Keeping in Training

When I was marooned in the real world, and unable to blog, edit or email I realised I was going to have to return to the ancient form of communication and recording...pen and paper. What a chore! But the enforced absence from my computer did mean I caught up with some long overdue housework ... oh joy!

I also had a great idea (well I though it was a great idea) for a new novel. It's so much nicer to start a new one instead of having to keep editing the old one...a bit like buying a new car instead of taking the old one in for a service. Trouble is you then finish up with several novels floating around waiting for your attention..or a garage full of second-hand cars.
So the new book had to be transcribed out of my head onto paper via my usual scrawl. All well and good, but I'm now trying to decipher the hieroglyphics and get it into some sort of readable text. And I want to do more work on my very first novel 'New Wine, Old Enemies' before I recommence the soul- destroying task of finding an agent. And I have some unfinished articles that I must upload to a website. And I must try and keep my blog going.

Well that's 2008 sorted then!

The poem 'Winter Fun' was an exercise with words which I composed whilst doing the washing up. Dull chores are a great producer of ideas, some good, some just plain daft, as in the case of my poetry. I don't usually write anything other than prose, and judging by my first excursion away from it I can see why. I deliberately tried to rhyme the first three lines of each verse with the same sounding words just to make it even sillier. I don't think Andrew Motion need worry that I'm going to be a rival for Poet Laureate. I think my verse owes more to the Great Macgonagel !

New Wine Old Enemies was downloaded in an abridged version onto ww.lettersfromfrance.com where the first few chapters can be seen, should anyone be interested.