Thanks to Amy from the Heywood Advertiser for sending me this, a wee picture story of my visit and library opening a couple of weeks back.


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A busy morning today, rushing around dealing with 1001 emails, mainly from the Catering Office about the plethora of meetings I’ve arranged in January. I think I now have food and water for all of them but, frankly, it’s hard to say. If I don’t, I will have to get my apron on and whip up a last-minute meal for 10 a la Fanny Craddock. As you do.

I’ve also sent round a note about the upcoming Thorn in the Flesh launch in February to people at work who might like to come. One or two at least seem enthusiastic, so that’s quite comforting. Always good to know there might be more at the party than just me and Lord H. What a stalwart support that man is. Actually, I won’t send the invitations out till after Christmas, but I just wanted the date to be floating in people’s minds before 2008 social activities start being added to diaries over Christmas ...

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Much to my delight, PD Publishing have now got the Maloney's Law cover art up on their website, plus the revised blurb. Thank you, all! I'm really very pleased with it, and am now looking forward to tackling the edits whenever they arrive. Roll on 2008, eh!

Talking of writing matters, Lord H and I have decided to refresh my website design ourselves using Dreamweaver before thinking about calling in the troops. We're hoping to work on that over Christmas, so sometime in the New Year the site should be looking far more modern than it currently is. Hurrah! I certainly like what Lord H has been working on off-line so far, so watch this space ...

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I've just posted my Sunday Salon blog over at The Short Review's blog, and today I blogged while reading Alison MacLeod's short story collection, Fifteen Modern Tales of Attraction. Stunning stories! ...

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Nik Perring would like to place on record his complete dissatisfaction in having a cold. He does not enjoy them, nor does he see their point. Or worth. In fact, he thinks they're an inconvenient nuisance.


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Spent the day with Mother today. Scary biscuits indeed. I think I managed to look like a fairly normal daughter most of the time though, in spite of being so shattered from our very busy week. In fact we were so tired that Lord H and I both fell asleep in the afternoon while Mother was still talking. Not sure she noticed ... I also managed to nap most of the two hour journey there and a nice proportion of it back again. Luckily Lord H was driving ...

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In Messes, clones and plots like a W, I said firmly that it's technique and confidence, together, which will enable your writing to be the best it can be. I do know that lots of wonderful writers aren't conscious of technique - some even avoid thinking about it for fear of becoming self-conscious - but the technical control is there, operating by instinct. And many a new writer, having written their early efforts from sheer enthusiasm trained by a lifetime's reading, then go seeking help and support. There they come across discussions of technique, see there are useful things to learn (let's hope they don't think of it as learning the rules!) but find their writing hits a temporary but distressing ugly-duckling phase. Only when they've integrated this new, conscious technical knowledge with their instinctive knowledge of how their writing works, does their work again begin to look like more like itself, than it ever did. There's confidence in technique: you can trust yourself (most of the time) to control your material and make it do what you want, and when it goes wrong, you're more likely to know, and to know how to change it.

That's about how you say things. Dorothea Brande's Becoming a Writer is the original and still the best book on how to find what you want to say in the first place.

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Any Leeds members out there?
Do write words members get together off the net ever? Any writers groups already going in Leeds?
I've just moved back here after an absence of over 20 years so am a bit out of touch.

Had a very bracing golf game with Marian today - though we were fairly rubbish. Apart from one glorious moment when I parred the last, hurrah! And I say bracing, as I managed to keep the chill out by means of wearing two pairs of trousers, a tee-shirt, a polo shirt, a jumper and a fleece. Oh, and my golf coat. Honestly, it was amazing I could swing the club at all. After this, I gave all the appropriate Christmas wishes to Marian & her family, as I won't see her for another golf game until the beginning of February now (sigh ...), as (lucky her) she's wintering abroad. As they say. Oh, how Surrey we are becoming!...

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A profile of me, on Normblog. Lovely to be asked, but still rather wierd for me to be on the receiving end of the questions. But it's good to think about all the things Norm asked me to think about. And he's linked to my favourite poem and song. You'll have to head over there to find out what they are!