Time thief

Just what have I been doing for the last couple of weeks? So I haven't been blogging, hmm, 5th of July you say? I really don't seem to have done that much writing, despite the appeal of my very own (nearly finished!) writing room, and the briefest of glances at house/garden demonstrate my absence there. I think I have a time thief...

No, really. It's the only logical explanation. I go to work, come home, eat dinner and then suddenly it's time to go to bed. I'm sure I used to get things done in the interim. There may have been the occasional evening trip to a pub, but I'm still down a good few days. I wonder what a time thief looks like? Strange gnarled creature or just a bodyless entity that floats through the house and swipes your evening in a single pass? I fear I may have to start paying more attention to where I spend my time. I may even have to order that book that Jane mentioned in her Writing magazine column a couple of months back. Something to do with not wasting your life writing emails to your friends and watching crap tv. Hmm, maybe I'll order it next month. Or something to read on holiday perhaps... which is months away...

I really should have a picture of my new shiny desk in a gleaming room, with tasteful wooden blind in the background. However, it's not quite there yet, I seem to be repeating myself. Next post! I have at least got over the trauma of buying the desk and sofa bed from Ikea. Two trips to Wembley in 2 days. Just don't do it, shudder.

Two weddings and a writers' conference

The last fortnight has been a bit of a blur due to the lovely Winchester writers' conference and my friends trying to cram every social event of the summer into the same two weeks. All great fun but I could have done with a few days between each of them! Winchester was wonderful and terrifying in equal proportions. The pitch and publication course was really useful, but had its scary moments. We had to split into pairs and pitch to our partner as if they were an agent, then swap. Deep breath, not too bad, then 2 chairs were placed in the middle of the room... It's amazing how quickly you descend into incoherent babble when 20 pairs of eyes are fixed on you as you attempt to pitch to your "agent".

My real agent appointments the next day seemed slightly less worrying in comparison until I discovered the bear pit of a venue for the meetings. They're held in a large room with tiny exam style tables set up in pairs. You sit next to another desperate delegate and try to hold a sensible conversation with the agent opposite. It's incredibly loud, and very hard not to listen to the person next to you who is losing it slightly. I did get lots of useful feedback and one of them said I could send it to him again once I'd made the suggested changes. I went home happy.

The wedding I was at yesterday was held in the most glamorous venue I've ever encountered. St Audries Park in Somerset resembles a stately home, but only hosts weddings. You get the entire place for the day, and it's vast grounds. Weddings are held in the Orangerie, dancing in the great hall and then there are the endless lounges and bedrooms of epic proportions. I think the sinks and powder room of the ladies covered about the same area as my house. It was lovely to float around the place as armies of staff got you drinks and brought out endless trays of food...

And then there was Doctor Who, sniff.

New personal best

It's been a record breaking week, sadly only for my commute to work. My 40 minute drive has been extended to:

Tuesday - drive home 1 hour 45
Thursday - drive to work - 2 hours 40
Friday - drive home - 2 hours

Has everyone forgotten how to drive this week? OK, so maybe the diesel tanker that caught fire can't be blamed on anyone, but the rest were crashes blocking the road. Either that or fate is laughing at me after I asked if I could work from home two days a week. This request seems to have sent the powers that be into a tizzy and an answer is unlikely to be forthcoming any month soon. I feel a trawl of the job agency websites coming on...

I did finally manage to enter Waterstone's "What's your story?" competition, a whole day before it ended, although not according to the shop assistant. She took my card as a favour, saying it had finished the day before, despite the closing date on the card. I didn't like to argue, she's probably one of the store judges! I tried to summon up a winning smile instead, no pun intended! There are so many online entries I thought I might have more luck entering instore, and seeing my card in the corner of their shop window would be good!

Lazy blogger

I wonder if there's a lazy blogger award? I must surely be in the running by now. Every time I think of a good topic I never quite seem to get around to writing it. I blame my camera. Lots of these unborn posts require a picture and it's usually too dark in these rainy days (camera takes rubbish pictures in artificial light). Or there's my usual excuse - I ought to be doing some novel writing. I'm beginning to wonder if I only work in extremes. Most things are falling foul of this at the moment, to the extent that tidying up is beginning to feel like a bit of a luxury! Sadly I neither enjoy tidying up or living in a messy house. S remains oblivious to all this, as he'd happily live in chaos. It does mean I'm making progress towards finally finishing "Fickers" but surely there's some balance to be had!

Tuesday was a wonderful oasis in all of this. I can highly recommend a five hour lunch, in the sunshine, with eleven lovely writing friends. I don't think any of us paused the conversation for more than a mouthful of food, or sip of wine the whole afternoon! It's days like that, that stay with you forever and make me realise that writing and getting caught up in other people's triumphs and setbacks is one of the best things I do.

So it's two weeks to my self-imposed deadline for finishing. Nearly there!

The beautiful, pollenated, outside world

Finally a sunny day! The desperate need for some exercise (well, knowing it rather than wanting it) and the sunshine tempted me out for a cycle this evening. Unfortunately my friend pollen was also out and about and the hayfever tablets have been overwhelmed. I now have a box of tissues and a glass of wine for company. It's medicinal, clears the throat, well sort of.

Blogging has been edged out for the last week by my new toy. I know I really don't need the distraction but brain/sight/word training on my Nintendo DS is good fun! It only takes a few minutes on each and it wakes up my brain for some writing, or a few games of Sudoku... I was threatened with battery confiscation at the weekend due to my Tuesday deadline. I did manage to send in my Winchester conference stuff though so I'm feeling smug/terrified.

Right, I hear the call of the sofa, and maybe some of those ultra balm tissues.

Well, it's almost my birthday.

I should be writing, but I've been distracted by the tempting prospect of planning a day out tomorrow for my birthday! So far my very grown up plans include the Doctor Who exhibition at Earl's court, the new Indiana Jones film and Vinopolis (only slightly more grown up wine tasting). Haven't decided on an order for these events, what time we're going or even quite how to get there, although perhaps the wine drinking should come last...

Anywhere, the fuzzy pictures are of my new, early birthday present friends!

None of them have names, which apparently is a requirement. S has this theory that the un-named animals disappear because we won't know who they are to miss them...

Hope you all have a great bank holiday weekend!

Given that I have, unexpectedly, got the whole evening free to write, I have of course done very little. I usually write in silence, but this evening I seem to crave noise, so music has been blasting while I fail to add or remove any words. I've also had it on random song mix so am in a strange mood now, having listened to a very odd combination of music. A shared music collection means I've hit the forward button several times this evening!

Having been quite methodical with my editing recently, I now seem to have hit random mode. I keep skipping forwards to find a bit I'm more in the mood to work on. This is of course both confusing and unproductive, as half the point is to make sure everything flows and I haven't just had a conversation with someone that died in the last scene. I think it's because the fear has gone away this evening. I only have two and a half weeks before I have to send off the first 30 pages, a pitch and synopsis for the writers' conference. Somehow this doesn't scare me this evening. It'd better return tomorrow!

I got an email from Waterstones today, advertising their "What's your story" competition. Basically, you write a very short story, on a postcard sized bit of paper, which you may also decorate. There are a few on their website already and they've invited some authors to do one. The prize is being published alongside the official ones later this year. Lane, I thought of you when I saw some of the drawings behind the stories!


I think even blogger has got fed up with my font hopping. The choice of fonts and sizes has vanished, allowing me only bold or italic. I'd decided on one as well, really! Oh, panic over, apparently I'm in the edit html window...