Table with a View

Through a series of miniature miracles in July 2017 I found myself in a tiny village in Tuscany renting an apartment for three weeks with the sole intention of bringing the story of Beitris to life.  During the time since I first met her in the garden in Edinburgh I had many images of events in her life, but I didn't write anything down because I was working on finishing another novel.  It was really just a collection of vignettes and I wasn't sure how they would all fit together.  What I did know was that I had to write it, that the story coming to me was going to be important and I had a responsibility to relay it to others.  I remember the first time I sat at this table and looked out at the view.  I felt as if I was home.  The story started to flow onto the page.  I got home with the first fifty pages written.  The problem was that when I tried to continue writing at home there was nothing.  The next summer I went back for another three weeks and wrote another hundred pages - and again, when I came home the creative powers turned towards other things and the story stopped coming.  That isn't to say I didn't continue to think about it or see images, but the inspiration to continue writing just wasn't there.  I went back the following April for seven days and wrote from the early morning hours until dusk.  On my last full day there I put down my pen and looked up into the sky.  I said "I can't afford to keep coming back here.  You need to just tell me what happens so I can finish it when I get home."  I started writing longhand and wrote for the next four hours and when I was done all the story elements were pretty much in place.  I came home and the writing flowed until one day I looked at the word count and realized the first book was done.  All this time I was thinking I had an idea of where I was headed, but I now realize that that is the end of the second book!  I had plans to journey to the Outer Hebrides in June 2020, but the pandemic happened, so my research was put on hold. In the meantime I picked up a story I had been working on since 1994.  That story turned into my soon to be released novel, Rowing in Eden.  This summer I will return to the world of Beitris, hoping to have the second book in the trilogy finished by summer 2024.