Bad night, but a good dream – I dreamt I found a story of mine that had been published and which I’d forgotten about. I was really happy, then wrote to the magazine asking why they hadn’t paid me. The story, interestingly, was called Nineteenthly, which is Mark’s pseudonym on his blog and on the Half-Bakery. So make of that what you will. I know I will!
Half-bakery? It’s a site where geeks come up with ill-thought-out ideas for inventions. Geddit? It’s easy enough to find, not so easy to leave (you can log off any time you like/but you can never leave)
I had a really good limerick this morning and now it’s lost. Here’s a later one:
The age of the train
voice of the creep
winds in the lane
howl in our sleep.
(Remember Jimmy Savile? I try not to, either.)
Reading Rebecca and for lighter relief, HPDH (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to you). When, oh when will the film come out?
Short stories are coming on. I am skimming Tracy Chevalier’s Burning Bright – which, as anyone even vaguely literary will know, is about Blake. You know, Tyger, tyger, burning bright/in the forests of the night/what immortal hand or eye/can frame thy fearful symmetry? Not her best, I think – the research is too obvious, hasn’t bedded in to the story. Girl with a Pearl Earring – much better. I wonder, though, whether she’s got stuck in a genre because that was so successful.
Compare and contrast with how a tiger when walking:
uses first legs one and three
then alternates with two and four –
and after that, there are no more.
RIP Spike Milligan