Refertilzing the Soil

Despite being dry season in Thailand, it has rained several times now and its refreshing. It cools down the hot days after Songkran and gives the Thais a special watery blessing after all the artificial water guns, buckets filled with tap water and other methods of hydration. Of course its no news anymore that the volcano in Iceland erupted sending plumes of ash into the sky and grounding planes everywhere in Europe. When volcanoes erupt it kick starts a new period of fertility, not just in mythological sense, but also in biological ways.

My own Muses have been laid to rest for a while to replenish the creative soil upon which Simon and Sally have built their sandbox to play in. They are sunbathing now, cursing the rain when it falls or wiping away the occasional flake of ash from their bronzing skin. I am in between holidays, the trek into the Malaysian rain forest behind me and the three week trip to the States to visit my in-laws in front of me. There is a lot I should be doing now, looking for a job, organizing my portfolio, brushing up on IT knowledge, but I am simply resting. Physically I am exhausted from my long walks and little sleep thanks to the Malaysian heat and leech combo. Mentally I am not ready yet to fully commit myself again for either work or Simon & Sally - the timing is just not right yet. It doesn't feel right in my gut.

I do see sprouts of ideas forming on the freshly overturned soil. I always do. I guess that's the curse of an over associative mind. It's also not that hard when you're plotting five books in a series about the five elements wood, earth, water, metal and fire. It's so basically elemental that anything related to those elements fires off ideas for the series. So, yes, Songkran - the water blessing festival here in Thailand - 'evoking' the heavens to rain down makes for a nice little story angle. The volcano eruption in Iceland locking down Western Europe could be another 'conspiracy theory' story that I could tie into the series. Sometimes I write these ideas down as single bullet item ideas to be used or not in the long run, but maybe I could also just use my five days I have left to write simple 10-15 page stories to be released into an anthology of sorts when Simon & Sally become household names.