Today is a “start the next ms” day. For me, it’s always an exciting time. Often, I have a synopsis that will be a road guide to the book, even though sometimes it’s necessary to do a bit off-road traveling.

But today is extra special. I’m returning to the Regency romantic mystery series about Lady Priscilla Flanders and Sir Neville Hathaway. I haven’t written a story about them since Zebra folded its Regency line a couple of years ago. My editor had asked for more books with these two characters before the life support was cut off for the line. Fortunately ImaJinn Books has started a new Regency line — Marry Me, Millie will be released by them in the next month as the launch book for the line (that’s the last book in The Dunsworthy Brides trilogy for those of you keeping track <g>). I am contracted to do three books in the Priscilla and Neville series for ImaJinn.

So today I begin Gentleman’s Master. As soon as I touched the keys, their voices came back to life in my mind. Neville’s often off-kilter sense of humor and his absurd way at looking at the ton’s absurd ways. Priscilla’s determination to be a proper lady and bring up her children as her late husband would have wanted — but she never quite lives up to Aunt Cordelia’s expectations. And then the pesky issue of corpses that just seem to show up wherever they go, leading Priscilla and Neville to remark that they soon will not be invited anywhere by anyone.

Now I’m off to spend time with my characters and see what bodies, red herrings, and surprises (often as much a surprise to me as to them) await them in the weeks to come. Days like this are the reason that writing is an addiction — it is just so much fun! Lots of hard work ahead on the book, but today will be fun!

Happy Halloween today and to those of you who celebrate Samhain, have a glorious celebration.

Last month, I went on a pilgrimage. There is no other way to describe it. I went to a place that was remarkable because of the people who had been there before me and I sat there and drank in the atmosphere…while having a great bowl of potato and leek soup for lunch.

The destination of my pilgrimage was Eagle and the Child pub in Oxford, England. There is a cramped room right next to the bar — a room with the words “Rabbit Room” over the door. It was in this small room that C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien met with their writer friends for a critique group meeting each week.

I was in awe from the moment I walked into the door past the Cask Marque sign that showed the pub served cask ales and the usual announcements that fill any empty space in a university town. Walking along the narrow entrance hall and past a small room where a couple of people were enjoying their lunch, I paused by the bar to see what was being served. The man behind the bar told me I needed a seat before I could order (in English pubs, you order at the bar and they need to know your table number/location so the food can be brought out to you). I took the first seat available on a stool at a trestle table where a couple were sitting. Leaving my coat over the chair, I ordered my Coke and potato and leek soup.

It was only when I went back to the velvet covered stool that I realized I was in the place. The tiny room held two trestles tables with room for 6 people at each as well as a tiny table in the corner by the narrow, Victorian hearth. I looked up on the wall and saw photographs of the two authors and their friends and families. A tiny yellowed plaque was almost hidden in a corner…but I was there. In the room where Narnia and The Lord of the Rings were critiqued and brainstormed and shared.

I was so thrilled that I couldn’t keep it in. I turned to the couple at the other end of the table — a very nice couple from Texas on a face-paced tour — and asked them if they knew where they were. Their excitement was great, and they shared the news with all their tour companions.

After they left, I sat there for a while longer, nursing my soda. I wanted to soak up the moment of being in the shadow of such incredible imaginations. I thought of Dr. Jones in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade saying, “May he who illuminated this illuminate me.” It was an awesome moment.

So if you ever have the chance to be in Oxford (which also has connections to Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass, Harry Potter, and Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series), plan to stop in for lunch on St. Giles Street at Eagle and the Child pub. It is better known, btw, as “The Bird and the Baby”. Don’t go all the way back to the spacious garden room. Stop in the room just past the bar, and enjoy your own pilgrimage…and maybe some leek and potato soup.

Going away on a research trip to another country always sounds like so much fun. And it is. It’s the coming home that’s the trouble. I always find that my brain gets held up in customs. Over the next few days (weeks?), I’m going to be sharing pictures of my recent trip to England, Germany, and Switzerland. The last is a dream come true. Switzerland has been on my got-to-visit list (along with Japan and New Zealand) since I was very young.

But for now…it’s getting my brain back into writing and the business of writing. Page proofs and revisions and editor questions. And deciding how to make use of that amazing idea which popped into my head while flying from Basel, Switzerland to Heathrow. I’m still wondering if it popped into my head because the guy in the seat behind me had his knees pressed into my back the whole trip <g>