under another sun

A full day and no mistake guv'nor. Excellent news ... Doctor Spotlight  is now published online. Also The Grieving   is published in Supernatural Tales today. Sadly there was little time to sit about feeling big and clever.  Friendly email from Yang Lian this morning, and I arranged to interview Brian Holton, his translator. He was available immediately, so I snuck in a cheeky twenty minute call to him this morning, recording the interview. A lovely man, who has translated Lian since the nineties, and also is the only regular translator of Chinese into Scots, as well as being a poet and musician and performer. However this leaves me with a big problem as I now have three interviews with fluent and talkative people to condense into one show.  Sonia here today, but I stayed locked in my room and barely had time to talk to her. Brief chats with Sam and Jade during the day. And snatched ones with Betty about rum, and Anton too. Otherwise working on a new brief....

Gah. Very broken sleep and feeling a bit wan and wussy. Began the day by fiddling with some poems, but mostly breaking them.  Went for a walk this morning, in perfect walking weather bright and cool. Pesky golfers have returned to their links now.  On the way home passed Raven's bakery and bought a bag of hot cross buns. Quips about my nice buns and understanding why people were Raven about them largely under appreciated.  Nice to have Jade and Sam about the place to chat to, both de-stressing quietly after the move. Two bits of good news... Matthew has taken my story  Doctor Spotlight for Horla. Very complimentary about it bless him. Also a lovely email sent to Robin but addressed to Robin and me from Kathryn Maris, she is very kind in it about the podcast which she thinks is very professional. Very good to hear.  Spent most of the day prepping for the two big interviews, LeAnne Howe and then in the evening  Yang Lian .   LeAnne over in Georgia USA ...

Monday and news of another effective vaccine from AstraZenica and Oxford University. This one also reaches 90% effectiveness if given in two doses. Being manufactured here, this is likely to be the one we'll get. Otherwise a fairly cheery day, I continued on with my new Diabolus in Musica story. Just need a nastier twist in it. I shall come up with something. Received a rejection (although polite and encouraging me to send more) for Doctor Spotlight. Gah. I think it is a good story, but Black Static seem to go for the more overt and gory. I already have somewhere else to send it in mind. Went for three walks today, and smashed my 10k paces for the first time in over a week. Felt much better for it too. Watched lots of episodes of the WW2 week by week You Tube series that Anton talked about. Very good, and now Operation Barbarossa has started, pretty dreadful. It does give you the picture that half of the major events in warfare seems to pivot on human error, pigheadedness and co...

Untroubled by triskaidekaphobia, I sprant up with Lorraine and sent off my latest story  Doctor Spotlight more in   hope than expectation to Black Static Magazine, and sent three stories off to Krishnan at Neon. Then I walked down to the seafront to have a walk and a talk with Innis. However, despite setting off in good time, I simply walked to the coast too far towards Hove so was a little late. Good to see Innis however, and shoot the breeze in the soft but drenching rain, with a very smartly behaved Pippi in tow. He is fine, and gradually processing his pal Grol's death a few months ago. We walked back to Innis and Rosie's place and then I simply walked home again, latterly in sunshine, while chatting to Anton. By the time I reached home, I already walked almost 15k paces, which was rather good.  Then working on my French brief about animal health this afternoon, feeling weary and not firing on all cylinders.  Spoke to Mum for a bit, and later in the evening Toby,...

A fairly busy day today, did some final bits on Doctor Spotlight first thing, then spoke to Robin for an hour and a half about the podcast and did a wee bit of recording. Also received a call from Val with some more work for me, which was very welcome indeed. A short walk at lunchtime, then to work this afternoon on an animal health brief for Val, till it was dinner time. Lorraine late again, having had four nights with teachers who were doing parent's evening by phone. Spoke to Mum who told me about having lost her purse, and having to cancel all her cards. She retraced her steps and went to Iceland, and spoke to the security guard. It had been found there, with everything in it. She gave him a cheeky fiver as a thanks. Among the mammoths etc. in the freezer, were some frozen curries that Lorraine had made. We ate these tonight. This evening I went to get my testicle looked at by a doctor. Walked down Beaky Villas noticing a reddish planet. I used my phone app to confirm it was Ma...

Lorraine working at home this morning, although of course everyone else being told to run for the bunkers does not apply to teachers so back to work as normal come 11:30. So the first day of what they are calling the second lockdown (a watery seeming lockdown to me) was a writerly day for me. I thanked David the editor of Supernatural Tales for the acceptance of   The Grieving  and resent a version with fewer typos. Also finished another edit of my latest story, called Doctor Spotlight . In the afternoon uploaded the second Planet Poetry episode, and did a bit of social media trumpeting. The bit I like most is seeing it slide into the podcast on my iPhone just like the ones I listen to.  My walk transformed by the fact that the golf course now has no golfers again, so all the glorious space up there is free to saunter around in and absent of eighteen hole troublers -- and there were lots of people doing so. Gorgeous. Made the mistake of walking near two schools at chuck ...