Happy days in the heat of summer

One of the things I find less appealing about the English is that they seem to moan excessively about the weather. I LOVE our weather, we have one of the most fertile and varied climates in the world with some of the most fertile environments. Apart from a few adder bites every year we are largely free of man-eating creatures, our stinging nettles really don't compare to some of the poisonous plants around the world. And we manage bright sunshine and snow - sometimes just three months apart (remember April?). I'm loving it, even though I have developed prickly heat. Whether you like the sunshine or not, chances are some fog/rain/gales will be along shortly. At least we're topping up our vitamin D and our melatonin levels. I think I got seasonal affective disorder last summer in all the dark days.

The weather somehow creeps into my books. Secrets 1 starts in the autumn, leaves falling, the first frosts, driving rain. The story works its way up to the winter solstice (or Christmas). Secrets 2 is set in the following spring, the icy winds giving way to the first sunshine and the springing of bulbs. It also features a garden finding its way back to full fertility, buzzing with the first insects and new growth.

I'm doing a couple of workshops before I launch myself into the unknown world of book promotion (I'm hoping to go and see the relevant people in the next few weeks!) and it's getting my creative juices flowing. I love going back to the creative writing books and my library of fabulous, inspiring authors. One that blew me away from the off, was My Mother was an Upright Piano by Tania Hershman. She reads it here, and it remains one of those little gems that gets me reading it, smiling at the clever, funny imagery but left somehow profoundly sad. Teaching makes me think more creatively about what I do myself, whatever I'm teaching whether it's counselling skills or psychology or statistics or whatever. Maybe people think I'm odd when I say it, but I really do learn as much by teaching as I do by sitting in a class.

I've sorted out a website for teaching called www.rebecca-alexander.co.uk and I've bought up "www.thesecretsoflifeanddeath.co.uk" for a website related to the book itself. I hardly have time to write but it's all making me focus. On the book 3 front, I've found the fatal plot flaw and ironed it out neatly, so I can go back to writing and develop a few more. It's my method; it's not pretty or efficient but it's mine.