Contemplating 'Red Leaves'

I love the way a boy I met on a school visit described writing a book as a ' long thing' . It is a wonderful long, deep and tangled thing and so many ideas, inspirations and emotions get absorbed.

Just before half term I sent off a draft of 'Red Leaves' and found myself musing in the woods that have inspired that tale.

I have lots of lovely photographs taken by the excellent photographer Tanya Nash. I'll save the rest of them until publication in the Autumn but I took her on a trail through my 'Red Leaves'  haunts in the woods... conservation zone, air raid shelter, homeless person's den, the fresh water spring and this fallen tree with its tangle of roots that gave me the idea for my character Elder with her wild hair. On our walk I told Tanya about the ghosts that inhabit my story and when she sent me this photo she said she liked it because I look a little ghostly standing among the branches!

Photograph by Tanya Nash   http://tanyanashphotography.wordpress.com/