under another sun

A day of cheery busyness: up early with Lorraine and waking Sam up x3 prior to his trip up to Scotland, tweaking the podcast and sending it to Robin for further tweakage. Then billing, timesheets, booking a dental appointment, a teams meeting with Keith and a nice woman called Amber we are working for next week, laundry, gym (baby steps still), talking to Val in Paris and then doing some work for her.  Also had  two poems published in Black Nore Review  and uploaded  the new podcast  episode. Matthew G. Rees new book arrived. I am a bit over-pleased that he quotes me on the back cover.  Carl called me. Lovely chat. Telling me about his poor little dog that was attacked by a savage dog and had to have one of its injured back legs removed. It gets about pretty well on three legs apparently, and is much improved, although Carl said it fell over when trying to cock a leg the other day. One of the things I like most about Carl is how he can laugh at bleakness....

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 ...

Lorraine cheery as she has three days off this weekend. She jumped on the scales and found she had also lost a kilo.  An indoor day, with Lorraine absorbed in playing on the Nintendo switch and we had a enjoyable game of Mariocarts, where I enjoyed racing through the elaborate primary coloured landscapes.  I also read the short story Type by Matthew Rees, a signed copy arriving in the post this morning. Quite a comic story in many ways. An amusing note from him too. A zoom meeting this afternoon with Sam and Jade who are coming to live in Kenny Towers at the beginning of April. Looking forward to having different faces around, and non furry people to discuss things with during the day. Otherwise a peaceful day with two episodes of The Wire tonight completing series one again.  I have the DVD of all of it, and it is so well written and acted. Makes me laugh that Dominic West and Idris Elba are both English, but are utterly convincing. 

Woke up to a note from Matthew Rees who, as befits a  horror writer and editor, always seems to send his emails at around midnight, accepting my story Flytrap. This is another of my old scraps I reworked. Because I am a lot better with prose these days, I find I can transform old material. It's good to know that that former effort wasn't wasted.  Up early and a quick note to thank Matthew and one to Rhona and then I wrote a follow up letter to the solicitor I'd phoned yesterday. Chatting with Mum over lunch and Toby twice this evening on this matter. Also spoke Anton, still losing weight apparently. Sadly no time for a walk today, but popped around the corner to buy bread. That cooped up feeling comes on me strongly, when I can't get out. A day's work with Keith, on a product vaguely related to pharma. Mostly fine, but feeling a tad distracted, not least by cats playing some species of soccer with a tennis ball. Presented the work to two pleasant and bearded clients...

Saturday, and reading in bed some lovely notes from Toby and pals like Sarah and Charlotte had sent to Robin and me about the podcast. Eventually I sprang out of bed and bought some chewy brown bread from the corner for a leisurely breakfast.   Weather fairly unspeakable. But no problem for us, as it was a power down day. I saw the main task of the day to be ensuring Lorraine relaxed, and she did cross stitching and working on a puzzle and so on, which was good to see. I finished reading the excellent Normal Lewis book Naples '44 and took delivery of Matthew Rees's new collection of dark fiction.  Cooked together tonight, Lorraine making a rather excellent fish and leek pie. All well. 

A quiet day of regrouping. Enjoyable day's work, chatting to Matthew Rees via email. Happy at the prospect of tea drinking followed by an early night. Evening spent reassembling the collapsed kitchen cupboard with Lorraine and replacing all its content. Then taking down the big shelves in the kitchen so that the washing machine guy can have access to the relevant pipes tomorrow. And so, rather tiredly, off to bed.

Up working early and, with Lorraine's help, finalised my proposal for going into schools with Magnificent Grace. When Lorraine kindly sent out the note, one head teacher answered instantly and affirmatively and instantly bought the book online. This is good news and get things rolling on that front. Lorraine is the tops. Heard from Matthew G Rees today, who has put up one of his own stories The Snow Leopard of Moscow on the Horla Website. I had a quick read of it, and it is strong and brooding and features beggars and plays horrifically to Jungian archetypes. Off to the gym at lunchtime too, which although not fully powered up yet, still I managed a decent workout. Also contacted by Pat today with some freelance coming my way next week. In the evening I went off to meet Innis and his pal Phil, and Phil's pal Tom in a pub called the EST just around the corner from the chalk venue. I ordered a pint of beer called Revelation, while I was waiting, and by thunder it was goo...

A day of doing housework Lorraine and I hoovered and cleaned bathrooms, on the hottest late August Bank holiday weekend ever. We also made more plum jam, bending over the bubbling pot. A salad lunch outside for lunch, where I discovered that Matthew Rees had accepted my horror story What You Look For , which I was chuffed about. He said this would go live on the site quickly.  This means that I now have three horror stories pending publication. Am feeling quietly pleased with myself. Really nice note from Matthew, he seems a really nice guy as well as being an excellent writer. In the late afternoon we sauntered down through Preston Park. Bumped into Reuben playing football with his youngest boy like the excellent dad he is. Then we walked up to my old neck of the woods by the station, fording the human river beginning to turn back from the sea to the station.  To an evening with Claudius, who had a few friends and a barbecue in his back yard. Among them was Steve, who it ...

Up and doing some work for the French agency on a skin product for dogs. They asked me to do a few hours on a project. I struggled with having too much to do in a short time, and instead of getting on with it, I felt uncharacteristically bamboozled. Eventually I got it done, but it took longer than it should, and I ended up having to biff a meeting with Helen on the Centaur project. Rebellious GI tract for the last few days. At the end of the day I slipped into town, went to the gym, where I felt a bit underpowered, and had a haircut. Told the barber that I was going to vote in the European elections today, and he groaned. Beth phoned as I was walking back. Her improv project has been green-lighted by the venue, and she and her partner start in September. Exciting. My spidey sense says this is the start of something good for her. Later Beth sent Lorraine a picture of herself. There are lots of apps these days that purport to show what you would look like as a member of the opposi...

Writing a new list today, and sending two poetry MS off. Then working on Nothing Compares to You my long story and writing a new mega-list. To the gym at lunchtime, and pushed myself quite hard. While parts of me are stringy and wifey, I have a fat stomach, despite going to the gym. But going is better than not going I suppose. Sigh. Home, more work and reading some more of Matthew G Rees collection of stories Keyhole , great stuff. And also looking at Janet Sutherland's Home Farm , which is a gorgeous collection of poems. Rather humbled by the quality of both.  Chatted to Mum this evening, who had been having trouble with her front door bell. It doesn't work, although when next door's bell is pressed, hers rings. Maddening.

Tucked indoors working on things today, I had drawn up a list on the train going up to London yesterday, and I simply did them this morning. They were mainly to do with publishing my children's book on kindle. In other news a magazine came through with a poem of mine,  Thunderstruck , but it had been misformatted and so looked weird. So it goes. When I looked at it later noticed Robin had three in there. Got Matthew G Rees, my new friend in horror's short story collection through today, and read the first story Keyhole , which gives its name to the collection. It was excellent. Didn't go to the gym, but instead did planking for about 45 seconds, and some other exercises with the wee lady's dumbbells Dawn gave me. Better than nowt. When Lorraine got home we walked off to vote in the local elections. I had to nip in the bud the efforts of one of the party workers whose role seemed to be to knock all day till you voted. The polling station a lot quieter than the Brex...