Lucy Robinson's Blog, page 6

Wot I loved today: becoming invisible to young men

I’m not sure about the inclusion of this matter in my ‘Wot I Loved’ blog but the situation makes me laugh so much that I think I have to.

Somewhere along the line, I’ve become an old hag. OR if not that, at least completely invisible to young men. I live on the edge of a student area in Bristol and, between my house and the corner shop, I will normally pass at least four young men with fashionable haircuts and complex footwear. They are all called Matt or Tom and they look nice. Attractive,well-dressed and pretty manly, given that they are babies.

But here’s the thing: THEY DO NOT SEE ME. To them I am completely invisible. I am nothing. I am above their top age of sexual interest and I therefore might be eighty for all they care. I am Past It.

This weekend I was walking along to the postbox, wearing a nice skirt and stuff. I had sunglasses on, so you couldn’t see the wrinkles round my eyes, and I’d just dried my hair and put on some make up. I looked as good as I’m likely to look these days without five hours in makeup, and so, when I spotted a group of male students walking towards me, I prepared myself to be looked at.

I’ve never actually enjoyed these looks, it should be said. At best they’re embarrassing, at worst they invoke my natural feminist fury. But since the age of about fifteen, they’ve become a fact of life. I am in possession of a vagina, ergo I get looked at by men.

So. These lads. Walking towards me in a group; laughing and joking; young and good looking. I prepare to look away in embarrassment as they take a good look at me. Or to cross to the other side of the road. Or to (I’ve done this a few times) tell them to fucking well fuck off because I’m not a piece of beef.

But none of the above prove necessary, readers. They do not see me. They cannot see me. Even though they have to break ranks to let me pass on the pavement, they do not see me. I am just another old lady wandering around in the road. Probably lost, having escaped her nursing home.

I went out this morning, wearing LIPSTICK. And: same. A stream of them walking to university, all fresh and young and virile. And . . . nothing. I was nothing. They did not see me.

Fortunately, I am laughing about this. Laughing a lot. It’s a sad time, but a funny one.

And that’s about it. I should probably go back to my hairnets and talcum powder. Bye.

This blog is part of my Wot I Love series, which I started after recovering from ME. For more info, take a butchers at this.

Wot I loved today: miracle flowers

Look. Aren’t they a miracle? Braving their way through the cold, waterlogged earth to break into our lives in vivid technicolour. They made me so happy this morning.

And that’s about it.

Wot I loved today: book bloggers

Perhaps if I’d had a string of so-so reviews, or even downright nasty reviews, I would not love book bloggers as much as I do. If that were the case, I’d probably avoid them in the same way that I avoid spiders and people with smelly armpits. Luckily, I’ve had nothing but love from the book bloggers of the world* and I therefore, quite shamelessly, LOVE THEM. I dedicate this post to them.

It’s not just the nice reviews, of course. What I really love is that book bloggers are as busy as I am with books: reading and writing and supporting and tweeting and researching (and, often, writing books of their own) – and yet, unlike me and the other writers whose books they review, they ain’t getting paid. These are proper book lovers with busy bookshelves and opinions and the ability – not to mention the willingness – to engage their brains in critical analysis. They’re motivated in a way I could only dream of being! Isn’t that cool? All that endeavour, all for a love of a good book?

Best of all is that the bloggers I’ve met so far have just been delightful. So incredibly friendly and nice and relaxed and enthusiastic. These unseen voices turn into smiling faces at launch parties and I come away able to picture and hear that nice person wot loved my book. It’s always a great moment.

US/Canada publication day for my second novel, A Passionate Love Affair with a Total Stranger, with Notting Hill Press, is approaching fast and my first review came in today. It was five stars. Now, this is lovely. But what’s even more lovely is that the lady who read and reviewed the book is someone on the other side of the world, who I will probably never meet, and who leads a life of which I know nothing. But thanks to the internet my book found its way into her hands and she couldn’t put it down. And she wrote a lovely piece online telling the world that.

As I foray into the world of stars and stripes and maple leaves, I’m ‘meeting’ a whole new group of bloggers and I’m rather excited. A whole new world of people whose opinions could either relegate me into nothingness (or at least a deeper nothingness than that which I exist on that side of the pond at present) or help push me up into world domination.** A whole group of people who, like me, are lost unless they’ve got a cracking book in their hands. Only unlike me they’re bloody brilliant at telling the world about it.

So, bloggers, thank you. Thank you for bothering to read my books – everyone’s books, in fact – and for supporting us, loving us, hating us, being indifferent to us – but above all, for loving books as much as we do. You rule.

Lucy Robinson x

*Apart from one, who apparently wrote a scathing review of me or my work – I don’t know which, as I was on my back with ME when it was written, so I never saw it – but who then tried to befriend me online. This so incensed her blogging contemporaries that I started getting anonymous emails alerting me to her hypocrisy! It was a proper drama with rageful tweets and everything! I was a human controversy!

**It’s OK. I’m just messing.

NEWS: new date for my book launch !

he Unfinished Symphony of You and Me” width=”225″ height=”300″ class=”size-medium wp-image-1932″ /> The Unfinished Symphony of You and Me

Here’s a piece of breaking news. My next novel, The Unfinished Symphony of You and Me – which I love MADLY and of which I am truly proud – is out sooner than we were all expecting. Reach for your diaries right now:

IT WILL BE PUBLISHED ON JUNE 19TH. DID YOU GET THAT? JUNE 19TH!

This is three months and two days away, as opposed to four months and two weeks away which is what we were initially expecting.

