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Where do you get your best ideas?
4am in the morning is the magic hour for me. I consider it in not just a time but a zone of possibility and potential.
What are you doing at that time of day?
In an ideal word, I’m up and heading to a nearby café to start my writing for the day. If there aren’t any cafes open, I’m painting in the studio. Whichever I’m doing, painting or writing, it’s when the world is at its most quiet. I love being able to descend into a really deep state of concentration, immediately after waking up. That’s how I get into my creative zone.
I once scribbled this down when thinking about my early morning work, and I love looking at it occasionally:
I awaken and throw my fishing line out, casting into the cloudy abyss using only the tools of instinct and lucidity to hook whatever words and story fragments and pieces of universal code that are drifting there. I reel them in and begin the ritual of identifying them. I work to understand what the early tide has brought forth, and how the pieces fit into the jigsaw-like constructs of my creative projects.
Are you able to maintain your sense of creative purpose all day, if you start so early?
No, it’s not sustainable for long periods of time. I usually last an hour or two, and then I need a break. Then that sense of strong connection to my creative self slowly ebbs as the day begins to pull me in different directions.
Mid-morning (which is around 9-10am by my clock!), I find that my logical brain starts to take over, – telling me I have things to do, places to be.
After I’ve ticked off a few of my other daily tasks and activities, I try to get some fresh air and exercise, and then do smaller chunks of creative activity. I’m really done by about 2-3pm in the afternoon. After that, it’s admin only!
I like to start unwinding around 4pm. We have an early dinner, I’m always early to bed (8pm!) and then I’m up and at it all over again the next day.
Who designed the book cover for the book you are touring?
I did! The cover art features one of my paintings, titled The Forever Trail. The printed edition of the book also features my paintings at the beginning of each chapter.
Tell us about the absolute BEST fan letter you have received.
A lady told me that she the story and characters of Bitroux felt very real. That’s the biggest compliment I could ever get. I didn’t want to create something that felt entirely fictional, even though the book sits in the science fiction and metaphysical fiction genres. I really wanted it to be authentic and to have glimmers of truthfulness in it. So that compliment made me feel very happy indeed.
If Merouac ever thought his life’s work would culminate in leading the metal workshops of the Transcontinental Railroad Project, he was sorely mistaken.
Now, his true challenge lies in navigating the other-worldly abilities he’s only beginning to understand—abilities that allow him to tune metal to interdimensional frequencies.
While trying to be a guardian to his niece, Evra, he’s realising she may have more to teach him than he ever expected. At the same time, his decision to help an interdimensional race find refuge underground puts him at the centre of an even deeper mystery.
As reality reshapes itself around him, Merouac faces a growing realisation: the world of Ahm is on the brink of a profound transformation, and everything he thought he knew may soon be shattered.
The two men were slow moving, graceful, each with a high mohawk of golden straw-like hair, and heavily decorated with neck jewels. The neck-ware was gnarled, twisted, fibrous, fragments of plant stems dried and interwoven with beads and fresh flowers, trussed with other leaves and organic material, and embedded with strange jewels that seemed to glow and fade, changing colours across a spectrum of blues to greens and then back to blues.
Tundra inclined his head, made a small gesture and a bow.
‘He greets you,’ Kii translated. ‘Tundra does not speak very much, and so I’ll translate for him.’
‘How do you know what he wants to say, then?’ Merouac asked.
‘I can see it, or sense it, in the atmosphere,’ Kii explained.
Merouac watched in surprise as the Tundra gestured again, imparting information through the aether which Kii seemed to easily recieve and decipher.
Tundra then eased himself into a crouching position and cleared a patch of grass. He shook his head and determined it would not suit, and looked for a sandy patch. He moved over to another, more suitable, patch of ground and beckoned the other two to join him. He went through the same process of clearing the ground, and then used his fingers to trace lines into the sand. He was silent as he did so, but then looked at Kii expectantly, and Kii nodded.
‘Tundra said you did the right thing with the race that was escaping their imploding planet. They are safe, and they will rest in the core of Ahm now. Tundra was just drawing a map for me, to show me where they are.’
Merouac felt a shock run through him. ‘How does Tundra know about the Helara?’ he asked Kii.
‘There are things that can be seen in the energetic environment. He is able to perceive the place where the Helara now rest. It is under the power grid, deep below Suron. There is a cave network, and catacombs with very deep canyons. Below those canyons, this is where you found a place for the Helara to enter the core of the planet. It was the right thing to do,’ Kii said, translating as he watched Tundra’s fingers work in the sand.
Jordan’s books, studio workshops, courses, coaching and resources are an invitation to explore the rich landscape of creative experiences open to all.
High Country is Jordan’s second novel set in the world of Bitroux.
Website: https://jordanharcourthughes.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jordaninthestudio/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jordaninthestudio
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Thank you for featuring BITROUX: HIGH COUNTRY and its author today.
ReplyDeleteThe blurb and excerpt sounds good.
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a very good book and I look forward to reading it.
ReplyDelete