www.margohoornstra.blogspot.com