Saturday, May 12, 2007

Naked men and cocktails ...

... as it were. Nice lie-in today, brought on by yesterday's social whirl. I must say how lovely it was to meet Clayton (http://www.myspace.com/dwbsoho) at last and to be able to have such an inspirational in-depth chat about writing and this strange world of books we find ourselves in. Thanks, Clayton - enjoyed it very much! Also lovely to meet Bryony and catch up on the last year over pizza and wine. Bliss.

Lord H very kindly picked me up from Woking station last night (I missed the train to Godalming by 3 minutes, darn it!...) and over the course of yesterday and today, I find out that he has been storing away Husband Points like nobody's business. While I'm out gallivanting and meeting nice people, Lord H has (a) cleaned the whole flat and done the hoovering (b) bought me the latest Joanne Harris book (c) glued down the broken tile in the bathroom (d) sorted out the recycling boxes (e) videod "My Family" and "Have I Got News for You? without being asked (f) done the rest of the shopping (g) solved the problem of Iraq and (h) instigated World Peace. It's astonishing what we can get up to here in the shires. So I am now married to a Husband with a Very Smug Smile. And I have absolutely no Wife Points to speak of. What a SuperHero indeed. Perhaps I should go to London more often ...!?

This morning, I have typed up more to The Gifting (119,500 words now, and onto the very last scene ...) and popped into Godalming for papers etc. We have then motored into Guildford to see "Dead Funny" at the Guildford Theatre this afternoon. Which included tasteful (the worst sort really!) male nudity, with bits concealed (sigh!) and a very funny rerun of a classic Morecambe and Wise sketch. However, the play itself wasn't great, and really lasted for 15 minutes too long, in our opinion.

Straight afterwards, we've been to a cocktail party in Godalming for an old American friend & poet - lovely to see you again, Gordon, and I still miss our Monday night poetry group ... But I have to say Gordon does have some very strange friends. One of the local rich folk was there, whom Lord H and I can't stand, but we managed to avoid him successfully, hurrah! But, just as I thought it was safe, I was cornered by a drunk old geezer with an attitude problem and a lurid green jacket who just wouldn't go away (the man and the jacket, believe me). I eventually ditched him by telling him I was a street ballet dancer and I needed to get to my next performance. Bizarrely this seemed to work, though I suspect I shan't be going into Godalming for a while ...

Some nice writing news - Crimeficreader (http://itsacrime.typepad.com) has reviewed "A Dangerous Man" (http://www.flamebooks.com) with an interesting political slant, and the full review can be found here:

http://itsacrime.typepad.com/its_a_crime_or_a_mystery/2007/05/a_dangerous_man.html#more

Thanks, Rhian - I'm very happy to be included on your blog. As is Michael! And one of my poems has been shortlisted in this month's Writing Magazine, so that's a boost for sure. And Jackie (http://freespace.virgin.net/jackie.luben/) has also been shortlisted for the Writers' News short story competition, so well done, Jackie! Guildford Writers (http://www.guildfordwriters.net) are back on form then! Ooh, and I've received my book prize for being Readers' Choice in the 55 word fiction competition in http://www.birdandmoon.com/55words/ site, so shall look forward to reading those. Thanks, guys! And thanks also to everyone who voted - I'm really grateful.

Tonight, it's the great Eurovision blitz, with the adorable cynicism of Terry Wogan, which I shall pop into now and again. What could be nicer?

Today's nice things:

1. Crimeficreader's review
2. The shortlistings
3. Writing.

Anne Brooke
http://www.annebrooke.com
http://www.pinkchampagneandapplejuice.com
http://www.goldenford.co.uk

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