Something important is going to happen in your plot. You already know it. But the reader doesn’t. You may want it that way. But equally well, you may prefer to whet the reader’s appetite, to heighten the anticipation, to quicken the pace.

“Murder @ Work” (Echelon Press, 2004) and “Murder @ Play” (Echelon Press, 2009) are set in South Africa of the 1990s. The nineties were a fascinating time in South African history: new thinking challenging old beliefs, the media slowly hinting at the possibility of equality for all people, hope and goodwill rising despite the escalating violence. The whites still had a cushy lifestyle: secure jobs for the men, large mansions with swimming pools for the women (many women chose to stay at home and look after the family with the help of their domestic servants). The non-whites still vacuumed the thick carpets and polished the silver BMWs at work, then went home to mud shacks. But the changes – the changes were already afoot….

Three of my published author friends don’t want to be writers anymore. I realise I sound like a five year old talking about her playmates… and you know, I kind of feel like one, too.

It’s all about being at the right place at the right time, knowing the right people, having the right manuscript available.

For every copy of “Fiji on Fire, Fiji on Ice” sold in March and April 2010, I will donate $1.50 to Fiji Aid.

You have an idea. You want to write it down. You have to write it down. So, what do you do?

If you abandon your cup of tea mid-sip, switch off the music and sit down at your desk to do the writing, ask yourself why. Why the desk and not the bed? Why switch off the music? Why not take the cup of tea with you to sip as you ponder?

You might discover that those did not make those choices consciously: you just followed a pattern of learnt behaviour. At school, they told us that to study we needed a quiet area away from all distractions, a neat desk, a firm chair and plenty of light. And yet, the latest research tells us that sitting at a desk can place too much strain on the coccyx, and that bright light can lead to burnout.

I can just imagine James Cameron walking into the weekly brainstorming session at my writers’ group….

For writers, aromatherapy may also be a well of ideas in itself. Ever since I started researching the topic, my fiction teems with witches and enchanted forests of magical flowers. I write poetry about voodoo dolls and love potions. And of course, one of my murder mysteries, “Murder @ Work” (a shameless plug here), features a murder by essential oil.

Today, I’d like to share with you another plotting technique that works for me. I call it theming. No, not The Ming, it’s not nearly as valuable (LOL). I mean, scheming using a theme, or theming for short.

… I wonder whether I’m just screaming voicelessly in a soundproof room in the middle of the largest desert on Mars…