UFO

Something strange has been happening in Wales this week; there is a vast golden ball in the sky. It pours down warmth, opening the flowers and encouraging the bees. This phenomenon is rarely seen here but, when it is, a new, optimistic mood falls upon the people of Wales. They linger in open spaces, talk with neighbours, mow their lawns, light trays of charcoal to cook their food al fresco.
I am convinced it is a good thing, this rare and noble body in our sky but it does have one detrimental effect; it interferes with my writing. I have not managed more than a few sketchy paragraphs for almost a fortnight now. I keep finding myself bent over flowerbeds, trowel in hand, filling wheel barrows with buttercups. It cannot go on and, in all probablity, it won't. So, I will therefore make the most of it, enjoy the warm splendour that is issuing from the heavens and get back to Aelf and Alys next week when a damper, more familiar feel to the weather reappears.

Rain

In my novel Peaceweaver I describe the rain as 'billowing in sheets' across the Welsh hillside. A critic questioned this, 'rain doesn't billow in sheets' she said. Well, it does here.

I can stand in my garden and watch it coming along the valley, billowing and turning like a flock of autumn starlings. Sometimes I try to pinpoint the moment it actually reaches me but the closer it comes the more difficult it is to see; the only reason I know it has arrives is because I am suddenly very, very wet.

We get a lot of rain in Wales and, as a result, it is predominant in my writing. It is just as well that my work is set in Britian. In search of inspiration I look from my study window and whatever type of rain we are enjoying at that moment finds an eternal place in my story. so depending on the day outside my characters enjoy, soft, light rain, a low slung mist, billowing sheets or stair rods.

There are people who hate the rain but I like it. It provides me with the excuse I am looking for to stay indoors at my computer and get on with that next chapter.