under another sun

Up late, and at last feeling a bit fresher this morning, despite brief solving dreams. I would keep waking up and realising that my brain didn't have to be solving these problems, then drop back to sleep to start it all over again. A happily slow start, talking lots and enjoying another morning untroubled by cats. Eventually everyone up for coffee and poached eggs and smoked salmon breakfast with Rosie and Innis. Then slowly getting ready and packing, before setting off from Robertsbridge. Lorraine and I drove to a pub called The Hatch Inn in the heart of Ashdown forest, and the quite far away to a car park and walked dangerously along the road to meet the others again in the pub. We had lunch there among the posh country set, a young woman near us with a huge diamond on her finger and wellies, bluff entitled older men, younger guys climbing out of racy two seat cars with their women friends. The young guy who was serving us, we were sat outside, called me 'good sir' and s...

Pleasantly busy. Up early reading a new brief from my pals in Paris, then prepping for a recording with Robin this morning, which we finished at 11:30. A text from Pat asking about my availability next week too, which was welcome. Off then for an early saunter over Hollingbury Hill.  Went into some woods I have only been in a couple of times, and snapped some burnt out car parts that had been dragged in there. I know where there are some others. I might take soon. Reached my 10k paces. All afternoon on a job for my pals in Paris about cat vaccinations, then a quick coat of mould-resistant paint on the ceiling of the bathroom, and started cooking when Lorraine returned home. She brought with her a thank you note from one of the parents, with two face mask gifts. Her son Dexter, is a Skelton Yawngrave fan, and chose a day of the dead themed pattern for me.  Below the field I saw the falcon over the other day. Down in the woods at the bottom of this pic, is the wreckage. On my w...

Lorraine back to work today, despite not feeling well. She drove me into school too, as I was doing another presentation to a class of children about my story. Quite a few familiar faces in there now, and I was in Rebecca Burton's class, and she is very good, and I have been in a class with her before. I felt much more relaxed this time, as the kids were known to me, and so was the school obviously. Managed to get through the hour or so without making too much of a buffoon of myself, and read them the first chapter of the story. At one point I ask the children what pseudonym they might choose, and what kind of books they would write. Excellent children. Met Mark there, our next door neighbour who drops into Lorraine's school with his lovely dog Flo, to whom some of the children read, and Flo is supportive and uncritical. Nice to chat to Mark again. Unscathed, I returned to Lorraine's office, and found Dawn had texted about another school visit in Jan. It's all...

Up and working on some stuff that I'd been sent from mes amis in Paris. Then setting up a landing page for the book, which meant  rebuying skeltonyawngrave.com, creating a skeltonyawngrave twitter account , and generally getting things organised for the kindling of the kids book. Anton called to wish me happy poetry day, and have a chat. Beth in for a bit today, going to bed this morning, and then out again this afternoon back to work. Brief chat with Lorraine, her time on the isle of wight going well. Feeling tird by the end of the day, and went to bed early after watching a BBC broadcast documentary about the Spitfire and episodes of Dear White People on Netflix. Calliope suddenly limping this evening. She had been slightly funny on her foot a day or so before that but had been happily haring about the house between then and now. Somewhat concerned about her. A bracing walk late in the afternoon, up to the top of Hollingbury, looking down on the steely blue sea. Due to my...

A day of working happily on my Skelton Yawngrave MS today. In a triumph of optimism over experience, I feel that at long last the real book is emerging. Worked from home doing this, and having some freelance related conversations, and Edinburgh related conversations by phone with Beth. After lunch I walked through the park and eventually settled in Starbucks where I did a good few hours work there drinking tea and a large Americano.  The novel  seemed quite far fetched when I started it several years ago. I imagined as a backdrop to the story a scary political movement attempting to take over the UK, creating a climate of fear and suspicion. Now it seems almost tame. A young guy I was sitting next to suddenly said, "You're writing a story! What are you writing?" as I was bashing away on Scrivener. I fell into conversation with a young Spanish Chilean guy, who was a budding writer of fantasy and science fiction, (it's always 'budding'). He was a great admir...

