14 December 2009

We buried Mum in a green-burial meadow which, once sown with trees, will one day become a forest.  They let us choose which species was planted on her grave.  Dad chose a hazel because nightingales nest in them and the nuts will attract squirrels.

So, her work complete and legend secure, Mum’s departed into memory and myth, leaving the family to find its way without her.  Dad holds the fort, Ruth tussles with two demanding small people, and I enter my third and final winter of writing.
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The first seven chapters are 100 per cent complete.  Chapter eight needs some feedback incorporated.  I’m fielding feedback on chapters nine and 10 now.

I’ve drawn up my pitch documentation.  Once the product development is wrapped up I plan to concentrate on trying to persuade agents to help me.  I’ll start by pitching to the ones who contacted me in response to this website.  As that sales process gears up, I hope to find time to start shouting about it.

Job on.

2 October 2009

This doesn’t get any easier. Leaving work every Friday evening – brain fried – I head to the gym to clear my head for the weekend. Then it’s back to east London where I lock myself away, sit at my desk and put in the hours. By Saturday afternoon I’m in the zone – emerging hourly to babble at Tony, make more tea, or trot to the far side of the apartment where a wired-up computer has www.britannica.com and www.thesaurus.com permanently open.

Where I am now would have been a dream a year, even six months, ago. But I’m still not done. That’s because I’m desperately short of the one truly non-renewable resource; time. There’s too much to do and never enough hours to invest more than the barest minimum in anything, or anyone, outside the essentials – work, book, Mum, Dad.

And so, stage-by-stage, every other part of my life has been screwed up. Read more »

I’ve been asked for a one-paragraph explanation of the book – something people can use to explain it to their friends.

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How is the book going?

The brief answer: really well.

If you’re interested in the long answer, here you are…

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