Hello. Remember me? It’s Ok if you don’t. It’s been a while. And I’m not just talking about new injections of short fiction. It has been a while, full stop, since I sat down to write a blog post – just for the sake of writing a blog post.
It’s Mercury Retrograde at the moment (through until 13th September – depending on where you are in the world). It’s time to look backwards, or as Mystic Medusa calls is “productive nostalgia.”
To honour Mercury Rx I always set aside my reading time to enjoy favourites I might not otherwise pick up as part of my normal reading (you know, when there is so little time to read it is hard to justify going back to something you have already read.)
This cycle I’m re-reading The Red Tent and Jasper Jones. It will be my third read of The Red Tent and second of Jasper Jones. They’re both books I’ve read in the past few years so I know I’m not going to get caught out with a book I just loved fifteen years ago, only to discover I find it tripe now. That’s what happened with me and the Mists of Avalon last Mercury Rx.
As well as reading, I’m investing what spare time I’ve got to edit and re-write some old stories in preparation for a submissions binge once Mercury goes direct. Mercury is travelling though Virgo so it is an ultra auspicious time for editing (not to mention the Sun is also in Virgo.) I’m bereft of the ability to put words down at the moment, something I’m putting down to the intensive editing load as the writing stage of Chinese Whisperings draws to a close, so I’m hoping going back to old stories and working on them is a good stop gap measure while I wait for my creative mojo to recharge… or to find its way back to me.
On my list to attack, an unfinished (and still un-named) novella, my Parasites story, ‘She-Hero’, ‘The Queen of Hearts’, a short I wrote a long time ago about a possessed roll of film (the ending never really lit me up, but now I have such a better idea of how to end it), ‘Mixed Messages’ and I’m certain to add a few more in if I think hard enough and search deep into the archives. That means I’ll be doing some shout outs in the near future from some beta readers.
And… I might even do a spot of cataloguing. Shock horror!
I can’t help but think, this is the best possible timing for the end of Chinese Whisperings, as attention to detail is key to ensure all twenty stories, plus the prologue and epilogue all hang together in an authentic, accurate and believeable way. Working with the energy is always a luxury, when so much of modern life goes against the incumbent energy.
So while it’s hello, its definitely not good-bye as I attempt to maintain some type of web presence, even if its just for three weeks during Mercury Rx. Just don’t expect any new fiction.
For some other ideas on how you might like to utilise the Mercury Retrograde energy, see here.
Pursuing Parallels 