Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes. Or edits and rewrites if you are a literary type.

 

It's been a while I know. Can I claim that Paris does not yet have internet? That the Parisians are too busy layering chic clothing in various muted shades and eating vast quanities of pastry without ever getting fat and therefore have no time for hours internet faffery like the rest of us? No? OK then, moving on.

Paris was wonderful. The job at the Chateau looking after Omani jockeys was a bit insane. I enjoyed and endured both and though I took a break from doing anything but some writerly tinkering some nice literary type things did occur while I out there. Duly reporting:

I got my delivery advance. I'd like to say that I spent it on first edition Proust. Actually, I just kept the boulangeries and vintage shops from feeling the full impact of current international economic doom. 

Todd Zuniga, writer, editor and founder of Literary Death Match very kindly introduced me to some Paris writerly folk. We all ended up talking about films but that is by-the-by.

The very lovely writer Kirsty Logan asked me to contribute a short interview on my experience of traditional publishing (as opposed to self publishing) for IdeasTap. It was my first Tony Hogan interview and it was fun.

Now, back home in wonderful/sunny/slightly nippy East London I have three weeks till I must return to gainful employment using only speadsheets and a slew of highlighters to save the world. Nothing like a deadline to getting me moving so:

I'm working on Thirst intensively - getting excited about it, starting to see it take shape properly for the first time. I'm getting Tony Hogan type feelings about it, which is something I can't really explain but it is A Good Thing. 

I got my final wee edits for Tony Hogan in a big padded Random House embossed white envelope. This is the place where the writing journey for my first novel ends and another sort of journey begins. I feel pregnant and, in fact, it will be on sale in nine months…

I am running. This is sort of about writing Thirst but sort of not. I love it. It is so good for my writing, a prefect marriage. I'm reading Haruki Murakami's 'What I Talk About When I Talk About Running' and on every page I am thinking 'YES.' My favourite quote so far is this one:

'I'm the type of person who likes to be my himself. To put a finer point on it, I'm the type of person who doesn't find it painful to be alone. I find an hour or two every day running alone, not speaking to anyone, as well as four or five hours alone neither tiring or boring.'

The man speaks my truth.