Different November

 

If only we looked for inspiration like Goldie looks for things to chase or eat...

Time flies, as they say, and my children are convinced something tagged along with the Covid virus that has caused time to speed up, and I think they might be on to something. How can it be a month since my mother died? How can it be December tomorrow? This month has been all sorts of weird and (not so) wonderful.

I have done NaNoWriMo several years in a row (National Novel Writing Month, a challenge which I loved doing!) and this year it wasn’t till the middle of November that I even remembered about writing nearly 2,000 words every day! Having written a poem for our local ACW group, Cotswold Scribblers, I realized how healing writing is, and even the challenge of doing loads of words a day sounds like fun again.

This year has been trying, which is a lovely English way of describing this year politely, and writing has been utterly neglected. Will you believe it when I tell you I started chapter one of a historical murder novel, set in the early 1800s, around where I live, and got myself down all kinds of wonderful rabbit holes doing research, when my sister texted me that it was better if  I came to the Netherlands on the first ferry…

A majority of holiday pictures of my mum is of her reading. Such a good example!

That call was over a month ago, and it was a sweet as well as utterly grievous time, but having had a midweek in our gorgeous caravan at the seafront, I feel a lot more rested and recovered, and I can’t wait to pick up writing again. So there’s the research. For every answer I manage to find, another twenty-five questions come along. I realized why I loved world building so much around Elabi, as I could answer each question whichever way I liked, rather than having to wonder if second generation Huguenots still had a French accent…

December will be busy, but knowing how writing does help and bring clarity and blessing, not just to ourselves but also to others around us, I pray that the coming month will be filled with a peace that passes all understanding, as we know that the Prince of Peace is in control, no matter what.

Each year, I promise myself that next year, we’re skipping December and we’ll go straight from November into January… But this year, I am determined to hide in the cleft of the Rock of Ages, praying for myself, and all of you wonderful people, to have a wonderful month, filled with preparations and too much sugar and that when we’re all peopled out and meltdowns have come and gone, there will be writing to help us find peace again!

Maressa Mortimer is Dutch but lives in the beautiful Cotswolds, England with her husband and four (adopted) children. Maressa is a homeschool mum as well as a pastor’s wife, so her writing has to be done in the evening when peace and quiet descend on the house once more. She loves writing Christian fiction, as it’s a great way to explore faith in daily life. Maressa is part of a special Dystopian book group online, which you can find here: https://reamstories.com/faith-based-ya-dystopian/.

Her debut novel, Sapphire Beach, was published in December 2019, and her first self published novel, Walled City, came out in December 2020, followed by Viking Ferry, a novella. Beyond the Hills is the second book in the Elabi Chronicles, and was released in 2021, followed by stand-alone novel Burrowed, released in 2022. The third book in the Elabi Chronicles, Downstream, has just been released. All of Maressa’s books are available from her website, www.vicarioushome.com, Amazon or local bookshops.