It’s been a busy few days, and quite productive too. Irene (www.myspace.com/ireneblack) and I went on Wednesday to another bookshop to try our luck with sales. The good news – as Irene was parking the car, a man gave us a ticket he hadn’t used up. The bad news – the manager of the shop was having his afternoon off. But, good news again, having looked at the brochure and fliers we left, he emailed and said he’d be happy for us to do a Creative Writing event. We might visit him again for a discussion. As we arrived back at my house, a huge vehicle went down the adjacent lane, and then emerged and followed us, effectively blocking Irene in. The driver emerged with a modest sized parcel and backed his way out of my narrow entrance. When I opened it up, I found it was the first four of my prize books – the others being out of stock at the moment. I haven’t started on them. I’m still reading An Amateur Marriage for next Thursday.
The reading circle is comprised mainly of people who graduated from Surrey University when I did – in 2002. We, (a group of rather ‘mature’ graduates,) also have regular lunch meetings in Guildford and I went to one of these on Thursday. There were only four of us this time - often there are ten or eleven - but we had a good chat, and I went on to do some shopping. At the bottom of town the ‘remaindered’ book shop was closing down and I was tempted to buy a couple of large, glossy gardening books at £2.50 each. But the thought of lugging that weight up the hill put me off. I bought some make-up at Debenhams and acquired a free gift from Estee Lauder. It was a small box, so I didn’t mind that too much. A vase for my cousin came from House of Fraser and that, with its box, weighed a ton. As I lurched in any upwardly direction towards my car, I remembered I was going to buy advance Christmas presents for GD2 (I haven’t yet checked on the others.) Barbie clothes and a bead set, in boxes, added to my burden. I love Guildford – it has so much atmosphere, but wherever you park, there is always climbing to do in the course of the shopping.
My brother in law came for dinner on Friday night, and in the course of the day, apart from my other work, I had to rush out to collect my new contact lens, and prescriptions from the doctor, and pay my credit card at the bank, because of the postal strike. Most of our post seems to be getting through, but I don’t know how quickly our outgoing letters out are arriving.
Yesterday was a leisurely day; even though I don’t like the phone, I still spend quite a long time on it, in order to keep in touch with my children. So almost the whole morning was used up with chats with the Son&Heir and the ProdigalDaughter, as well as GD2 and my sister in law, who also telephoned. But today I’ve been industrious and applied myself to ironing and getting out some letters that were waiting to be dealt with. The weather’s dry and pleasant and M & I took a walk out to the post box, so even it it’s not going to be emptied, the letters have, at least, left our house.
A new Myspace friend, Jean – you’ll find there, amongst my friends – asked when I thought of titles for my stories and books. Occasionally, I have been inspired by a proposed title, or when suggested in a competition, a subject, which is almost a title. Mostly, though, I think of the title afterwards, when I’m looking for something that sums up the story. My novel, Tainted Tree, had a completed different name at first. A writing friend who read it and gave me a very useful critique, said he didn’t like the name. Because it is about a girl researching her family tree, I had looked up ‘history’ in a small Oxford book of Quotations and found a quote by TS Eliot. I extracted a couple of words from the quote for my title. But the general consensus was that it suggested the book was more literary than it actually was. (I don’t do literary fiction – intelligent is all I can aim for.) So I asked myself what the book was about, and came up with the current title, which I think is the right one. As you can tell, the Family Tree is not quite what my heroine, Addie, is hoping for, when she sets out on her quest.
The reading circle is comprised mainly of people who graduated from Surrey University when I did – in 2002. We, (a group of rather ‘mature’ graduates,) also have regular lunch meetings in Guildford and I went to one of these on Thursday. There were only four of us this time - often there are ten or eleven - but we had a good chat, and I went on to do some shopping. At the bottom of town the ‘remaindered’ book shop was closing down and I was tempted to buy a couple of large, glossy gardening books at £2.50 each. But the thought of lugging that weight up the hill put me off. I bought some make-up at Debenhams and acquired a free gift from Estee Lauder. It was a small box, so I didn’t mind that too much. A vase for my cousin came from House of Fraser and that, with its box, weighed a ton. As I lurched in any upwardly direction towards my car, I remembered I was going to buy advance Christmas presents for GD2 (I haven’t yet checked on the others.) Barbie clothes and a bead set, in boxes, added to my burden. I love Guildford – it has so much atmosphere, but wherever you park, there is always climbing to do in the course of the shopping.
My brother in law came for dinner on Friday night, and in the course of the day, apart from my other work, I had to rush out to collect my new contact lens, and prescriptions from the doctor, and pay my credit card at the bank, because of the postal strike. Most of our post seems to be getting through, but I don’t know how quickly our outgoing letters out are arriving.
Yesterday was a leisurely day; even though I don’t like the phone, I still spend quite a long time on it, in order to keep in touch with my children. So almost the whole morning was used up with chats with the Son&Heir and the ProdigalDaughter, as well as GD2 and my sister in law, who also telephoned. But today I’ve been industrious and applied myself to ironing and getting out some letters that were waiting to be dealt with. The weather’s dry and pleasant and M & I took a walk out to the post box, so even it it’s not going to be emptied, the letters have, at least, left our house.
A new Myspace friend, Jean – you’ll find there, amongst my friends – asked when I thought of titles for my stories and books. Occasionally, I have been inspired by a proposed title, or when suggested in a competition, a subject, which is almost a title. Mostly, though, I think of the title afterwards, when I’m looking for something that sums up the story. My novel, Tainted Tree, had a completed different name at first. A writing friend who read it and gave me a very useful critique, said he didn’t like the name. Because it is about a girl researching her family tree, I had looked up ‘history’ in a small Oxford book of Quotations and found a quote by TS Eliot. I extracted a couple of words from the quote for my title. But the general consensus was that it suggested the book was more literary than it actually was. (I don’t do literary fiction – intelligent is all I can aim for.) So I asked myself what the book was about, and came up with the current title, which I think is the right one. As you can tell, the Family Tree is not quite what my heroine, Addie, is hoping for, when she sets out on her quest.
2 comments:
Sometimes I think Ive "wasted" a day on the phone to friends/family but I shouldnt think like that...keeping in touch is easily as important as anything else we may be/should be doing, isnt it?
I try to speak to my children once a week, barring holidays etc. One is about 2 hours away and the other about four to five hours' drive. To me it's essential to keep in touch with them, even when we don't see each other.
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