Where Have You Been?

Ever have one of those friends who just goes MIA without a trace?  And then suddenly one day they're back and expecting it all to be exactly the same as before?

Yes I am talking about me.

Sorry but the last few months of last year knocked me around a bit so I kind of shut down a wee bit and the blog, the writing, the being all seemed a bit too much so I just stopped.  But the funny thing about being a writer, is that you can't just stop.  Even in the middle of my 'yuck episode' I had dreams that I woke up from thinking 'hey that would make a great story'. 

During my 'hiatus' I did a lot of analogising - that's not a real word btw - but it means when you think about lots of things in terms of analogies.  Like: writing is like making risotto.  There's some basic ingredients to risotto but after you've covered those, it's pretty much whatever you want it to be.  You can't just walk away and expect it to take care of itself like a slow cooked casserole.  It needs tending and montoring and constant tweaking and checking of the recipe and tasting and then just before you serve it, you need to add a dob of butter and a great big wodge of parmesan so even when you think it's finished it's not.  And then you have the agonising wait as your guests lift their spoons to their mouths and take that first taste and you wait and wait and wait, trying not to be impatient, for their verdict.  Of course some people like their risotto quite wet while other prefer a more solid dish so you know from the beginning that you're not going to please everyone but maybe there's a chance that you've been able to strike that perfect middle ground or that your version of risotto is so earth shatteringly delicious that you've changed everyone's minds and now the only kind of risotto they like, is yours.

My writing is like risotto.  The yet to be cooked kind.  I got caught up in Christmas preparations and family issues and recovery from New Voices and allowed myself to be wooed away from writing.  They were relevant reasons but if I had been determined to write then they would have been distractions as opposed to handy excuses. 

So I've got a lovely recipe simmering in my head and the two main ingredients are sure to make it a hot and spicy dish.  Hopefully a feast for the eyes.  I'm plotting and planning and itching to start. 

And this time, I'm going to finish.