Birthday, Writing, Gardening

Yesterday was my twin son's birthday. I enjoyed lunch at The Loving Hut, in Edgeware, a vegan Chinese restaurant that serves delicious food.

This morning,  I got up at 5.45 a.m. I read through and edited a printed chapter of my mediaeval novel set in the reign of Edward II. Next, I lugged the hosepipe out to the front garden and turned on the hosepipe. Then I loaded the washing machine and turned it on. Back at the laptop, I completed the character profile for the hero in Tuesday's Child. I now have a clear vision of his appearance, background, character, what makes him tick etc.

After I turned off the tap and lugged the hosepipe to the back garden I hung out the clothes and then made a healthy breakfast - porridge with strawberries, black grapes and blueberries with almond milk and organic honey.

At ten o'clock, after another session on the laptop when I worked on the character profile of the heroine in Tuesday's Child, I turned off the laptop and worked in the garden. I swept the greenhouse floor, planted out French Beans and did much more.

M is for Menory

It is mortifying if a novelist describes a character's eyes as blue and later refers to them as grey. In order to avoid such mistakes I fill in a detailed character profile, which includes appearance, for main characters and a simpler one for minor characters, which also includes their appearance.

In my new historical novel Monday's Child there are many minor characters. Instead of depending on my memory, I have a card index in which I record the names of those who have a very minor role.

These aids to memory are very useful. I remember reading a historical novel which began with the main character, who was called - say - Lady Violet. Half way through the novel Lady Rose was introduced. What had happened? The author had changed her mind about calling the main protagonist Lady Violet and re-named her. Unfortunately, she forgot to change the name in the first half of the novel and - amazingly - neither the contents editor nor the line editor notice so the name  Lady Rose replaced Lady Violet when the novel was published. Of course, this is an extreme example, but novelist's beware, but I wonder what the readers made of it.