Just had three really complimentary comments from someone in Luxembourg.  Finally, I thought, someone gets it!  Someone outside friends and family has read my stuff and likes it.  It felt great.  She is also writing a novel and has found a publisher.

A good afternoon in town today – took Daniel for muffins and planned his 13th birthday party (bowling, pizza and sleepover)

Enjoy fireworks if you’re going

TTFN

PS to the Donkey for live music tomorrow

I need a sub-editor to think of some snappy titles for these posts – I used to be able to do it but the ability has deserted me.

Went to Word on Tues, was deeply unimpressed.  Not only did I not get to read because the list was full, there was a lot of dross (usually it’s mixed with some good stuff amongst the dross) and two people got up and sang songs – not songs they’d written but “Lady in Red” and some Bee Gees thing.  I’m all for inclusivity but that ain’t poetry.  So I think it may be time to be moving on.

Got to go now – I’m at the library and my time is running out.

Writing a radio play – more of this anon.

TTFN

Hi guys, I’m back.

Home is the hunter, home from the woods

And the writer home from the hill

Had a bit of a mixed week, due to a potential publisher telling me I should go to creative writing classes.  It’s a bit dispiriting when you’ve been writing for 30 years to be told that you are basically a total amateur.  Still, I got some poems out of it, one of which goes thus:

On Rejection

first I cried

then I laughed

then I wrote the second draft

Feeling quite good, tho, considering.  Going to be working at the library for the foreseeable.  I am currently working on a radio play as well as the novel and some poems.

See you all soon I hope

TTFN

PS I have changed my name to Sarada but not in any legal way so you can carry on calling me Liz if you want

Only one more week to go.  I have planned the novel in outline and more and more ideas keep coming.  I also have enough poems for a book of poetry.  All I need now is a publisher.

It’s all coming on!

Also recieved an unexpected cheque in the post, which will pay the rent for the chalet

All good stuff!

FFNT

or whatever

Been a very busy weekend – seems to have taken me all weekend to prepare for and then teach a day of teacher training.  Went well except one student had sciatica and couldn’t come.  I know from personal experience just how painful sciatica can be.  Other than that it was a good day.  We did:

known knowns

known unknowns

unknown unknowns

unknown knowns.

This is a piece of apparent gobbledegook which people often quote as “evidence” that Donald Rumsfeld was cellularly challenged in the cerebral department – but was  in fact one of the few things he said which actually made sense.  It means

- oh, hell, I can’t be bothered.  Work it out yourselves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RpSv3HjpEw

Best wishes to all doing the philosophy with Bettina.  Do you miss me?

(“What?  Haven’t you been coming?”  I hear them cry)

See you next weekend

No buses this weekend as we hired a car.  Then ran into financial difficulties as my flexible friend refused to bend any further in the Wholefood Co-op and we had to put stuff back.  Could have been worse – it could have been Sainsbury’s.

As things are tight, we are only buying Xmas presents for the children this year.  Also, Daniel turns 13 in Jan.

Help!!!

Had to put this one up.  It’s first thing in the morning.  Ladimir is listening to the news, with headphones:

Ladimir – God!  Three degrees in Edinburgh!

Oestrogen:  What?

L – Three degrees!

O – What – temperature?

L – Of course, temperature!  What else?

O – Oh, nothing

L – It’s so foggy

O – Really?

L – Yes – theyre saying you can’t see your hand in front of your face!

O – Wow!  So I guess -

L – Yes?

O – I guess they’ll be saying -

L – Yes?

O – “When will I see you again?”

L – (Sighs)

Back again for the weekend.  Only two more weeks of purdah left!  The planning is coming on apace and I intend to work every day at the library when I get back.  I have a collection of at least 40 poems now and will be looking out for a publisher.

Money-wise, things are crunching.  So glad to hear that the Goldman Sachs bankers are getting their bonuses.  That really makes me feel warm inside.  Just so they know, you can’t take it with you.  Mind you, it’d probably melt, where they’re going.

Not that I’m judgmental or anything….

So: if you have any kind of spiritual faith please pray for us to get some more income from somewhere – and if you don’t, wish us well.

See you all soon when, llke a bad penny, I will be back in circulation

TTFN

PS I am thinking of changing my name to Sarada – not in any legal, deed-polly sort of way, but as a symbol of this new phase in my life

Back again for the weekend, and feeling much more positive about everything.  I have a real sense of it being possible to be published now.  I have some poems which I am feeling very good about.  The novel is still at the planning stage – I am getting to know the characters.  It seems important to know everything about them even if it doesn’t go in the novel.  The action takes place in the 1960’s until 79 when Thatcher came in, then goes back to the war, then forward to the 90’s and finishes in the year 2000.

Watch this space!

TTFN

Hi all

Settling into a pattern of being back at weekends and in the woods Mon – Fri.  It seems to be working well.  Writing-wise, I have written a number of poems and planning for the novel is continuing.  The working title is “Knots”, which refers to a number of things, mainly the knots the characters tie themselves in and which form the pattern of their relationships.  I have done a big diagram of all the characters and how they relate to each other and it does resemble a huge knot.

At the weekends I am trying to lick Holly into some sort of shape so that she can eventually take GCSEs.

Oh!  And I’ve improved some of the songs I wrote and will probably set more to music.

And

Here’s a limerick I wrote yesterday:

Panem et Circenses*

A Big Mac and Strictly Come Dancing

that schedule’s a boil that needs lancing

It’s not nice to see ya

my burger tastes queer

Don’t tell me our culture’s advancing.

*  Bread and circuses – what, according to the Roman Emperors, is all the people needed to keep them happy;

Oh!  and I wrote a scene for a short play on BBC 7 (“chaingang”) but couldn’t find an internet cafe in Loughborough to send it from.

To Mirch Marsala tonight where we are having a meal generously provided by our friends Peter and Noel.

PS I’m writing a series of limericks on Friends, which begins like this:

It starts with a Rembrandt or two

who say that they’ll be there for you

a fountain, some jiving

a bride who is skiving

cos everyone says she’s a shoe

The idea is to write a verse for each series.  I’m really into limericks at the moment

- as our Ameican cousins say.  Great teacher training day today.  We talked about karma and karma yoga.  Great comment from Peter on Bob when he was working at Victoria Coach Station – chack it out.  The novel is progressing and I am writing some songs.  Hope everyone is well.

See you all soon

Liz