It's been nearly two years since last writing in this blog and more than eight months since I stopped working on A Place of Safety and focused on Dair's Window...but then DW blew up on me and I had to stop that and take some time to think things through. In the meantime, I sketched up an adult gay coloring book with some rather dangerous bits in it, and that seems to have helped. I'm back to reading my books about N. Ireland and have decided to treat each section of the novel as its own book.

Brendan's family lives on Nailors Row for part of this section.

Derry will be first, of course, and is the hardest to write because I'm still uncertain about the sociology of the town and her people. Their humor is dark and a bit defensive, which I'm not sure I can replicate...but I won't know until I actually get into it and do it. I also have an idea as to why Brendan's mother is so disparaging of him, but need to see if this is something that can be put forth in a realistic fashion.

So once the coloring book is up and running, which should be by the end of September, I'm digging into Derry and rewriting it until I no longer can. Houston is 75% written; I just need to add a few things to it and polish it up...and Return is about 80% completed...maybe 85%. It was always going to be the easiest part to write because it takes place during just a few months, during the hunger strike of 1981. It's also the harshest, so far, because it includes a long torture section at Castlereagh Station, in Belfast.

I don't know if I'll be posting daily...but these blog comments do seem to help clear my head and focus me.