Lorraine up in the dark again this morning. Brought me a nice cup of tea before leaving. I hurried downstairs, eager to employing my Scrivener program to great effect and revisit the Skelton Yawngrave MS. The program is making editing and complex reordering a thing of minutes. The manuscript and story, which I started about 10 years ago, seems incredibly current. The far fetched right wing governments I had imagined as a backdrop, seem almost tame now. Steadily did three lots of laundry during the day. The glamour.  Beth at home before going to the gym and then off to rehearse her part as a sassy singing hippo for a production of Madagascar. We had lunch of a leek and chicken stock plus miso soup, which was rather nice, before I zoomed off to the gym and did another mild mannered workout, and walked back in the rain in time for a Sainsbury's delivery and a chat with Mum. Then more work till Lorraine came home. Feeling suddenly very tired around sixish. Lorraine home and feeling...

So up early, thanks to Lorraine bringing breakfast up to our room. A thorny, first-week School problem for Lorraine which we discussed over porridge. Lorraine then made off for work and I got up. I have decided to rework my Sketlton Yawngrave novel in the next few weeks (traditionally a quiet freelance time of the year), as I have been stealthily rethinking it for a while now. To this end I bought and downloaded Scrivener, and spent much of the day learning how to use it. From my initial assessment it is going to prove incredibly useful. It is software designed for longer writing projects, but helps you organise everything much better. The trouble with a long project is that it is a bit like looking at an elephant in a hut, through a hole in a wall. You can see bits of it, but never the whole elephant. This allows you to see the whole elephant at the click of a mouse, through a system of synopses, character boards and so on. In fact everything I've had to think about. You can upl...

The cry of a ghostly goat Prepared for my biggest day by having a terrible night’s sleep, and by being fragile from the from the fiendish pink wine served at the Gold Sponsor’s Reception. Woke up feeling nervous: had a rushed nervous breakfast, and nervously rode on the bus into town with Lorraine and a heavy case full of books, laptop and so on. Stunningly beautiful day again, and was pleased that Friday 13th was the perfect day to launch Defenders of Guernsey on an unsuspecting world. Lorraine utterly fab this morning. Liaising with the technical guy getting the laptop plugged into a large screen and also talking to teachers. This freed me to do the vital work of pacing about nervously. Children from Vauvert school arrived in bright red jumpers and settled down. Lorraine did a special hands up finger wiggling thing, which hypnotised all the children instantly. First we played the talking skull head video I’d recorded welcoming them to the event. I’d put in sound file behind it calle...

Breakthrough A good writing day today - the first for some time. Had a big breakthrough this afternoon and raced ahead with the Skelton in Guernsey story and the first draft is almost complete. To my suprise there is quite a sad bit at the end, and tears came into my eyes as I typed it. In an adventure story, life is heightened, and it needs a corresponding bittersweet moment at the end to realise that amid all the action and dynamic changes, something is also lost. Classic children's fiction is full of it. The children return from Narnia back to grey England, the magic ends. In Toy Story 3 the toys are given away. At night listening to the radio and beginning to revamp my peterkenny.co.uk website.

Down to earth with a bump Woke up feeling wretched and exhausted. I will have to talk to the doctor about sleep apnoea as I have been waking up as much as twelve times a night, sometimes gasping for breath and having dreams about drowning. Apart from the health implications, it has left me exhausted and unable to concentrate. This has come on acutely in the last two weeks but its effects really hit home today. It is provoked by being overweight, strange then it should happen when I have in fact lost weight. Being overtired seems to make it worse, and of course being unable to sleep makes you overtired. Not good. Stared uselessly at two pages of Skelton Yawngrave for four hours until the boiler stopped working. I tried and failed to fix this for a couple of hours, before realising there was a flood in the kitchen as the boiler overflow was incorrectly positioned. When I had altered the water pressure about a quarter of the water had simply poured into the kitchen below. House freezing, ...

