Keris Stainton's Blog, page 68

Williams to Las Vegas: 6 August 2001

Drove to Kingman and got a stereo so we could listen to our tapes in the car. From there we went to Hoover Dam, which was very impressive and ridiculously hot – there was a guy in a convertible alongside us and we were saying how fabulous that would be then, when he got out at Hoover Dam, he was soaked with sweat: shirt, trousers, hair, the lot. Yeah, no aircon in a convertible…

Next up was Vegas. So weird to suddenly see it appear in the middle of the desert. Booked into the Stratosphere – hadn't intended to cos it was $80, more than we wanted to pay, but I'd queued for 25 minutes to find that out and David was stressed by the driving, so I thought 'sod it.' Went to the Sahara for the buffet which was good fun – some people really take 'all you can eat' seriously – then walked up the Strip looking at all the mad hotels.

Was far too hot though – my head was banging – so we came back and pissed $10 up the wall in the slot machines. Big spenders.

Er… it's not 2001. Is it?

No, don't worry, you haven't fallen asleep and gone back in time. Er, unless you're from the future… It's ten years since me and David had a wonderful holiday in America and so I thought it was high time I finally transcribed my diary and put the photos online. You know, in case our house burns down or something. So, no, we're not in America at the moment (we wish) and WordPress hasn't accidentally started posting stuff I scheduled a decade ago, it's just a trip down memory lane. For me. Not for you, obviously. Unless you were there as well. Were you?

Williams to the Grand Canyon : 5 August 2001

Spent this afternoon at the Grand Canyon – it was completely awesome. We'd been driving along looking out for it and then we suddenly saw it and both said, "Holy shit!"

No matter how many photos you've seen of it, it's still completely gobsmacking. We were a bit freaked out that you could just walk right up to the edge – obviously there's no way the whole lot could be cordoned off! – but it still seemed mad. We both sat down on the edge, but I couldn't get back up again – I had to crawl to safety before standing. We drove the South Rim East and then got a free shuttle bus west. It was so beautiful. We were going to stay to watch the sunset, but a thunderstorm started so we left.

On the way back we heard Garrison Keillor reading from Lake Wobegon on public radio, watched the fork lightning in the distance (actually not all that distant) and then could only find fifties music on the radio. We joked that we'd been struck by lightning and sent back in time.

David is so rubbish at taking photos...

Blythe to Williams: 4 August 2001

Another heavy driving day. From Blythe we went to Lake Havasu City through some amazing Colorado River scenery. LHC was 115 degrees and really cheesy. It's where London Bridge is and they're created London Bridge Resort with a London pub, phonebox, bus, etc. Had a drink then a taste of 'turkey jerky' (tasted like Pepperami) then back in the car.

Next stop was Kingman – still hot but 'only' about 96 – where we sat in a park and read for a while. When I got in the car four enormous black ants got in with me. From there all the way to Williams which is a resort town but feels like 'small town America'. It's the last place they got rid of Route 66 and is the 'Gateway to the Grand Canyon'.

We watched a shoot-out (there's a rodeo on as well) and then went to get some dinner. TV-fest with Mighty Joe Young, followed by Tales of the City.

Dreadful photo. Don't forget this was olden times, pre- digital photography for all. We actually had a rather fancy Kodak Advantix Preview camera that I think was described as 'the film camera that thinks it's digital' because it had a viewing screen on the back and you could delete the shots if you didn't like them. I was rather proud of it, not least because I'd seen it in O magazine…  (Of course most of these photos look like they were taken in the 70s or 80s, not just 10 years ago!)

Oceanside to Blythe: 3 August 2001

Photo from Google StreetView

Drove for most of the day. From Oceanside to Palm Desert* which was incredibly hot and where we used the library to email home. From there we got some lunch in Indio and then set off across Death Valley – argh! – to Blythe. At one point there was a sign telling us to switch the AirCon off for ten miles to avoid overheating. Me and D overheated. The heat in Blythe is unbelievable. Went to Pizza Hut and then to the cinema to see Planet of the Apes and afterwards I asked someone the temperature: 110 degrees! Saw a motorway sign that read 'State Prison: Do not pick up hitchhikers.'

* The only thing I remember about Palm Desert is being afraid to open the door of the air-conditioned hire car because I knew the heat would hit me. And it did. Like opening an oven door. Yikes.

We didn't take any photos and the above screenshot from Google StreetView may suggest why. We were dazzled! Dazzled and crispy with the heat.

