Have managed to edit three chapters of The Bones of Summer today - hurrah! - and am now onto Chapter 18, Page 173. Well, gosh. And the more I read, the more I like Craig. Bloody hell, that's a good thing, isn't it? Would have been a ruddy disaster if I hadn't. After all, I have to be in love with my main character if I'm to write anything worthwhile at all. And as they're all (probably) aspects of me, that surely makes me the ultimate narcissist. No surprises there then. I suspect all writers would say the same too ...

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On my way home from work this evening, I counted no less than five abandoned pens lying in the street. Being me, my immediate thought - as a writer - was "Are they trying to tell me something?" One of them was really nice and must have cost a fortune new - all silver scrolling and gold edging - but I couldn't reach it so I was not able to rescue it. I have never seen that many pens lining my route home before, so of course I was reading all kinds of secret codes and signs into it! What do you think?


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Have managed to book the away day for our work team on 1 July – which appears to be a date when most people can make it, hurrah! And goodness me but that took some doing. However, the venue keep saying they’ve sent me the contract to sign, but there’s nothing remotely in the email which looks like a contract. When I ring them up about it, I’m not sure they believe me. Sigh. Why would I hassle them about a thing like that if it weren’t true?? Just send me the contract, people!...

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Dear Pam

If I sent you something belonging to someone, would you be able to tell me who they were and what kind of people? I’ve bought something that was supposed to have belonged to Dean, on that ebay place, but I need it confirmed before I’ll really believe it. Oh, maybe I shouldn’t have told you that it was his. Well never mind, I trust you, and you’d have known it anyway I’m sure. I’ve enclosed it with this letter.

Also, Sonjia said something the other day that really got me all wound up; she said that Dean was seen with a woman in a London restaurant...she’d read it in one of her stupid magazines. Is it true? He told me that he wasn’t going out, that he spent all his time reading up for the next show, or just watching TV. We like a lot of the same things; he loves Midsomer Murders too! I realise that he is a man and will do all sorts,

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Hello Everyone!

I just received the most exciting news while I was in Bavaria. “Laura and the Leprechauns” has been named a finalist in the 2008 Benjamin Franklin Awards in the category of Interior Design, Children’s/Young Adult! The Benjamin Franklin Awards recognizes small and independent publishers like me, which is truly nice. Just to be a finalist is such an honor and a surprise that I just had to share the news with you. The awards ceremony is on May 29th—just around the corner, really—so I’ll be sure to keep you posted on the outcome. I never thought my first book would be nominated for an award, but I am thrilled to even be considered. Well, that’s all for now. I’ll be in touch soon.

Sincerely,

Amber

www.chrysalispress.com

Well, that was an interesting meeting. Perhaps the most interesting one I've been involved with. Seriously, trying to arrange what I'm going to do for a library for Adult Learners' Week with no voice is no, as they say, walk in the park.

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Well, I managed to bag that job, so come the end of May I really will be rejoining the human race. This is good, as I’m somewhat fond of it. I also need a health kick and have to pay for gym membership – nine months of almost continual writing has slowly starting turning me into a doughboy and I’m going to try to quit the coffin nails as well!


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Ah there’s always a payback to bank holidays – the fact that after a glorious stretch of fun, you have to damn well go back to work. Dammit. Which means Tuesday becomes Monday and Tuesday rolled into one. Huge and heartfelt groaning … Oh well, at least the weather is nice. And I managed to catch up on my emails fairly quickly, thank goodness. There’s nothing worse than a complicated and undoable email request first thing in the week. Or indeed at any time ...

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Thinking about Sex and The City, and how some people don’t like it because of SJP or whatever. I don’t think I see SATC so much as hear it; it’s all column and my mind seems to be fastened on that – it probably wouldn’t matter to me who played the parts as long as the acting didn’t get in the way of the words (is SATC a blog?).

My brain is a very mysterious thing; sometimes it doesn’t recognise and add up the total of what’s being said – it just concentrates on the melody. I’ve been singing certain songs for years but only recently noticed that I don’t really know what the song is about

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