Me, the Dyson, the cooker and the printer

I’m disappointed to find that winter’s back. When everyone else was complaining about it being too hot a few days ago, I wasn’t (complaining, that is.)

I’ve had a busy few days with more to come. The party went well – about 15 people, and my food went down well, and so did all the extras that everyone brought, including a very delicious chocolate roulade and a lemon drizzle cake, equally gorgeous.

The previous day I was with Jay and Irene, the Goldenford authors, signing books at the Book Boyz, Farnborough. This is the second time, that we've been asked there, which is a nice vote of confidence, though actually, I prefer it when we give talks. On the same day, we raced off to Anjali, a new friend at Guildford Writers, who very kindly asked Irene and me to her book launch. She's written a children's book, The Convent Rules, and I've bought copies for GD2 and GD3, who seem to be in the right age group. She ahd a lovely party in her garden, and generously put out copies of our books on a table for all her friends to see.

I was out at a committee meeting on Monday night, and out at Guildford Writers on Tuesday, having spent half the day at Irene’s. In a great rush, I copied out a bit of my novel which I’d written on holiday. Then I told the printer to print 7 copies – but I forgot to specify which pages. While I was away from my desk, putting on my makeup, the printer did the first 18 pages of the novel, and then ran out of paper. At this point I realised what I’d done – that that the printer now thought it had to print 150 pages seven time – and did the only thing I could. I turned it all off and went. Unfortunately, when I returned and switched it on, it still had this instruction in the memory and went on trying to churn the document at a time in print 1” high at the rate of one line per page. (It always does this when it’s been disrupted – it likes to have a bit of a nervous breakdown.) I sorted it out in the end.

Today, I have been wielding the vacuum cleaner and dusters and polish. I have no cleaning lady any longer, and so it was necessary to deal with the post party crumbs and the lurking spiders making cobwebs in corners. Having done an entire morning’s cleaning, I set to work on making a pizza and some chocolate brownies as nibbles for the Reading Circle, who came this evening. The brownies collapsed in the middle, but Michael ate all the soggy bits sitting in solitary confinement while the circle was under way.

This was my impression of the book, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

This was my first experience of Maggie O’Farrell, and initially, I was slightly irritated by it. It seemed a bit self consciously literary, with many onomatopoeic sounds brought in for no good reason. However, my reservations soon dissipated and I thought it was very good and enjoyed it very much. I very soon was empathising with the two main characters – Esme and Iris, who share some characteristics – like enjoying seeing the world from under the table.

I realised early on one of the most important facts about the story - partly because it was reminiscent of my own novel, Tainted Tree, and that rather spoiled the denouement about two thirds of the way through. I didn't regard that as the author's fault, as I was reading extremely carefully, on the lookout for clues. I didn’t guess at the ending though. A very good read.

Tomorrow, My brother in law is coming to dinner, and then the weekend is quiet, which will give me a chance to catch up with some of the things I should be doing. Next week, amongst other things, I expect to be meeting up with Irene’s friends from Germany; and we, the three Goldenford witches, will be giving a talk at Bookham library next week. A number of tickets have already been sold.