I’ll soon be travelling to Singapore, a city, to be honest, I was never particularly curious about. At first it seemed so uninteresting that I had hoped to link it to a stop-over in Bangkok, a city I have wanted to return to (especially now that I have new blog friends there!). Unfortunately, that didn’t work out, but never mind — now that I’m about to go, I’m incredibly excited. But then again, I’m always excited when I travel, no matter where I’m going, and I realize how lucky I have been that my life has allowed me to fulfill this desire to travel — no, it’s more than a desire. It’s a need.

The more I write, the more I understand that for me writing is all about turning reality into fiction. That metamorphosis might manifest itself in a novel, but it might also develop into a poem or a play. No matter – for some reason I travel through my life turning “real life” people, “real life” events and “real life” places into a new “reality,” one which is nurtured in my own fevered brain, but which is more often than not born out of my experience of place. I do believe that how we live our lives is directly affected by where we live them. Whether we acknowledge it or not, our physical environments help mold us into who we are and what we do. In Tangled Roots, the characters’ lives are forever changed by their interactions with their surroundings. John had to travel to Moscow and really experience it before he could take his step towards wholeness. For his mother, one afternoon sitting quietly in the English countryside was life changing. And in my next novel, I hope to be able to turn modern-day Cambodia into as much of a complex and changing character as the characters that inhabit it.

All of this has come out of my travels, but I’m not equally affected by everywhere I go. I also believe that for different reasons, different places resonate with you at different times. Have you ever had the experience of arriving somewhere for the first time and knowing, really knowing, that you belonged there? I have, and the wonder of it for me is that I never can guess where it will happen. No, I’ve never really wanted to go to Singapore — but now I can’t wait to see just what it may spur in me once I’m there.

So, hopefully the plane will take off, but at the moment there’s a foot of snow on the ground at Heathrow and the airport is closed. Yes, a foot of snow in central London. And just to prove it, here’s the view of my back garden! Amazing! But hopefully, all will be sorted by tomorrow night and then I’ll be awol for a week in case you’re wondering where I am. But then I’ll be back (briefly). See you soonish.