Never let me go I felt happier today than I have for a long time. To the gym where I felt energised, then working on Skelton Yawngrave. Rereading the new opening I am now convinced it is far better that previous versions. In the evening Lorraine and I off to see Never let me go . I loved Kasuo Ishiguro's novel last year, and the film is very true to the book. Gorgeous muted lyricism to the film's visual style. Loved it. Really brought out the sadness of the book, and as a metaphor for life in general it was pretty bleak. A proper grown up movie which I heartily recommend. Lorraine liked it too, and got through two hankies. Below a typical example of the film's muted palette, perfectly capturing the book's feel.

The sober equation Working on Skelton Yawngrave this morning, cutting away like a maniac. Have changed being a painter splashing on colours to being a sculptor chipping nervously at a block to release the form inside. After a while of this stuff time to slope off to the gym. Noticed my brown hoodie top I wear there is a mite looser, a tiny thing but it all counts to feed the dream of the new willowy me. Home to a warm and restoring bowl of bean jar. Lorraine working from home today, so I popped over late afternoon for a cup of tea and to watch her cooking a potato and onion stovie to take to her girl's night at Jan's house. We discussed managing difficult conversations, which she is reading about now for her leadership business. I am slightly anxious she will become a leadership ninja to whom I will have no choice but to slavishly comply. L has also lost five Xmas pounds and is quite cheery about it. We are encouraging one another. An equally cheery Betty came back from wo...

Worms and seabirds Hacking bits out from Skelton Yawngrave, which feels good in a slightly masochistic way. Have given myself the deadline of the end of the month to complete the revision, as it is with some sadness and head shaking that I realise I need to work to a deadline, even if it is self-imposed. Then a long call with Alex. Apparently some people in France ridiculed the work I did on the useless brief. After some discussion I suggested to Alexandra that these people were worms, and she said 'yes, dangerous worms', in her French accent which cheered me up. Clearly, though, not an ideal response. A long walk down to the sea at Hove, and then home again along the seafront. Cobweb removing wind. But it was sunny and the rough sea had pushed the pebbles back up the beach. Then a bit more Skelton at home, and then spent most of the afternoon and evening doing mundane admin, billing, bidness of various kinds and catching up with correspondence. Thank God for the refuge of my F...

The uselessness of letters Some snow this morning. Struggling with words today. With both a long poem Atlantis and on my substantial edit of Skelton Yawngrave intermittently through the day, both at a stage where careful thought is needed and in the case of Skelton Yawngrave this is slightly nerve-racking. The text is coming out the other end of this process is far cleaner and the plot is much faster. Calliope is bored by bad weather and is indoors more and constantly bringing her catnip mouse and rubber ball into my study and thundering about with them, or jumping up at my keyboard to rub her chops on my face at critical moments. The only respite was a violent screeching fight with another cat. Amazing to see her rocket to the top of a wall and beat the intruder like a ginger stepchild. She smugly returned from her battle completely unharmed. I've never seen a scratch on her. Otherwise I finished listening to Dark Matter by Michelle Paver (which I would heartily recommend), wh...

Plan B Plan A was going to go up to London to schmooze and see pals, but I biffed this as I was feeling ropey. Instead, once I'd cleared the regurgitated cat biscuits from my study chair, worked on restructuring Skelton Yawngrave. The child character Grace is now the conduit through which you encounter all the others. It is the obvious way to do it, of course, and I was resisting it for this reason. But I find the story feels far more rooted this way. Co-incidentally I got a note from Catriona about the three sessions I will be running for children in the Guernsey Literary festival on Friday 13th May, which is focusing my mind somewhat. Also a note from Matt getting the ball rolling on a new performance of This Concert will fall in love with you , on the day before Valentine's Day. Otherwise listening to Dark Matter by Michelle Paver. This is a truly gripping story, subtly disconcerting, and a properly constructed ghost story set in the Arctic. Lovely stuff.