As I wrote recently, I have not yet had the experience of feeling desperately proud of a book. Not that there was anything wrong with the others, and as my loyal chums will remember I was madly excited when they came out – but this one feels different. It’s a really special book. Perhaps because it took such an enormous amount of research. Perhaps because some of the stuff in it felt truly hard and sad and tapped into some hard and sad things within me. Perhaps because my main character, Sally, and I went through similar transformations at the same time . . . Although that’s not something I could ever have predicted when I started writing the book. Maybe it’s just because I’m growing up and improving as a writer and used this book to consolidate all the lessons I’ve learned; to add layers I didn’t know how to add before.

Whatever the reason is, this book is like my child and to know I will be cradling the real thing in my arms in a mere three months is indescribably wonderful.

Um, so that’s it. Here’s a picture of the bound proof which arrived today. Rather cleverly it doesn’t have the title on the front; instead it features a quote from somewhere about halfway through the book which I never dreamed would end up on the front! One of those lines you just dash off and then, suddenly, it’s the line that your publishers sit round a table and agree is a perfect distillation of all that lies inside. Ace. Good. Great. RAHHHH!

Wot I loved today: GROUSEMAN!

Grouse has come to stay! My beloved Grousie! He is the most stupid, adorable and wonderful dog on earth.

He is leaning on my chest as I write this, because he thinks that I might be paying my iPhone more attention than I am paying him. And every time The Man and I have tried to have a cuddle today he has thrown himself at us with the force of a moderate rocket.

He did stink out the car earlier with an evil pre-walk trump but other than that he has been extremely well behaved and has only put banned trainers in his mouth twice. Also he has yet to steal any food.

There are no words to describe how much I love my Grouse. If all people were as nice as he is this would such a harmonious happy planet! GROUSEMAN for president of humans!

Wot I Loved Today: Backstreet Boys

Don’t you dare judge me! You love them too and you know it. Go and listen to ‘Everybody,’ like I did when they popped on to my shuffle just now, and tell me you weren’t dancing HARD. Just like I was. Tell me you didn’t grin and jump and sing. Tell me you didn’t think, ‘they don’t write pop songs like this any more…’

Tell me you don’t have a soft spot for them. I won’t believe you.

Wot I loved Today: Philly Rutt’s MEGA ART

Today I am loving – along with the SUNSHINE and my bobbly cardigan and an unexpected lunchtime reggae rave-up – the brilliant work of Philly Rutt, a very talented artist I met during the course of … I can’t remember. Something to do with blogging I think. Anyway, Philly invited me to the opening thingy of her exhibition in Queen’s Park last year and I fell madly in love with her work. I have an uneasy relationship with art. I like the idea of it, and I like galleries but the truth is, I often feel bemused and bored when I am looking at art. I DON’T GET IT. I slope off to the gift shop or the cafe and feel like a bit of a plank.

But when I saw Philly’s stuff last year, I came alive. I wanted to whip out an Amex platinum card that I don’t own and buy everything. I loved it all. She’s BRILLIANT.

Here’s her Facebook page, and her website and, finally details of her latest exhibition in Bow which I would be galloping to if I didn’t live in this ere Bristol these days.

www.phillyrutt.com

www.facebook.com/PhillipaRut

www.morganarmsbow.com

Wot I loved today: Spring arriving in Bristol

9.40 am this morning: sunny harbourside. My heart is leaping and MY COAT IS OFF! This day, which always happens in March, is probably my favourite of the year.

I am also loving that I am off for a research meeting on a boat.

Life is good, if I want it to be.

Wot I Loved Today: Going dancing

You know you have reached middle age when you talk about ‘going dancing’ – as opposed to ‘going clubbing’ or just plain old ‘going out’ (because dancing will, like, obviously be involved.)

So because I am old, I went DANCING. With the girls. In a shirt skirt and high heels and bare arms. And not enough by way of coats.

It was slightly different, of course – we had dinner and prosecco first and talked about artists’ retreats and babies, but let me tell you that when we hit that dance floor we TORE IT UP.

And got so excited that I’m afraid to report we just started screaming.

Oops.

Wot I loved today: Not owning a Kindle

My friend Parkin likes to laugh at me. He thinks I’m useless in most respects. He’s wrong, of course, but he’s very funny so whenever he attacks me I’m laughing too much to punch him in the face or at very least argue back.

When he learned that I do not own a Kindle he was absolutely disgusted. ‘Let me get this straight, Robinson. When you pack your suitcase to go on holiday – that time when you need to save on space and weight – you pack a pile of big, heavy books?’

‘Yes.’

‘Do you also write shopping lists on a piece of slate and drive around in a horse and cart?’

‘Shut up.’

‘You’re a WRITER! How can you not own a Kindle?’

‘Parkin, I don’t want a Kindle. I love books. Proper, real, papery books that smell lovely.’

‘Oh God’ His eyes narrowed. ‘Hang on. How do you read eBooks?’

I paused. I knew how this was going to go.

‘On my iPhone,’ I muttered.

The abuse lasted for a very long time.

Well, Parkin dear, up yours. I am reading Michele Gorman’s eBook Bella Summer Takes a Chance at present and the iPhone format is suiting me perfectly. I de-brighten the screen so I don’t hurt my eyes and I swipe every fifteen seconds. The font size is perfect and none of Michele’s very funny book is lost on me. I found myself thinking earlier, I really must work out a better way of reading this book. And then I thought, WHY? Why do I need to update my life? This arrangement suits me perfectly!

E voila. Today, I love reading books on my iPhone. AND I DON’T BLOODY WELL CARE.