A stormy day

Goodness me, what a wet and windy day it is. All rather dramatic really – how I love a bit of drama! Talking of which, was it just me or did the burning house at the end of last night’s rather wonderful “Lewis” episode explode rather too much and too often for a normal house fire? What on earth were they keeping in there?? Gas canisters? A makeshift bomb? The mind boggles, Carruthers … Mind you, it was still a good episode – all that Hathaway emoting – marvellous!

It’s taken me a while to get into today really – I’m still reeling with the shock of actually finishing The Gifting. Lord H has now read through and made some sort of sense of my synopsis, so I’ll get that off to the agent tonight. And then I just have to wait. And … um … wait. Lordy, the man is just so busy. Ah, ’tis ever thus.

I’ve posted off another copy of A Dangerous Man to an interested reader and I see that the rating of Thorn in the Flesh on Amazon has improved greatly, if no doubt temporarily – I just wonder whether they’re actually going to fulfil the request for a copy or just say they can’t be bothered in typical Amazon fashion. We’ll have to wait and see, though I suspect I’ll probably never find out, dammit.

This lunchtime, my reflexology appointment has been cancelled (double dammit) as the therapist is sick. I was so looking forward to it too, as I haven’t been able to go for ages. Still, these things can’t be helped, and I do hope Emily gets well soon. I’ll have to see if I can book another appointment after Easter as my diary is beginning to fill up with meetings big-time. Mind you, I did manage to struggle my way through the wind and rain to put in some cheques at the bank instead, so the hour was not wasted.

In the meantime, I’m plodding on with typing up the minutes of the Student Affairs Committee – I can’t really get a full head of steam going on it, to be honest, and even I am not sure I’m making sense. Still, that’s never stopped me before, eh. Ooh and the Surrey Advertiser have just cheered up my afternoon by interviewing me on the phone – very scary, especially in the middle of the working day, but heck I’m just a Media Tart and I’ll talk to anyone at any time. About anything. It was much like being on a rollercoaster – fun but really rather dangerous. And they’re coming in tomorrow to take a photo. Hmm, who can I get to stand in for me who’s a darn sight more glamorous? That’ll be any other girl in the office then!...

Tonight, unless I get blown away, I’m intending to do the weekly shop and add Easter presents to the list if Tesco have anything nice. Then I’m going to collapse in a heap and watch “The Fixer” on TV. Looks interesting for sure.

And I’ve now read Ian McEwan’s On Chesil Beach. Glory be, but it was dull to the point of despair. I really do think that he needs – desperately! – to move on from writing novels which are about one particular day only. I actually think he can’t do it and he needs to get through the night and into the following morning. Go on, Ian – give it a try. You’ve done it before – you know what the techniques are! The story just seemed to take an inordinately long time getting from the wedding supper to the fact that they don’t really have sex. My dears, I’m sure I could knock that out in a paragraph or two and still get the gist across. I don’t really want to know about every single muscle spasm and breath taken to get there. Nor do I need those appalling flashbacks (which I mostly skipped in order to get back to the thin sliver of plot there was). Mind you, I liked the end few pages – which gave a very exciting précis as to what happened in the years after the wedding night. Actually I think that was the real story – he just needed to write it.

Today’s nice things:

1. Sending out A Dangerous Man
2. Watching the Thorn Amazon rating (Lordy, but I really am a sad obsessive writer …)
3. The Surrey Advertiser interview.

Anne Brooke
Anne's website
Goldenford Publishers