I managed to plant that hydrangea yesterday and spent some time arranging and tidying up at least one of the unruly flower beds in our garden. I worked slowly and methodically, with plenty of sit-downs in between. I wanted to cut the grass, but although the sun shone for most of the day, I knew it was still far too wet to cut.

The amount of work that needs to be done is overwhelming and depressing if I am being honest. Judging by my performance yesterday, it will take more than a month of Sundays to get it all done. Surprisingly, being stubborn isn’t helping, for I can only go as far as my body will allow. Hopefully, slow and steady will win the race.

This approach is not helping on the writing front, however. Committing words and ideas to paper is one of the few things I can do with any speed and comfort, but lately, that has slowed down to a crawl too. I try to tell myself it isn’t me, it must be the story, but I don’t really believe it. I have tried reading the completed chapters and all the character material several times lately, but it wasn’t until this morning that a germ of an idea paid me a visit. Someone had written a post about how to handle your villains when it suddenly occurred to me that I hadn’t decided on the bad boy for the new story yet. I had a few candidates, but nothing concrete.

I was seven chapters in on The Mystery of Folly’s End, so the villain should have made his presence known by now, so why hadn’t he?

This is where my usual method has let me down. Normally, my characters, once created, get on with it, often dictating who does what, where and with whom. A case in point: one of my favourite characters, DI David Snow, has been nagging me lately with a brilliant idea for a new mystery thriller, for him, of course. I have to admit to being more than a little interested, so was I deliberately dragging my heels on MFE?

It’s not supposed to rain today, but I won’t be cutting that blessed grass. I have something better to do…