Confessions of a Justified Sinner

My name is Colin Galbraith. It’s been over two years since my last blog post.

Yes, over two years. 2 years. Apart from a pre-written poem, we’re talking about 29 months to be precise.

So. Here we are then.

I guess you’ll be wanting to ask some questions so I’ll get the main stuff out the way. In the last two and half years or so I have…(in no particular order)

• turned 40
• got divorced
• got some new tattoos
• moved into a dream flat by The Shore in Leith
• took one of the best holidays I’ve ever had in Cyprus
• learned that as a single man, I “still have it”
• found myself
• rid myself of dead weights and negative influences
• learned a few songs on the guitar
• attended 73 music gigs in the space of one year
• Re-read that last one: that’s 1 & half gigs per week for a year!!
• built up my freelance I.T. business
• worked for 3 major British and worldwide banks
• saw my daughter turn 18
• saw my young sister turn 40
• lost my cat, Jeremiah, who has now moved on
• discovered I love going to the cinema on my own
• became an uncle for the third time
• been nicknamed “Peter Pan” by two of my nieces
• met and fell in love with my soulmate
• moved to Livingston
• visited the Asian continent for the first time
• become engaged
• become a dad to two new mini-lop bunnies, Lulu and Crumble
• and probably most importantly, I’ve grown happier and more sure each and every day

So there you go. I think that just about covers it.

And with all that out of the way, the only big question that remains now is ‘why start blogging again?’

Simple really. I miss writing and I’m finally getting my long lost muse back.

The encouragement I’ve also received from my fiancé over my writing and the fact I’ve started work on a new poetry chapbook, also helped to point me to the inescapable conclusion that I had not, in fact, written my last novel, or indeed story.

The timing of this regeneration and invigoration is probably the best it could be. NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) starts this Sunday, which I’m hoping can be the perfect launchpad for a new novel, and my spur to move on with all the plans I had before all this began.

For the uninitiated, NoNoWriMo is an online based writing marathon that anyone can sign up to, the aim of which is to write at least 50,000 words in 30 days. Not as easy as it sounds by any stretch, but it is how I wrote Slick (available on my website) and Gatecrash (unpublished), so I have done it before.

For the past few weeks I’ve been bouncing ideas around in my head, endlessly mulling things over, and toying with new characters. I’ve also been falling into odd little absences, which although might appear to an outsider like I’m not paying attention, are in fact just me plotting the outline of my next book.

And so with six days to go until NaNoWriMo begins, I have a strong protagonist and the formation of an antagonist. I have a location. I have a rough plot idea. And I have inspiration aplenty.

My protagonist is the most formed in my mind for this project but that’s mainly because I’ve spent time with him before. You might recognise his name: Lennox, D.I. Lennox.

Blogging is my attempt at not only journaling my path through this years NaNoWriMo, but also a requirement in that I really do need to grease the wheels.

To tell you the truth, despite the obstacles in my way, I really am quite excited about starting a new journey.