It’s been a full year since I last had a break from work of more than a couple of days. While the Christmas Holiday sees the entire firm shut down, it does so only for a week. And the break provided by this past Christmas was somewhat nullified by what followed when the office reopened. I took a few days off after everything there had settled down, but this past week and this coming week I’m away from the office fully, completely switched off and doing my best to relax.
For me, that means two things. First, time spent with my family. My son is now eighteen and should (as long as he gets the right grades on Thursday) be heading for University in the autumn, so this may be the last family holiday he comes on with us. I hope not, but you never know. So spending time with him is particularly important for me this summer. To that end, we made a two-hour drive down to Le Mans last week to visit the museum dedicated to the 24-hour race, which is filled with some of the cars that have raced there down the years. A great day out for us both.
The second way for me to relax is to write and read. I’ve done a lot of reading, finishing one book and being halfway through another. And I’ve done a fair bit of writing too, working exclusively now on the fourth Paul Robertson book. I’m quite pleased with what I’ve written too.
Up to now, I’ve deliberately not referred to the book by its working title. That’s because I’m not convinced this will be the final book and the working title is very much that of a final book. I’m up over sixty-thousand thousand words now and if I stick to my self-imposed goal of not going over one-hundred and fifty thousand, I don’t think I’m going to get everything in that I want to.
As I keep saying, I guess I just need to write and write and see how it goes. I’ve got a week left of this holiday and I know where I’d like to be in the narrative by the time we leave. How many words that will be, I don’t know.
Anyway, I just wanted to check in and give you all an update rather than leave it for two whole weeks. I’ll try and check in again either later this week.