Insane writers and the shallow chocolate-eater

Rushed into town this morning to get a shed-load of stuff which has been waiting to be bought for weeks. However, commerce is - once again - against me. I couldn't find half the stuff I wanted (deep sigh) and when I got home some of the stuff I'd actually bought was the wrong ruddy stuff (deeper sigh): it's just that the ruddy retailer had put the oil in the place where they usually put the soap and in the same packaging. So I'm no further forward. Plus I have something extra I don't need yet. And I still have to go back and get the things I really wanted at some point. Bloody hell - is it just me or do other people go haywire and get utterly stressed out when simple things don't go to plan?? I mean I could probably cope with style and finesse if World War Three broke out in Godalming (that den of crime and unrest), but I fall into a sobbing wreck when I can't find my soap. Hell, maybe I really am mad. This reminds me of a quote from a book I'm currently reading where Person A (reader) comments on what a glamorous lifestyle writers must have, and Person B (writer) thinks that there is surely nothing glamorous about being indoors for seven hours at a stretch trying not to go insane. There's wisdom in that, by George ...

Anyway, while in Godalming, I did manage to buy a Cadbury's Creme Egg to take as a small Easter present to my friend in hospital. However, by the time I got back in the car, I was so jazzed up and unable at all to cope with any more social interaction of any kind that I actually drove home instead and ate it myself. Even though I know chocolate is bad for my insulin problems, it went nicely with the De-Stress pill I found. Which only goes to show what a shallow, heartless bitch I am - taking chocolate from the mouths of the sick ... Shocking. I am sure that, in this Easter season, this is Not What Jesus Would Do. As that wretched evangelical bracelet doesn't say ...

Anyway, back here on the ranch where I am safe from meeting any people at all, I have made good the extra time gained from my day by finishing the whole of the edit to Irene's Darshan for Goldenford. Another wonderful literary novel, Irene! And what an ending - utterly fabulous.

I've just seen that A Dangerous Man has been included, along with other Flame Books publications, in the Amber Square listings (which is a new project to market books from small independent publishers - more power to their elbow, I say!) here. I'm hoping it might even sell a few more copies - well, you never know your luck.

And I've managed - in superspeedy mode - to solve the latest "Torchwood" mission, hurrah! Mind you, I've had to as the answer needs to be in by tomorrow night, dammit. They're obviously building up the tension to the grand finale, as they normally give us a week to solve the mystery. Still, I'm pretty pleased that I managed it on my own - it wasn't easy, I can tell you. You had to be damn quick at writing stuff down in order to get it. Still, writing damn quick is my middle name, so I suppose I shouldn't complain.

Tonight, Lord H and I are having dinner at the Yvonne Arnaud theatre and then seeing The Late Edwina Black - which in that photo looks deliciously camp and just the sort of thing we warm to. Here's hoping it fulfils its promise, eh.

Today's nice things (more than three - ye gods, the pills must be working ...!):

1. Guilty chocolate eating
2. Editing Darshan
3. Solving the "Torchwood" mission
4. Another marketing avenue for A Dangerous Man
5. The theatre.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website
Goldenford Publishers