under another sun

Up early, as Lorraine left with Beth at seven. I got up shortly after. Wrote for an hour or so, then faffed about preparing for talking to Peter Daniels at 11. Nice to meet him again for the first time in decades. He was associated with the Oscars, who were a pioneering gay writers group in London in the late 80s and 90s - and who knew and published my friend Tim Gallagher.  At noon Lorraine was back, Beth's pregnancy blood sugar tests all good. Lorraine off this afternoon to her personal trainer. I went for an over two hour walk around the north part of town, and walking at the edge of flinty-looking fields ending up in Seaford Cemetery. I love cemetery for some reason. There commonwealth graves there too -- West Indian soldiers who died in World War One, and graves with daffodils bursting out of them, and children's graves planted in circles. As I did so, I managed to listen to the whole of the short novel by Alan Garner called Treacle Walker . Garner's story is rich in l...

Wrongful intent Off to Lorraine's house this afternoon to see the Beth, Mark and Callum put the show on for my my 'writer's review'. I am delighted with what they have done with the material. The first half which combines my zombie piece A bite to eat , with another fragment of mine Mistake , a piece by Mark Amdram Timmy , and Job Application by Tim Gallagher flow together surprisingly well. Lots of interesting gear changes but all part of an organic whole. I can take almost no credit for this, but they have made it work. Wrong itself is beginning to flow too, although they still need to run their lines more for last ten minutes of it. Beth particularly funny in it. Made me feel very happy as at last this piece might get the decent airing it deserves, and also see Beth with the opportunity to show what she can do with some comedy. Callum McIntyre is clearly an excellent actor, and Mark his usual ebullient self, breathing real oomph into everything he touches, and C...

Righting the wrongs Up early gripped by the idea that I had to act immediately. Ended up speculatively submitting a something to the Guardian. At least I try. After a slow tea-sipping start with Lorraine Sam came by and we went for a long walk down by the cold and sunny sea. Sam going through a Marxist phase, and so sporting Che Guevara beret, a tee-shirt with a star on it, camouflage jacket, shades, beard etc. He carries it off. Chatting about philosophy which he is going to study. By the time we'd reached Hove I felt curiously weak and shaky and suddenly couldn't string a sentence together, was swiftly revived by a hot chocolate. Wonderful. At teatime Lorraine and Sam left and I had a Wrong meeting with Beth and Mark. Met Callum who is playing the corpse for the first time, and later Beth and I had a meeting with her pal Amy who has offered crucial help with production lighting, props and so on. Mark has written a bridging piece which fits very well with rest of the material...

Corresponding Gripped by a story idea in the middle of the night. Had to get up and write it down for half an hour before I could go back to sleep. Once awake started to write the story. I have been searching for another 'quick win', in my authorial campaign, and this may be it: very simple plot, few characters and a mystery at its heart. A 20-30k words piece. Then onto more mundane stuff. A French tweak as the client irrationally took against the word 'astonishing', chased money which resulted in a firm pay-by date. Also wrote to Radio 4 Excess Baggage about A Guernsey Double. Then to Maureen Irvine who is a writer in NZ who was a mutual friend of my late friend Tim Gallagher, also to Mike Vermeulen in Guernsey who has written some children's stories based on the Islands. Then a knocking on the door - Anna with Klaudia and Oskar. The children raced to a black box decorated with white skull and crossbones on I keep near the fireplace, which is full of unusual sweets...