Found Just plain cold today. Thanking my lucky stars I did not have to commute into a tube-strike-hit London. Instead off to the shops and the gym. Bought some spoons and forks, to complete a green handled set I'd bought recently, and envelopes to send another book off to Amazon. Then a spell in the gym, and straight to Sainsburys where a man started joking about panic buying. The unusually early snow which is afflicting much of the UK still hasn't been seen in Brighton. It is coming later this week. Began revising Skelton Yawngrave today, after about 93 displacement activities, and I think my amends will considerably strengthen it. Feeling hungry and a tad coldish as the afternoon wore on. Spoke to Anton who was keen to discuss football, and to Lorraine, who has managed to vault the first hurdle towards a possible future headteachership which was big and clever of her. In the evening off to St Michael and All Angels church to sit in on a Rainbow Chorus rehearsal. Fingers at th...

A Guernsey Double arrives, and a day of children A spot of French work, before walking in the hot sun to Stanford School, arriving just after nine. Feedback day, and the year five children had read the first seven chapters of Skelton Yawngrave in the Second Kind of Darkness. I spent three sessions in three classrooms talking to the children about it. When I arrived at the school (to kids saying there's Peter Kenny and telling me they liked the book) I felt an overwhelming desire to puke, as I have a minor stomach bug. Pictured myself spraying the children Exorcist-style, which was not helpful. Interesting how the different classes had different ideas about the story, and the children themselves were delightful, and very well behaved. In a nutshell they liked it, but thought the opening could be speeded up a bit. They seem hooked now on the story. Lots of full and frank feedback, and book reports, and a tape of conversations to take home with me. All went without a hitch and was fa...

Spellbound Feeling shabby this morning due to ouzo excesses. Compounded by Mason and Mum getting up at seven thinking that Lorraine had told them she wanted to get up at this time. There must be something in the stars. A breakfast of crumpets and much gulping of coffee followed by a lurch about in the garden. Another beautiful day. Mum gave me a painting of Diana Yellyface, the death's head moth Skelton Yawngrave character. This will prove useful when I go to another school next month. A long hot drive home not listening to Chris Squire. Half of southern England decided it wanted to visit Brighton today, so the roads were very busy on the way home. Lorraine's arm caught the sun through the car window. A quiet and reflective afternoon. Calliope pleased to see me, running half the length of the twitten miaowing at me happily. I paused to stroke it and say my usual cat endearments, at which I heard a snickering from behind my neighbour's fence. A really watchable BBC documenta...

Back to school Off to school again today. Scrambling up a steep learning curve, but it was much better this session, and I enjoyed myself. As before, the children were interesting - 10-11 year olds and many of them very bright, asking lots of questions and listening well. Funny however, when almost everyone is listening, your antennae keep twitching for the one or two kids who are not engaged. Teachers afterwards encouraging with their feedback. As I was leaving a delegation from one class gave me a card saying "We (heart) your book" with a picture of Skelton Yawngrave on it. Another teacher gave me a wad of two stars and a wish comments, i.e. two things they liked and which were positive, although one or two of the brighter (but interestingly not the brightest) kids thought it was too childish for them, the comments were often very positive. Overall an excellent (if slightly daunting) experience to stare into the faces of your potential audience and have them interrogate yo...

Skeletons, Sea mist and Spacetoads Slightly infuriating morning trying to get on with preparing to go into Downs School. Running out of paper and ink, and technology not cooperating. Running late I jumped into a cab and soon found myself making a cup of tea for myself in the staff room, before being marched down into one of the classes. A quick chat with their teacher Mrs Kennedy, and children ran into the room, taking some time to settle. Sudden surge of panic, but after a slightly clunky beginning I read a couple of chunks of the story to the kids, and talked about being a writer and fielded lots of questions and began to relax into it. Managed to get to the end of the session, and I think it went fairly well. Using Mum's pictures was a massive help. Then up and repeating the experience to another class. Conversation took a different route here and I read out slightly different sections, and this was not so successful, but still okay. Then I was shown out of the class and ambled ...