Meredith Mansfield, Author

I’ve got a little light back in this room. Amazing how much that helps. Later, I’ll be going out to trim some more of that bishop’s cap vine back.

What’s helped even more is actually getting back to some writing. I’ve been doing revisions for a while now. Not that I mind revisions, but it’s not the same as the highs–and sometimes lows–of writing a first draft.

I was supposed to be doing the first draft of Weird Oz. (If I’m not careful, that title is going to stick.) But that story just wasn’t working out–yet. So, I looked back in my files and pulled out another oldie, DREAMER’S ROSE, and, wonder of wonder, words started to flow again.

It’s not exactly a first draft, but DREAMER’S ROSE is going to need a complete rewrite. In fact, I now suspect that I will only be rewriting the first part of the story. After that, I think it’s going to go off in an entirely new direction–the re-imagining that this story needed.

In its inspiration, DREAMER’S ROSE is a mash-up of the Hercules legend (turned on its head) and the fairy tale “Toads and Diamonds”. The Rose of the title has sort of the same function as a compass, but for people who are lost in their dreams rather than in reality–a compass rose for dreamers.

English: First compass rose depicted on a map, detail from the Catalan Atlas (1375), attributed to cartographer Abraham Cresques of Majorca. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 However, this new version of the story is probably going to be much more focused on the dreamer than on Rose.

Ah, it feels good to be writing again.