I heart the Gro-Clock

For about six months now, Harry has been waking in the night and coming into our room. He walks in, says "I had a bad dream" (he doesn't seem like he's had a bad dream – he's not scared or upset) and then either David or I take him back to his room, put him back in bed, give him a kiss and he goes straight back to sleep. And then he gets up around 5-5.30 wide awake and ready for the day.

It happens every single night. Usually twice. On Monday night it was four times. We've tried threats of taking away computer or TV time (total failure). We've tried incentives (that worked for about a week). We asked him what he thought would work. He suggested a new Build-a-Bear that he could "huggle" whenever he woke up. We bought him one. It didn't work. (The boy plays us for fools!) We've tried flat out refusing to get out of bed and return him to his room, but that caused a meltdown and we don't want to risk waking Joe as well, obviously.

So after Monday night, we'd had enough. I asked on Twitter for advice (of course) but no one had any suggestions. I googled and found quite a few people with the same problem asking for help, but didn't find anyone offering solutions (I also found someone who'd returned their child to bed EIGHTEEN times the previous night so, you know, it could be worse).

I'd looked at the Gro-Clock Sleep Trainer a few times and thought Harry was probably too old for it to work, but I read the reviews on Amazon, saw lots of helpful comments from Rob, the creator of the clock, and so emailed him to ask if he thought it would work on a 7-year-old. He said yes (I know: he would, wouldn't he? But after reading his comments on Amazon I trusted him. He seems to go above and beyond, customer service-wise.) So I ordered one.*

Harry was very excited about it (as was Joe). We set it up. We explained to him (as we've done many times) that if he woke up he should look at the clock, see that it was still nighttime and go back to sleep. I set 'morning' to start at 6.00am (David suggested 6.30, I told him not to push his luck). Harry asked me to set it for 6.02 cos he's funny like that.

When me and D went to bed, David said, "I doubt he's going to stay in bed all night, is he?" "No," I said. "Probably not."

At 5am I woke and thought, Harry hasn't been in. I lay there feeling a bit discombobulated. I fretted a bit. I actually considered going in to check he was okay. I resisted.

At 6.02 Harry came in, beaming. "I stayed in bed all night!" he said.

Yep. He did.

* If I'd ordered it from The Gro Company and it hadn't worked, I could have sent it back for a full refund, but I didn't – I ordered it from Amazon because it was quite a lot cheaper. Sorry, Rob.

{No one asked me or paid me to write this. I'm writing it because I'm thrilled that it worked!}

Oceanside: 2 August 2001

Had a lie-in today then went down to the beach. Lay out for a bit, but it was too hot and then, after we'd moved to a cooler bit, it got overcast. Still managed to get burned though. Had lunch at a Dairy Queen then went to Ruby's Diner at the end of the pier for dinner – really nice. Felt like being in America!

Ruby's Diner, from their website. How cool?!

Dorothy Koomson interview

I am so thrilled to welcome the lovely author Dorothy Koomson to my blog and to ask her some of the questions suggested by you (remember when I asked you to suggest questions, ages ago? Thanks!).

Can you tell us about your writing day?

I don't have a writing day as such. I spend most days trying to play catch up and dealing with the most urgent matters that come up in life. If there was ever a time I'm most likely to write it'll be late at night, when nearly everyone who can distract me has gone to bed. Right now, it's gone midnight and I'm sitting in bed with the television muted in the background, typing on my laptop.

Writing can be a lonely occupation – how do you cope with the solitary nature of being an author?

I was single for a significant proportion of my writing career (and adult life) so I really was alone a lot of the time – sometimes I'd go days without seeing people, but I didn't mind too much. If I needed company I would go to the local post office just to practice conversation. It is easier to write when you don't have another person at home who – rightfully – wants you to engage with them. I find having the television on in the background – sometimes on mute, other times not – helps alleviate any loneliness. A lot has changed in the world since the invention of Twitter and Facebook, though. Now you can find conversation and 'company' whenever you want it, virtually.

Have you ever experienced writers' block and, if so, how did you get past it?

I've never had writers' block. I don't think that's luck, it's more the way I write: I don't write in sequence, so if something's not flowing, I'll write another part of the book. That stops me from feeling 'stuck'. Also, having been a journalist and editor for many years, I've never had the time to be blocked, I suppose, I've always needed to produce the words. Obviously it helps that there are always at least two different story ideas running in my head at any given time.

How is being an author different from what you imagined?

