Thursday, January 17, 2008

Editing, visiting and the panto season

Have spent most of the day editing Chapter Five of The Gifting and I think I'm just about ready for another scene in Gathandria now. It's going off in some unexpected directions and I'm not sure I'm entirely in control of the beast, but hell that's always the case. I'm never entirely in control of the beast. At least it's giving me a lot of food for thought. Sometimes, I just have to let my obsessive need for control go and rely on instinct. I can sort the spiky bits out later. I hope.

Anyway, as is often the case when I edit (but not at all when I'm doing original writing), I completely forgot about lunch until 2pm, so had to grab some salad and cheese before rushing off to visit Gladys in hospital. Lord, but that was tough. The good news is she's actually sitting up in a wheelchair and no longer trapped in the bed. But she's very confused and angry. Bloody hell though, anyone would be - being in hospital is crap. But it's difficult to try to talk to someone who doesn't understand where they are, who thinks everyone has deserted her, who believes the nurses are starving her and that the best option is to die. Plus the fact that she thinks I'm smug, nasty and heartless. Well, I ain't giving anyone any argument over that assessment. One can only agree. Still, at the end of my half-hour visit, I was beginning to think death would be the better option. For both of us! I left hospital feeling very shaky (and yet knowing I was the lucky one simply to be able to leave ...) and I'm still feeling the same way now.

Back home, I'll try to do a little more editing, if only as I know it will focus me, and then tonight it's panto time. Oh yes it is, oh no it isn't!... Ruth's husband, Douglas (who's also doing the food for the Thorn in the Flesh launch) is playing Sir Rupert Rottweiller in "Hansel and Gretel", and Lord H and I are going along to cheer him on. Douglas is a bloody good actor though. Great delivery. So it should be fun.

And I've just finished reading Jeremy Dyson's short story collection, Never Trust a Rabbit. Great stuff - I loved it, though some of the stories were a little too literary for me. That didn't stop my enjoyment of some excellent characters and some completely spaced-out plotting though. Marvellous. I'd definitely buy his next.

Today's nice things:

1. Getting caught up in the editing process
2. Coming home from hospital
3. Panto time!

Anne Brooke
Anne's website
Goldenford Publishers

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