Haircuts and humanity

I must say how moved I was last night whilst watching "The Alan Johnston Story" on TV. It was both electrifying and astonishingly thoughtful. He - and those included in the programme - came across as very human and very honest. It strikes me that so much of what we see or read or experience these days seems to work against the fact of our humanity, and it was refreshing to watch a programme that, at the end of the day, entirely celebrated it. I suspect it may be the most godly (if I dare use that word) thing I've come up against for a long time. Here's hoping there are more of the same, and in other creative fields also, soon. And, if you didn't watch it, and it's repeated at some stage, I can thoroughly recommend you try to catch it.

Anyway, to today. This morning, I have been scribbling away doing a sex scene in The Bones of Summer. I think it's one of those where after it everything will change, but I don't know in what way yet. Tis ever thus, dammit. We'll see. In any case, I need to raise the tension a few notches at this stage and set the wheels rolling for the second half of the story. Bloody hell, but it's good to get those cliches out of the way. It's so cleansing.

Lynda the hairdresser arrived twenty minutes before my one o'clock appointment (which is quite late for Lynda) and I now have the perfect hairstyle. At least until I wash it tomorrow. Heck it's nice to see out. Afterwards, I finished off my sex scene - or as near as dammit (always leave your characters in a state of high excitement as that way you'll be keen to carry on where you left off as soon as possible ...), and I'm now at the grand total of 39,000 words with it. The whole thing, not just the sex scene! I'm hoping that I can squeeze out another 1000 words before November rolls in. 40,000 just sounds better.

Popped into Godalming before the shops shut to stock up on essential eucalyptus oil and detox tea. This will hopefully counter the effect of Guy's chocolate cake (thanks, Guy!), another delicious slice of which has been consumed today. The ideal accompaniment to sex scene writing indeed. I can see I'm going to have to rush out soon and buy cheese so I can write a murder. Lord, but sometimes I am so strange I actually frighten myself ... Still, I wait with anticipation the book (which someone must write soon) telling us all about the relationship between writers' plots and their diets. Surely a bestseller in the baking - sorry, making.

Oh, and Juli from Mighty Erudite has sent me a new poetry collection - this one from David Hill - to have a quick look through. So I'm hoping to start tonight, depending on how it goes. Though, as there are so many acres of TV on tonight, it might have to wait till the weekend.

Today's nice things:

1. Thinking about the Johnston programme (not nice, perhaps, but it made me think, and feel, in a positive way ...)
2. Getting a haircut
3. Writing a sex scene.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website