I had a wonderful and inspiring time at WordSpring this weekend. It was lovely to meet all the amazingly creative authors there and take part in workshops, panels, and award ceremonies. I even came to realize why it's been so hard for me to write 'Living Wall'. It’s because I still look at Larry from Henry’s perspective. Larry does have negative traits. He’s flawed just as all my characters, but Henry never took off his rosy-tinted sunglasses when looking at him, he never stopped admiring him, and it’s really hard, not to say boring, to write about Gary Stu.
After realizing that, I went through all the passages in ‘Of Darkness Born’ in my mind where Larry appear and wrote down his negative traits and why he has them. I hope that this will have been the solution to my writer’s block.
On the other hand, I got so inspired by the other authors at the conference that I started writing on a secret project yesterday; ten pages already! What a crazy thing to do! There are so many writing endeavors I have on my hands now: ‘The Living Wall’, my secret project, and two short stories about Team M and Team L respectively. When will I find the time to finish any of them?
Another great thing that happened was that I might have found an illustrator for my children’s story, the one I won an award for at last WordSpring, who’s interested in a partnership with me. It would be lovely to finally be able to publish it.
The last thing I did yesterday before leaving the conference was to read a passage from ‘Of Darkness Born’, and afterward, another author, a poet, approached me and gave me one of the best compliments I’ve ever received. He told me that he enjoyed my reading and that he had never heard such sensual horror in his life.
Sensual horror. I really like that combination of words. They should clash, but somehow, they don’t. Thank you, J., for lifting my spirits with your kind words. You really made my day.