So, the world of bloggers has gone silent. No–one is writing anything, no notifications, my inbox is quiet. Perhaps the others do not exist. A momentary panic…No.. my mind is not equipped for quantum reality this morning. Of course, there may just be a glitch in the notifications settings….I nervously check the inbox, waiting for an email that says we can chill the fizzy stuff.

Let’s be honest, the stuff  is already well chilled, and my friend and I have things to celebrate  when he comes down from the north this weekend, regardless of what the email says. Even a negative response only means a couple more sleepless nights of editing. And the bottle has been waiting for just such a moment. If all else fails it is my birthday at the weekend, so we already have all the excuse we need.

My son is just married,   Sword of Destiny went out this week, The Initiate is almost ready for publication. The Heart of Albion is complete as of today and about to go into edit mode. Book the Third with Stuart begins… well… it begins with what we have learned from the other two… which is that whatever we think we are going to write about, probably isn’t where the journey will lead us. And my son’s story is well under way.

It is a curious thing, this writing malarkey. Not unlike life. You are either bitten by the bug early on, like my friend Alienora Taylor or you spend years wishing you could, thinking you never could… then one day wonder well actually, why not? You start with the spark of an idea, and whether you build detailed plans, work out the plot in advance and stick to it doggedly, or whether you jump in the stream of inspiration and see where it leads, it is always an adventure.

I’m finding it doubly so as I realise that my adventure is shared. Though I wrote Sword alone, the characters peopled my imagination like warm ghosts. They did not share my journey, I shared theirs. The teaching and courses I have written have always been for my students and shared with them. The Mystical Hexagram was a journey travelled with Gary Vasey… and of course I am now working with both Stuart and my son, Nick.

It is odd to observe the different ways of working. With Gary… well, we have so far never met, though we have been friends for a very long time. So emails flew, each editing and amending each other’s work, adding whole sections and yet somehow ending up with a book that worked.

With my son…  I lived the story while he slept through it in a coma the first months. It is a  hugely  emotional trek through memory and correspondence from the time and is bringing us to a realisation of just how far he has come. I am writing from my perspective and perception of the situation… he is writing from his. The two together make an extraordinary story.

Stuart and I, however, are almost letting the books write us. We gave up on having a definite agenda and have just followed the clues we have been given, tracing a path through myth and legend, stories and symbolism. The two characters, Don and Wen, echo conversations that have taken place across landscape, altar and wine glass while through the narrative other stories twine like snakes around the caduceus, guiding, highlighting and pointing new directions.

Oddly enough, all these different ways of sharing the journey work beautifully. Again, rather like life, as we interact and adapt, learning to harmonise with each other. You don’t even have to be singing the same song to create harmony.. it is the differences that make each of us unique, and the different ways of working together simply celebrates that.. and the fact that somehow it is possible to transcend the artificial barriers we build around our egos and let others in. Then sharing the journey becomes a joy.