Briefly shopped in Godalming this morning, and then spent the rest of the time until lunch writing more of "The Gifting". Another 1000 words done today, and it's flowing a little easier now that I've got a key scene over with. I think I'm coming to the end of the second (of four) main sections too, so it will be nice - a challenge, yikes! - to move onto the next one. But it still takes me an age to get down to typing - I always have to mess around on the computer, surfing and playing Solitaire, before I'm in the right frame of mind. Or is that the write frame of mind? Weird, but it's how it is.
Golf at lunchtime was fun - Marian and I were rubbish, but we laughed a lot. This evening, Lord H is out at a works do, so I've taken the opportunity to buy an Indian takeaway (he can't stand the smell ...). Bliss! Will have to remember not to breathe when he comes back though. A night in front of the TV watching videos is called for, I think.
Ooh, and great news on the "A Dangerous Man" front. Sean from Flame Books (http://www.flamebooks.com) sent me my blurb yesterday and said that we should know the publication date very soon. It was such a relief to get the message - thank you, Sean! And I was very impressed with his blurb, which is in itself a work of art. The man's a genius. I include it below for your delectation:
"Michael Jones, a young gay artist and part-time prostitute will do anything to stage his first exhibition. When he falls in love with rich financier, Jack Hutchinson, he seems set to achieve his goal. But as Mikey becomes caught between the unforgiving territory of smoky-bar Hackney and the green-garden luxury of upper class London, we witness the intense mindscape of a man obsessed with his dreams as he attempts to free himself of his past. When a net of antagonistic relationships and inner battles encroaches upon him, the consequences of Mikey’s uncompromising pursuit emerge in thrilling tragedy, leaving him having to fight for all he holds dear, and in the only way he knows how.
Within a plot thick with the flesh of individual struggle, a backbone of page-turning tension carries Mikey’s plight through the charcoal grey London which rubs itself so close to his skin, entrapping him in a dark kaleidoscope of sex and crime. As she pushes him to the full expression of his haunting richness, Brooke creates a most contemporary of protagonists, alerting us to the psychological discourse and emotional minefield of a troubled man struggling to establish a sense of self and place in urban England."
Gosh. Coming soon (and frequently) to a street corner near you ... And, hell, I can't remember there being so much in it (down, modest writer, down!), but I'm not complaining ... I kind of like being referred to as "Brooke" too - makes me almost sound like a real writer. I suppose I'll know I've really arrived though when people start calling me by my initials (A.L. if you're interested). Shades of JK ... I wish!
And I've just given up on my latest Booker Prize shortlist - Hisham Matar's "In the Country of Men". Um, dull, dull, dull. Don't bother.
Today's nice things:
1. Writing
2. The ADM blurb (though strictly speaking that was actually late yesterday)
3. Golf.
Anne Brooke
http://www.annebrooke.com
http://www.goldenford.co.uk
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