Friday, 27 November 2009
Thursday, 26 November 2009
picture books
Well, my P&F picture book text appears to have met with approval and I've tweaked the areas that needed more attention, so I'm sending it back out. No messing. The thing is, if I sit around waiting for great things to happen, they just won't.
Well, actually, I've sat around quite a bit recently, and I'm now minus a wall, so that's pretty big. When I say a wall, obviously I don't mean that I'm now living in a doll's house (full of floors and an attic with secret doors and spaces) but what I've lost is some very damp, bubbling plaster, some very old lats, and I can see where the rain's been coming in for the last couple of decades. Our truly wonderful builder sawed up some of the wooden frame that supported the lats and smelled new wood in wood which is over 160 years old. Isn't that amazing! Well I think it is. And this is my blog. So let me be amazed at the lasting quality of wood aroma.
I'm also the proud owner of a fireplace, by the way, which was hidden behind all that bubbly plaster, so that's another pretty big thing which happened while I was sitting. It's lovely. I'd like to give it a sweep and use it, but I'm sure some health and safety person (or perhaps Colin) will tell me I'm daft, especially as most of the bricks around it are slightly saggy, the chimney breast is just a badly put together jigsaw, and the thing probably leaks.
So back to the safer (hah) ground of picture books and once again I wish I could draw properly and that P&F could just magically appear on paper and be so delicious that no self respecting agent or publisher could possibly resist them, and demand more stories about them and of course being the true professionally that I am, I'd be able to say, there is more. And there is, as it happens. Oh, I can't wait for that conversation.
Just noticed the date. Must get round to Christmas soon.
Well, actually, I've sat around quite a bit recently, and I'm now minus a wall, so that's pretty big. When I say a wall, obviously I don't mean that I'm now living in a doll's house (full of floors and an attic with secret doors and spaces) but what I've lost is some very damp, bubbling plaster, some very old lats, and I can see where the rain's been coming in for the last couple of decades. Our truly wonderful builder sawed up some of the wooden frame that supported the lats and smelled new wood in wood which is over 160 years old. Isn't that amazing! Well I think it is. And this is my blog. So let me be amazed at the lasting quality of wood aroma.
I'm also the proud owner of a fireplace, by the way, which was hidden behind all that bubbly plaster, so that's another pretty big thing which happened while I was sitting. It's lovely. I'd like to give it a sweep and use it, but I'm sure some health and safety person (or perhaps Colin) will tell me I'm daft, especially as most of the bricks around it are slightly saggy, the chimney breast is just a badly put together jigsaw, and the thing probably leaks.
So back to the safer (hah) ground of picture books and once again I wish I could draw properly and that P&F could just magically appear on paper and be so delicious that no self respecting agent or publisher could possibly resist them, and demand more stories about them and of course being the true professionally that I am, I'd be able to say, there is more. And there is, as it happens. Oh, I can't wait for that conversation.
Just noticed the date. Must get round to Christmas soon.
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
I have a cough and the sniffs and everything in my house is dusty. Yes, we're having work done. I can't think or write. And soon we're to have visitors to stay from the other side of the pond. Help. They're coming tonight instead of Friday. Ah well, they'll have to live with what they find. They're musicians, so they'll be used to slumming it.
Monday, 16 November 2009
waiting
Well I now have three followers, which is great. From small beginnings, erm, like little acorns, grow big sturdy oaks, with lots of branches and leaves and twigs and everything. So I'm waiting patiently for it all to get going. Thank you, acorns. Without you there is no oak. Sturdy or otherwise.
About waiting. Now then. Out there, is an agent who loves me. I'm sure of it. It's like knowing that behind the bright bit there's the dark side of the moon. We can't see it but it's there. So is my agent. Agent, show yourself. I can love you.
And another thing. My picture book text went out a whole month ago and I was promised (or did I just dream that?) it would be back with me within three or four weeks. It's like being at school, getting back the work you've spent so long on it just has to be right.
There used to be this joke played on young student nurses. They'd be set down to the operating theatre for a Long Stand. They'd be directed to a corner, out of the way, and told to wait. And so they did. And did. And did. And so did I.
So hey, waiting...it's nothing.
About waiting. Now then. Out there, is an agent who loves me. I'm sure of it. It's like knowing that behind the bright bit there's the dark side of the moon. We can't see it but it's there. So is my agent. Agent, show yourself. I can love you.
And another thing. My picture book text went out a whole month ago and I was promised (or did I just dream that?) it would be back with me within three or four weeks. It's like being at school, getting back the work you've spent so long on it just has to be right.
There used to be this joke played on young student nurses. They'd be set down to the operating theatre for a Long Stand. They'd be directed to a corner, out of the way, and told to wait. And so they did. And did. And did. And so did I.
So hey, waiting...it's nothing.
Sunday, 8 November 2009
wolves
Just back from mid west Spain, having tried, and failed, to find wolves. Standing for two hours till sun up and two hours till sun down, for four days, in biting cold, which layer upon layer just couldn't keep out. Full moon. Winter trees. Howling winds. Trails of mist over the hills. Brooding mountains in the distance. Perfect, you would have thought, for a pack to be out hunting for deer. Unless they're well fed, of course, contented with their lot, with not an ache of hunger to nudge them out from under cover. Meanwhile the deer came out to inspect us, morning
and evening, gamboling about in the dew, a more carefree, worry less group you ever did see. Which just about summed it up. I can feel a trip to Transylvania coming on.
and evening, gamboling about in the dew, a more carefree, worry less group you ever did see. Which just about summed it up. I can feel a trip to Transylvania coming on.
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