Tuesday, 21 July 2009
Dark clouds with a silver lining: N M Browne
I never write much in the summer which is why all my books take place in bad weather. My protagonists are always fighting the damp and the cold as I am when I’m working. They never get to lie about in the sun because when it’s sunny I am too busy seizing the day and replenishing my vitamin D supplies to write them into the experience. I write miserable books in the autumn and slightly more hopeful ones in the spring but I have yet to write anything more substantial than a post card in the summer – I have a writer’s version of SAD – seasonal airhead disorder. I don’t need a light box but an ice house in which to work – a few dark clouds and the promise of snow and my muse is pulling on her ugg boots and her woolly tights – the moment the sun shines she is out of here, lazing in the garden or checking on the sales. I like reading other people’s sunny stories but cannot find it in me to write one myself. My imagination likes a minor key and a monochrome palette.
Now that the dark clouds gather over Richmond and the barbeque summer has failed to materialise things are starting to stir, I can visualise my characters shivering in a stiff breeze and I start to feel hopeful – time to begin.