Writing

Reading Sleepers Castle at the moment. I've put it off long enough, refusing to pay the high new publication charges. It has come down in price now, so I succumbed. (Shame on me for refusing to pay for what was probably three years work, or more.) I didn't begin reading right away - I'm one of those idiots who will prolong the delight of gratification if I can! But finally I dived into it yesterday.

It is like so many of her other stories, yet I am still reading at every moment. There is something so utterly easy about Erskine's writing  that makes the pages turn in a regular rhythm. No incongruous word, no jarring sentence, everything in keeping with the time period. The rhythm, the flow of words is so easy that the reader skims across the page taking everything in. Never mind that I have no knowledge of Welsh history and have to look up the locations on Google earth as I'm reading. (So easy on Kindle!) No worries about the story leaping between medieval Wales and Modern Wales, nor about the ability to dream oneself into a different physical setting and be seen there but leave no trace.( Perhaps Ms Erskine has read the Far Memory books by Joan Grant, so popular in the thirties.) Perhaps it would pay me to really examine a page and see how she does it. That will be my homework for the night.

As for my own work, I've whittled Banners down to 113,000 words and still going down. It really is a work in progress!