If It's January, it must be . . . Easter? Kate Walker

Happy New Year!   I hope 2013 will be a lovely, happy and joyful  year for you.

Today is the day that I always think of as the ‘official’ end of the Christmas holiday season. January 6^th – that’s the date that I was told as a child that the 3 Kings arrived at the stable to see the baby Jesus and his mother. It was the day my mother put the figures of those three kings i9n the family crib – the one I have now as I inherited it when she died.  I’ve always loved holding it, putting out the figures. That seems to put me in touch with my mother and connects us over the years, even when I  wrap the crib figures up in bubble wrap and put them away.

But I remember that when we did have the crib when I  was a child, it was  just the 6^th January – the day the Christmas decorations came down, the tree was taken out into the garden and the cards were all packed away to be recycled.   There was a longish time – or so it seemed – before the next holiday.

It’s not the same now. I don’t know about you but here in the shops it’s already beginning to look as if Easter is just around the corner.  Easter eggs, cards, Easter decorations  . . . hang on! I’ve only just put the Christmas decorations away!   I know there’s the need to prepare in advance – but this far in advance?

The trouble is that when you’re a writer, if you’re not careful, things can get a bit like this all the time. You write a book, work on revisions, get the book accepted  and scheduled, and then you’re looking ahead to the date the next book comes out.  I have June 2013 in my diary and I’m so looking forward to seeing A Throne For The Taking in the shops. At the same time, I’m planning, developing and working on the book after that, with a deadline in mind and the hope of another new title in the schedule.  I’m also planning the course I’m teaching  in Fishguard in Wales in February  - and that makes me think of the way that Writers’ Holiday is coming up in  July . . .

But this year, I’m determined not to let me days run  away with me as they have done in the past.  If I’m not careful I ended up being so busy that I’m planning, organising, thinking, of everything do far ahead that if I’m not careful I end up living in the future and never quite get to really appreciate the now. One of the things I lost out on last year was my reading.  We had  all those renovations and the building work done on the house and I ended up dashing here there and everywhere finding the right tiles, the flooring, the  kitchen cabinets. . .

It was worth it in the end  - but I did miss out on my reading. And reading is wital to a writer. You have to ‘fill the well’ of your imagination,  read stories so that you can remember how great if feels to be caught up in that magical  world of the imagination, to fall in love with  - or end up hating – the characters who may only be words on a page but become so real to you that you  really care  what happens to them.
So, although I’m not one for resolutions much,  there are two important decisions in this set of thoughts –ones that affect how I want to be in 2013.  I want to live in the present. To be in the here and now, and not always to be looking ahead to what’s around the corner.  Easter will be here soon enough – for now, I’m enjoying the space between New Year and the next holiday.

And as part of that,  I’m enjoying reading. Not just having a giant TBR pile, or a bundle of titles on my Kindle, waiting to be read – I’m going to read my way through them. I’ve been doing that today – curled up in a chair, with a cat  and one of the books I was given for Christmas.

(For some reason everyone seems to have given me ghost stories this time – but that’s fine by me as the evening gathers round the house and the sky darkens. It’s a real change from writing and reading romance – and it’s sparking my imagination in a way I’m really enjoying.)

So that’s how  I’ve been thinking as I head into the start of this new year. I Know that, inevitably, I’ll end up having to plan for the next book, the next date on the schedule, but right now I’m enjoying living in the now -  and making that now include the fascinating books I have to read. I’m going back to my chair now – where the cat and the book are waiting.   Charlie the Maine Coon has a lot to teach me on this – he only ever lives in the here and now  unless he decides he wants an early dinner!

What about you?
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