under another sun

Worked hard all day, finishing The Inheritor , my new horror story on which I was making 'a few final changes', which turned into three days of fiddling. It is set in Guernsey, and again was taking a half finished story I had, and then completely reworking it. Nice to be thinking about the island even if disturbing things are happening there in my story. I have sent it to an appropriately named American publisher called The Dark Magazine . All I know is that I am greatly enjoying writing these horrific things. Made a soup, which was weirdly brilliant from chicken stock, butternut squash, leeks, a few greens and a bit of onion, chilli, and ginger, plus tarragon, turmeric, and cumin and dancing. All this against a national crisis. A vote of no confidence in the Maybot, which she won. The zombie leader staggers on towards the biggest act of national self harm I have ever witnessed. Off in the evening to meet Anton who took me out for a bite to eat and a few beers. A nice nig...

Up early. A good night's sleep, and a cooler more comfortable day, with no frog incidents. Lorraine off to work, being very busy. I got down to some writing, wrote a new draft of a poem, which I was quite pleased with. Next door were having their TV fixed which meant a man was climbing overhead of my study roof for a bit. Sigh. Washed the kitchen windows, and my study window, which had a big  sunbaked streak of guano on it, and tidied up. If in doubt: tidy up. Early afternoon the plumbers arrived, and hammered out the shower tray with a hairline crack and replaced it. Meanwhile I settled into a good afternoon's work, and felt fairly productive. In the evening I walked to Hove to meet Innis for a drink. Met him in The Paris House, which was empty and the beer overpriced. We sloped down to The Bottom's Rest and sat outside eating wasabi peanuts drinking beer, chatting about books and photography, and toyed with potential projects and rejected them for good reasons. The...

So up early and after Lorraine and I scarfed some porridge, I began writing copy about an unpleasant inherited medical condition for an app. No travel today, thank goodness. The weather ghastly outside, windy and rain. I thought I'd be done by lunchtime, but it took me till mid afternoon. Broke off for a short walk before it started pouring, and had a couple of coffees. After completing the first draft sent it off to Pat, and then began watching a documentary about Voyager missions. Fell asleep and woke up an hour later, with things to be done, but luckily Pat was going to get back to me tomorrow so my sudden narcolepsy did me no harm. Jenny, our next door neighbour popped in to say she was moving house next week. I like Jenny, though she is very shy. Lorraine came home early, and we caught the bus into Hove where we met Betty in the Paris House, after a hard day of elf-work in Churchill Square. Betty doing well as an elf, and has already had to step up as team leader. Apparent...