When I first got my publishing deal with a small independent publisher – they're not independent any more – I genuinely thought I would be able to give up full-time work. I thought I'd be at least making enough to write books full-time. Ha-ha! That was a lesson learned. I didn't actually give up my full-time job until after I'd finished my fourth book, Marshmallows For Breakfast. Even then I only did that because the magazine I was working on in Australia folded and my hand was forced – I had to make the leap of faith to try living even more frugally than I already did and give being a novelist a proper go. The other way being an author is different is that I thought authors had more say in covers, book titles, etc. Thankfully I've always been involved in deciding on my titles and covers, but I know other authors aren't as lucky.

Have you got any abandoned manuscripts no one will ever see?

I have loads of them! Some dating back to when I was in school – my first 'book' was written in my exercise books when I was 13. Sometimes I will start a book and will quickly realise that it's not ready to be a full-length novel yet so I'll put it to one side. Then years later I'll come back to it and know the time is right. That happened with some of the story of Goodnight, Beautiful – it began life in a very different way.

Who is the favourite character you've created and why?

My favourite male character is Greg from The Chocolate Run. I am so in love with him, even though I know he's not real and everything. Favourite female character is probably Ceri from The Cupid Effect. Why? She's my 'first-born' (first published main character).

What was your proudest writing moment (so far)?

Not sure if you mean from physically writing a book or part of the whole 'thing' of being a writer. If it's the former, then it's writing/editing the final words to The Cupid Effect, knowing it would be on the shelves of a bookshop; if it's the latter then it's walking into Borders on Oxford Street, London, and seeing The Cupid Effect on the shelves for the first time. The Cupid Effect features in both of my proudest writing moments because it is the book that changed my life.

If you had to live within the confines of one book, and only interact with its characters (but you would still be yourself), which book would you choose?

Now there's a question! Do I choose a fun-loving book that would eventually drive me crazy to be trapped in, or a more meaty tome that would have me depressed over a long period of time? At a push I'd go for Hollywood Wives – for the glamour and the celebs.

Which three books would you take to a desert island?

The largest single volume available of The Oxford English Dictionary because I can learn lots of new words; The Chocolate Run so I could adapt it into a screenplay; and a single volume of all J G Ballard's short stories because they are excellent reading – even if you've read them before.

If a film was made of your life, who would you want to play you?

Everyone always says Whoopi Goldberg should play me, but since she's older than me I don't think that'd work. I'm going to be completely self-indulgent and go for Naomi Harris. I'm sure she'd love leaning over the bath to wash her hair and sitting in her pyjamas in bed writing with the deadline for the next book hanging over her head. I can see it as clear as day!

Thank you so much, Dorothy.

Dorothy's latest book, The Woman He Loved Before, is out in paperback later this week (and it's gripping!).

San Diego to Oceanside: 1 August 2001

Got up early and went out to phone Holiday Autos and cancel the car and then AmEx to find our what's going on with my account. (And then Starbucks to recover, but got told off for queuing in the wrong place.*) All sorted now, I hope. We decided to check out of the hotel – cos it was shit – and went for a walk around the Gaslamp district then up to Balboa Park.

Crossing the road on the way I fell over and cut both my knees (and spilled my drink all over the road). It was on the flight path and the planes were really low, so David's been taking the piss out of me, saying I was looking up at a plane and just fell over like a penguin. Once I'd cleaned my knees, we sat in the park reading and watching squirrels.

We decided to drive a bit out of town to get somewhere to stay and ended up at Oceanside, which is beautiful. As soon as I saw the harbour I loved it. We went into a tourist information place where the woman asked where we were from. We told her Manchester and she said, "Oh! The Beatles!" Um, no.

We walked - passing drivers actually honked at us for walking - down the beach and the pier, watched the surfers and the sunset and decided to stay an extra night so we can spend tomorrow at the beach. On the way back to the hotel, people had lit fires on the beach and were having barbecues. It was just what I imagined California would be like.

* It was really busy and I not only queued in the wrong place, I couldn't get the top off the milk flask. Ah, olden times when Starbucks was a mystery to me…

Long Beach to San Diego: 31 July 2001

Drove to San Diego today via Laguna Beach where we used the library to email everyone. Had a crying fit when we first got here because the hotel's really expensive (and shit) and we had to pay for (also expensive) parking.

We walked down to the (gorgeous) harbour and got a bottle of wine and a Chinese before watching Benny & Joon in our room.

[That was a bit basic, eh? I was fed up.]