I’m not entirely sure what happened but I have only now started putting pencil to paper again. This summer has been a small flurry of loss, expected and unexpected, both affecting my ability to do anything other than muse on the importance of family and friends and how our relationships affect us. Nurturing those close connections seemed more important than anything else – and so I did spend time with people, especially old friends and family. I was taken to a flower show where I met a few Fey who have inspired new characters in Lux:

I took longer than planned to re-emerge to the world of ‘output’, only now catching up with lost plans and promises (especially the rewards to all my supporters on crowdfunder, sorry!). In my time off from Lux I have mostly created tangible objects for loved ones, things that could be created quickly and to a pattern. I crocheted cotton bags and knitted birthday socks and baby hats and finished a jumper for a dying friend who could not manage it herself before she left us. As I sat with her, just knitting the sleeves for her as fast as I could but not quite fast enough, I thought of the fairytale girl weaving shirts for the twelve swan princes and not quite finishing the last one. But that’s another story.

So now my thumbs ache and my heart aches and I hope to pour some of these dark and light thoughts from this summer into the stories and games I create now, moving forward. As well as more ideas for Lux, I have a short film script, half-baked but rising steadily. And I am sure Granny Lumb would approve of taking time to create socks for daughters and grandbabies, knitted with love.