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...

Sunny weekend!

I'm definitely solar powered. Everything is better in this gorgeous, sunny weather. I was worried I might write less, but the lovely new garden table has tempted me outside with my laptop and only darkness has been evicting me from the garden!

I've been trying to focus on the lovely apple blossom and not the rest of the jungle that makes up the garden. It's very hard not to see the wilderness that needs hacking back but I seem to manage most of the time...

Also there is the distraction of a new, monster bbq this weekend. It's currently sitting in an alarmingly large box in the garage, just crying out to be put together. That's assuming any of the shops have anything left to cook on it! I'm sure there are some burgers at the back of the freezer, but they're not from last year (wet summer that thwarted all bbqs) and they may be an entirely new lifeform by now.

Someone at work offered to read my novel today and I nearly did fall off my chair, no really. I'm not used to other people showing an interest. It's usually people who have to make the occasional polite enquiry (friends and family) or people that write. I'm not finished with it yet anyway but I'm not sure I'm ready for 'work world' and 'writing world' to crossover. Although he's not the type to shy away from telling you what he thinks so maybe he's the ideal reader!

Anyway, time I got back to the garden!

Anyone listening?

Just had a very odd telephone experience, and no, not of the heavy breathing type. Slightly tipsy husband rang me from the beer festival to check the time of the next train. He didn't end the call, and after a minute of shouting myself hoarse to get him to hang up I realised I could still hear him talking.... He's chatting to the friends he's there with, so do I continue trying to get him back on the phone or do I just listen a while? Yup, you've guessed it, I'm a terrible eavesdropper given the opportunity. Other people's conversations always seem so interesting! Of course this is a risky one because you never know what you might hear. On this occasion it seemed to be limited to the beers they'd tried and which one they liked best, if they could remember that far back. After a minute the line went dead.

I'm sure there's many a short story based on this premise but it's quite exciting, just for a moment, not to know what you might hear...

I'm having a rubbish week for blog writing, but it does mean I've done a lot of re-writing to try and get "Flickers" into shape. I've had confirmation from the Winchester Writers' Conference that I have my two agent appointments. Gulp. I have to send the first 30 pages, pitch letter and synopsis by June 6th. Of course the synopsis means I need to stop messing about with new scenes and changing things about as well!

I also nearly fell off the sofa when I turned to page 3 of Writers' news this month and saw the wannabes smiling back at me. How did that picture get in there! I was feeling particularly grim that day (evil sinus infection) and apparently I looked it too!

Hope everyone has a great weekend. Bank holiday, yippee!