under another sun

A dreary grey day. Made Lorraine breakfast in bed, and then we got up and zoomed into town, where I had booked Lorraine an hour's massage. I took myself to my favourite non-ideologically sound Starbucks, and read poetry by Stephen Bone and James Sheard, enjoying both. Then I collected Lorraine, who said that she was coming back next week as she was only half done. There was a lot of work to be done on her apparently. We sauntered up to Foodilic where we met Betty for a healthy lunch in her lunch break (vegetarian moussaka with two kinds of salad for L and I) chicken and two kinds of salad for Betty. Nice to catch up with her for a bit. Then she had to go back to work, and we did shopping and looked at curtains and other bits and pieces in various shops for some time, before grabbing a bus home. A cozy evening in, with the weather being full of rain and drear outside. Read a bit of poetry wunderkind Kate Tempest's book Hold Your Own . Patchy so far, but not without interest....

Spoke to Mum twice today, and Mason has been released back into the wild, which is very good news. Another very productive day. It felt like some kind of turning point. After several hours, I finished my draft of Sin Cycle and have sent it to Sarah, Robin and Charlotte, who have all said they don't mind having it inflicted on them. After this I sent my children's novel out to two more agents, having had no response from the last one I sent it to. My targets this year to improve my resilience in the face of inertia and my networking. I need continuous but sustainable effort. This made me feel in a good mood. I went for a long walk down to the sea to celebrate, and felt cheered in the sunlight and fresh air. I bought Jacqueline Saphra's book All My Mad Mothers  (she was one of the T.S. Eliot prize readers on Sunday. I have also sent off for the collections from Ocean Vuong and James Sheard). And simply walked home again to do some more work, and then read some of Saphra...