THE HEALER:

When advertising executive Erica Whittaker is diagnosed with terminal cancer, western medicine fails her. The only hope left for her to survive is controversial healer Arpan. She locates the man whose touch could heal her but finds he has retired from the limelight and refuses to treat her. Erica, consumed by stage four pancreatic cancer, is desperate and desperate people are no longer logical nor are they willing to take no for an answer. Arpan has retired for good reasons. casting more than the shadow of a doubt over his abilities. So begins a journey that will challenge them both as the past threatens to catch up with him as much as with her. Can he really heal her? Can she trust him with her life? And will they both achieve what they set out to do before running out of time?

Now part of a medical thriller…

She was that age, that ageless something

Between rose petal cheeks and silver waves of fascination

Where the foundations moved but the plans never changed

Where her eyes only ever shone brighter, more acutely than before

Piercing like twin stars set in her own personal heaven

A girl with a woman’s knowing, woman with a girl’s innocence

The sort of carefree soul who bought coral rings just to remember other people’s dreams

It was easier for her living through the dreams of others, I think

As she had no time to waste on her own

I’ve forgotten what they called her because her name never really mattered

Not to those who shared her timeline, her space, her place

A name, as with the asking her age, was pointless

For whoever took the time to speak to the wind

When the only thing that mattered was feeling it rustling their hair

The Arcade Market in the Commercial district is not the most prestigious of the markets in Port Naain. One will not find the truly exotic, but there again one will not find the grossly overpriced either. It provides decent quality produce. The price is higher than I would expect to pay, but if one uses a poet as one’s reference, one can easily be led astray.

I know one of the stallholders reasonably well. Jilliane Lanwaster is a regular at the market, selling vegetables. Now it has to be admitted that vegetables lack glamour. Spices and exotic fruit stalls hint at exotic places, with mysterious merchants passing hastily through fear shadowed lands to bring us their wares. Vegetables are somehow ordinary.

To be asked to write without blushing
On the romance of the carrot
The dark mystery of the parsnip
The wonder of the skirret
Shows that your patron knows…

Writing a novel is tough. I don’t need to go into detail on that. For those of you who write novels you know exactly what I’m talking about.

We all have our different ways of approaching it. For me I have to see it and feel it before I jot down a word. I have to know these people, feel their emotions, but most of all see their world.

Do I say goodbye

There are times when I want to walk away. Sometimes an idea is impossible to write. Let’s face it, some things are not meant to be.

Sometimes we have better, stronger stories with deeper settings and believable characters. They are easier to write and that’s the simple truth.

A few weeks back I had one of those moments. A bad scene, a bad chapter and pretty much a bad idea. The setting was wrong and I knew…

Nothing in life is more exciting and rewarding
than the sudden flash of insight
that leaves you a changed person —
not only changed, but for the better.

~ Arthur Gordon ~
_______________

Again, not much.
As is the norm, I read our utility meters and know the electricity will be massive compared to normal as we have had power tools going for the kitchen and also cut the grass. We usually use between 2 and 3 Kwh a day, but I had an email to supply meter readings on Friday and we were already up to 10 after 2 days. I calculated our bill and we are £2 short overall, but a payment is due to go in on the 27th, so I’m not worried.

A field trip is planned but where hasn’t been decided yet.
Dinner today is going to the horrendously calorific corned beef hash. I haven’t made one for years and we have tins in the cupboard that should be used. I’m looking forward to it!

I woke up this morning being serenaded by a blackbird on the fence…