under another sun

Another wretched night of coughing, tired this morning but perked up as the day progressed.  Today's mind map all about writing. Splitting assorted concepts and projects into these sections. Almost done  -- the full poetry collection and Gordon Road,  Quick wins -- small short story collection, a pamphlet of weird poems, an updated Boy Who Fell Upwards, with later Guernsey poems Finishable a longer collection of poems, and a novella I abandoned a while back called Nothing Compares To You, which when I reread some of it today, had pace and may be worth returning to. Blank canvases, which contains a few sketchy concepts. One of them was that I am going to  resume my drawing class this week, but I realised I need to draw towards a project. Perhaps I could produce something like Snow that I did with Palo Almond. My back much improved, and I walked for an hour and a half, without too much pain, while listening to the BBC radio production of I Claudius , which is gr...

Started with a mind map, this morning. What do I do first?  I have two poetry collections being written simultaneously.  I have about ten published short stories (and I today I found one that was published back in 2004 called Coelacanth which I had completely forgotten) to organise into a ms, I have 70% of a novel called Nothing Compares To You; plus the eternal question of whether I should have another go at Magnificent Grace,  (on that I had a note from Tess Jolly recently). I also have a play, for which I have a title only, to write, and a new project which I have been thinking about recently. I need to avoid wasting time flogging dead horses  -- and need some quick wins. Yesterday I learned that I was placed nowhere in a poetry pamphlet competition. Poetry loves letting you down when you need a win. I am trying to make some mental space for all this, but freelance stuff keeps intruding. I pulled out of a freelance job supposed to start with Keith on Thursday. I p...

Took a step back from work today and sloped off, controversially, to a Starbucks cafe and drew mindmaps and conducted a swot analysis of current wheezes over a non-taxpaying  venti . My two month diet of antibiotics ends tomorrow, and getting myself better appears to be my first priority. Second priority is completing the business project as soon as possible. I have done lots of work this year that events have forced me to break off from. I need to spend time finishing things. Creatively 2012 has been dispiriting and I need to ensure next year is very different.  Fortunately my finances are now in better shape, but creatively I have retreated to the isolation of my desk. Most artistic projects happen in collaboration, and I need to make forging new connections a priority too. Otherwise listened to Brideshead Revisited as an audiobook. Never read this before, and it is beautifully written. 

Little fooling No April fooling today. Apart from waking up in a sock nest, as Calliope had weaselled into the sock draw, and transferred half a dozen pairs onto the bed overnight. Inert and unfocused this morning. But drew up some mind maps, which is the single most useful organisation thing I know how to do. And by the end of the day things were moving again. Spoke to Bob who was walking across the fields by Salisbury Cathedral, and The Gnome who was walking by the Thames, and been asked back to help at our old agency. And Lorraine who had a stressful day. Went up the hill to see Anton tonight. Anne is being looked after by Anna up in Staines, and Anton taking care of the bairns here in Brighton. He told me about Keith's last few days, and it is all very sad indeed. He was only 63. We sat about chatting and eating some delivery Chinese grub, and drank a couple of beers while the three cats played about us unperturbed and we listened to music beginning with the letter M.

Mind maps and a mouse Chernobyl Downloaded an abridged version of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying and listened to it on the train. John Cleese reading it, as well as Sogyal Rinpoche the author, and others. I noticed John Cleese at the three day retreat I attended with Sophie, which was led by Sogyal Rinpoche himself. Listening to it is surprisingly cheering, and like a burst of sanity as you scrabble ratlike from the train platforms at Victoria down into the tunnels of the tube. Arriving at London I picked up a free Metro which had a false front and back page covered in stories about Watchmen . The movie is out shortly in the UK. I read the graphic novel last year while I was in Greece, and found Alan Moore's story intriguing. The advertising for the movie covering the Metro (usually only worth reading for the excellent translated Norwegian cartoon strip Nemi ) was very well done though, and true to the style of the original graphic novel. Interestingly Moore's name was...

A cold shower and a happy day Up with the sparrows to work on my Pooran Desai piece. Though the sparrows contributed little. Then, after a long chat with Lorraine, got a grip on about fifty things whirling around my brain and produced three mindmaps. These instantly decluttered my head, leaving me feeling calm, in control, and clear. Lorraine has taught me in the last few weeks that when you create a to do list, put everything in the past tense. So it would be something like "established a target figure for income" or "finished laundry". Somehow it really works. After all this worthy stuff, a very chilled day indeed. A phone call or two re cats. But no luck. Perhaps I should be new age about this. I have asked the universe for a cat, and simply believe that one will manifest itself. Went walkabout in a sunny Brighton, pausing to pick up a book for Anton by famous cartoonist Gilbert Shelton (of Furry Freak Brothers fame) who was doing a personal signing session in Da...