The final novel in the Map of Unknown Things trilogy has been sent in to the publisher. The name has been fixed. Cover designs are being created. The process of structural editing will soon be underway. But for a time it is out of my hands. And to some extent out of my mind.

After a couple of months of frenetic and focused work on that one story, I find myself with a few weeks in which I am able to drift. I have been walking a lot. And taking photographs. As I have mentioned before, this is just as much part of the creative process as the actual writing.

Yesterday, I paused in Jubilee Woods, near Loughborough, to take some photographs. Then the photographs were taken and I was walking away and I realised that I had, for the duration of that process, 'disappeared' from my own conscious awareness. That state of unawareness is something I hope to achieve when I am writing also. It seems to be an important part of the creative process.

As I walked in that dreamy state, I was playing with the threads of a story that has been in the back of my mind for some years. It concerns crows. It was the original reason for my watching, feeding and befriending

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