I’m skipping Q, because I can.
R is for rain. The sound of rain, for me, is comforting. It’s too bad we don’t have tin roofs anymore, because I love that patter-patter-patter. The noise of raindrops on a window is close if it’s hard enough. It’s a kind of a hollow bonk. When it hits leaves, it’s a lighter plink. It’s the gentle percussion I find soothing, the repetitive nature. The steadiness.
It’s best of course when you’re inside. I never went for that singing-in-the-rain business, the Notebook/Ryan Gosling-kiss-the-girl-in-the-rain stuff. I want to curl up in a warm house when it rains. But to each his own.
R is also for research. Well, actually for all the many ways I am able to do the research I need to write my books. When I first tried, there were no computers. There was no way to access all the out-of-print books I treasure. That’s one of the reasons I gave up for ten years. But now, with the internet and print-on-demand and scanning old books it is so much easier to find out all the little details that give my novels the authenticity I need.
I can easily get lost in the past while I’m trying to find out whether they ate green beans in first century Macedonia, or how they treated burns in the Bronze Age. I have to shut the books and close the browser window and get back to the writing program to get the work done.
Or the characters in my head will slowly die.
And hopefully that matters to someone besides me.