29th June 2014
The first day of Ramadhan – the first fast- and returning to the novel after weeks away…busy with inspections after inspections. I feel terrible at having neglected my novel and characters for so long. But it could not be helped.
What a day it is…I can’t believe how easy it has been to get back into the flow of the novel with a fast. Its been a wonderful afternoon. No hunger, thirst, or showing to other tasks, just getting on with writing.
And what have I been writing? Now starting to write, jigsaw and insert little new scenes in between the text already written for chapter 1- about Hind’s mother’s funeral. Well since visit to Morocco, the shape has changed. The home and setting has changed. Hind’s home and much of the action is now going to be in Fez, the city I visited and set in the beautiful home of my wonderful host, Zohor Idriss. The hall I describe is the large inner courtyard of her home. The scene of Hind’s mother’s death in her arms, is similar to Dr. Zohor’s own mother’s death.
This scene I am hoping to write by the end of this evening, in between making pakoras and dough for the chappatis and of course running out to buy spinach and gram flour for the pakoras. So fasting, cooking and creative writing all beautifully mixed up.
I can’t wait to write the scene of Hind’s mother’s death. The chapter has changed and the characters and their dynamics and importance in the novel has changed. Hind is taking over, establishing herself nicely as one of the main characters, with a much bigger role to play by the end of the novel…I can’t wait for my readers to find out what that role is and how her relationship with Turaya, the woman she loathes and almost spitted in her face, progresses…Wait and see!
This is the hall I have inserted into my novel – so one day when you come to read it, please imagine this hall.