Update about Cake

Quick post: Pret a Manger sell wheat-free orange cake! Its not as nice as the lemon cake at the tower of London, but seeing as its cheaper than paying the entry each time I'm peckish, it's great! Orange makes it a tad bitter, but that means its not sickly, and it comes in a generous portion. Along with their no bread sandwiches, it is one of the best places for me to eat when out and about in London. If only I could get one in every city I go to!

Better

Right, well, after yesterday's moan, I'm feeling a bit better today. Everyone has down days, right?

Work is still stressful, but I'm now making the decision to never mention my full-time job in my blog again (aside to occasionally say where in the world I am), as I don't want my job to start monopolising my life - it's already taken a chunk out of my personal life, and I really don't want it to start affecting my potential writing career, and so I'm going to start with here. Work - be gone!

I read our Semper group's forum for the first time in ages today, and it was really nice to know that I have friends out there who are all slugging away, united as we are by our common goal to make a living from our writing. Phil has a play on at the Accidental Festival in May, which is great news. Hannah is possibly doing a PhD (so we'll have to call her "Doctor" from then on!). It's all very exciting.

Me? I'm still on Chapter Seventeen, having written a little more on the train yesterday. I'm almost at the end of the chapter now. I think it will need a lot of work in the rewriting stage, but hey, that's what it's all about right? Turd polishing. Get it done, move on to the next chapter.

The Banshee story keeps eating away at me - I have a new fully formed character which popped into my head whilst I was away. I've written a couple of scenes and some notes, but I can't let myself get distracted away from Inter Vivos right now, no matter how siren-like the story calls to me. I have a Plan and I must stick to it.

I'm sorry these blog posts are a bit dull right now. It's not as exciting as theatre, I know. Novels take time, whereas plays less so, and with theatre there are other elements involved, whereas with novels, its just all slog, slog slog on your ownsome. But this is just how it is, I'm afraid. I'll have a think about ways to jazz up my content, rather than the usual "Chapter X is coming along..." posts. Maybe add a gun fight post, or a sex scene post for good measure. ;-)

A Whiney Rant

Well, Reading is over and done with. I'm so sick of travelling around now. I'm exhausted. And broke. Work will eventually repay all the money I've had to spend, but that doesn't solve the immediate problem of the current deficit of my bank account. I have a hundred and one things to do tomorrow that I will have to cram into about 3 hours before I go out again on Thursday. Work sucks.
I'm also of the opinion right now that my writing sucks too. I'm bored of the part I'm working on and want to fast forward to the good bit. Plus I've just finished reading Neverwhere and now I'm glum because ill never write anything that good, etc etc. Sigh. I'm even boring myself now. Will come back when I'm in a better mood.

Busy!

This is one of those very rare occasions where I'm actually writing this blog post from a desk via blogger's website, rather than from a bus or a train or a hotel room via my BlackBerry. It's actually rather nice. Though saying that, it won't last for long, as next week is crazy busy again (Reading, Lewisham, Stanmore, home) and the week after that crazier still (Stoke, Guildford, London, Northampton). Perhaps this is what book tours are like, in which case I'll be well practiced.

I'm off to write in the library for a bit as soon as I'm done here. I'm feeling quite tired, as I've been at work since half 8 this morning with no break as yet, but I need to stay motivated. Once I've finished this draft, then it's time for the big edit, and after that, I'm half way there. It is tough to try to write, and be a writer, when you've also got a full time job, but I'm doing it as best I can and trying not to waste a second of my time.

Well, aside from the odd blog post ;-)

After Inter Vivos is finished and doing the rounds with friends, I'm planning on finishing off a couple of short stories and sending them out to slush piles around the country, and also I'm planning on making a proper start on my next novel, which I think will be the banshee story. I'd like to squeeze in some drama too somewhere, but haven't really got the time.

Oh! That reminds me, for those of you interested, Script Frenzy, which is the play/film/graphic novel version of NaNoWriMo, begins on 1st April. You have to write 100 pages in a month. Interested? Details here.

Portsmouth

I'm typing this whilst simultaneously sitting in Frankie and Benny's waiting for my order. Portsmouth this week, and the weather is foul and my hotel room awful (ok, I can overlook what I have now discovered to be the obligatory pube on the sheets, but toilet roll that someone threw up on? No thank you).
Anyhow, went to see Watchmen and it was really good. Am going to read the novel but have been told its fairly accurate, though the film is more gory.
Will be starting to work on IV shortly, so will update later.
Ooh, steak's here. Gotta go!

Tidings from Manchester

The cycle of UCAS conventions has started again, so I will be away every week now until April. This week it's Manchester. It's not a bad place, but I'm intimidated by the tallness of the buildings and their close proximity to each other. Still, I found the central library and a cosy Starbucks, so after work I was able to get a bit of work done, which I'm going to continue in a sec (after Judge Judy of course!).
Ideas keep fighting for my attention, but I'm trying to keep focused on Inter Vivos. Chapter 15 is still ongoing, but I'm hoping it'll be finished before the night is over. Then its on to chp 16 which is going to be tough. Why is it so hard to write about falling in love? Sex, no problem. Death, piece of cake. But love at first sight? I feel decidedly under qualified. I fell for my best friend; it's so difficult to write about lightening bolts without, ahem, resorting to clichés. Perhaps because (aside from lust)love at first sight doesn't really exist? I wrote a post last week about my thoughts on love, which I never had time to post, and might not do after this one, but its all interesting nonetheless (well to me anyway).
Anyway, greetings from Manchester, how are you?