I know a non-fiction author who told me that his former mentor used to look at “urgent or emergency” matters this way… “Will someone die if you don’t do this right now?” Granted the mentor came from a military background and what we loosely call a matter of life or death is very different if your team’s very lives are on the line.

This simplistic way of looking at things makes me want to look at my life in a different way. I am not advocating procrastination, but it makes me feel calmer about things that are not in my control.

I wanted to release Book number 4 in December 2021. I wrote the story; the front illustration has been completed and my editor has gotten through the first round of edits. I am behind on the title, as I felt we needed to change the original title when we finished the book. We can only get an ISBN when we come up with a title, so the final reading of the draft is important to me. But then my editor got sick, and we hit a go slow on the editing. I am sure that the delay will disappoint some fans. I can’t pretend I am not disappointed as well, but I have to see it in context.

I just came through a few weeks of ill health, which is very unusual for me, as I am hardly ever sick. The workaholic inside me had to be silenced. Honestly, no one is going to die if we have a delay, but in the reverse, people who do not give their bodies time to heal may well shut down.

I am still committed to getting this novel out as soon as possible and I spent some time working on interior illustrations while my editor has been healing. She sent through her first lot of rewrite requests this week and I will start working on those this weekend.

In my series, Lady Christine knows a thing or two about delays. If she is going to claim her father’s Kingdom, she is going to have to mentally and physically ready, because rushing in may well cost her not only her kingdom, but her life and perhaps the life of her unborn child.

Whatever you are going through this week, I pray you keep your vision or goal firmly in your sight, but are at peace when your plans are delayed.

What am I currently writing? – Extract of Book 3 – The Call of the Ancients

Scars littered King Radolf’s palms from his nails biting into his flesh. The King watched the flicker of the flames in his chambers to calm his thoughts. He had to contain his rage. If he gave into his fantasies of destroying Lord Logan now he would sabotage his treasury. Lord Teebald had counselled him on, not letting his obsession rage out of control. The monarch took out his frustrations on the lesser members of his subjects, but it did little to appease his desire to claim what was his. He had driven his dagger into his latest training partner. The tutor did not even raise an eyebrow at the death. His general had chosen them from the Ofardoes’ slaves. The Ofardoes used men the way the Romans used gladiators for training and entertainment.

King Radolf turned the heavy oak table over in a fit of rage, spewing parchments over the stone floor. The room looked as if a careless spy had been on a rampage to claim a treasure. Nothing appeased him now. The King sank into the carved chair softened by the richly embroidered green cushion, but it did little to comfort him. He stared into the dancing flames of his chamber’s fireplace. He still remembered Christine’s face as she saw that worthless spy they sent racing to protect the child they had given him.

King Radolf bellowed for a servant to clean up the mess that he had created. The guard let the trembling girl into the room. Perhaps she expected something that he was not in the mood to give, but as she bent over to pick up the parchments, he recognised one.

“Woman, bring me that parchment, from the top there.”