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(Continued from page 5)
was a complete emotional wreck for months until I began to sort out my life; so I'm afraid T'Tenneb had another pause of two years. This fact is scribbled in the margin at the point where I stopped.
Even though I wasn't writing, I did not forget about T'Tenneb. I sometimes wonder if it was one of the things that kept me sane during this time. With me having very little control over the rest of my life, my book was the one part of me that nobody could take away or destroy. My writing has at times been a refuge and it has always been comforting to escape into my own world. Late June 1995, I went on a long weekend up to the lake district for the TARS 5th birthday bash. I wrote in my diary at the time,
I am now sitting on the patio?, veranda? I can't think of the proper name. It looks down onto the lake. A little far to be called lakeside, but the views are fabulous. This is going to be my foothills of 'T'Tenneb'.
The next day I climbed Katchengunga.
Reached the bottom of the waterfall and found a lovely way to cool down. There was in the cliff, what must only be an air shaft for a mine. There was slime above the entrance, a drip of water, and a curved brick wall creating a pathway to it. The hole itself was small, but there was an icy breeze coming from it. I just stood there getting cool. I then took loads of photos, because it is perfect to use in 'T'Tenneb' as the tunnel entrance through the mountains.
This image was stored away to be added when I resumed writing.
1997
Two more Treasure stories later, I returned to what had become a matter of personal pride. I had started this book, and I would not let anything defeat me.
I had been working as a chambermaid for two years, and as it is not the most taxing of jobs on the brain, I had begun daydreaming, which turned into stories. I also began a new habit of writing during our tea-break, and that is how most of The Maiden and the Elf was written. It can be a long process, as I am lucky if I get five lines written at a time. Maiden took me a year, and when it was finished, the writing bug was well and truly bitten and I was itching to write something else. I started a story with a dragon in it because I hadn't written about a dragon much before, but the story was not ready and is still waiting to be finished.
Because of that touch of writers block, I returned to T'Tenneb, taking up where I had left off; at the beginning of chapter 13; with Elenopa, the girls and Susan (who at that time was called something else) standing at the top of the waterfall, looking over Notnilc Notsa. I started writing during the tea-breaks, but then began carrying T'Tenneb, in it's blue cardboard folder, everywhere with me as I didn't know when I would get a chance to write a few lines. I remember writing a whole page of chapter 13 during a train journey into London. On the 15th of November, I started chapter 14 (which is now chapter 15 as I split 13 in two). This was a very special day as It was the day that I first met my hero, Jason Carter. He plays Marcus Cole in the TV show Babylon 5 if you don't know the name. Well, I was determined to be at the front of the queue of the signing that he was doing and so got to the shop early.
They let me sit on the stairs to wait out the four hours, and they didn't make me go outside to queue with the others in the rain. The time passed quite quickly and I wrote 4 pages of 'T'Tenneb'.
I made a comment about this in the margin of the manuscript.
The writing was beginning to go really well now, but I found it harder to concentrate during tea-breaks with everybody else having a conversation around me. Not satisfied with five lines a day, I removed myself to sit in the laundry cupboard where it was quiet. This way, I could write up to a page a day, and so between that and other scribbles at other times, I got through chapter 15, inserted chapter 16, The Ballad of the Soldier and the Slave, and rapidly into chapter 17. (Remember, these are now one chapter later). The story had begun to take over at this point and was almost telling itself. I find that I can imagine a scene over and over until I know every detail, but when it comes to writing it down, something else comes out instead. This happened quite a lot with T'Tenneb, but the finished product felt right, so I left it. Sometimes, I don't know where the words come from. They just seem to flow from the pen.
Spring 1998
I felt that I was on the final push, and didn't want tea-breaks to end. Luckily, at this time I was given a block of free time to finish T'Tenneb. The workplace shut down for three weeks for a refurbishment, so that meant an unexpected paid holiday. As I wasn't going to go away anywhere, I took up residence at the dining room table and wrote, constantly.
(Continued on page 7)
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