Midnight Oil

Having waited for several months - my MS came back from the editor on Friday, with a charming request from my publisher to let her have my changes asap "Yesterday would be good" ( I quote.) Of course yours truly burnt the midnight oil and complied.* My publisher remains (apart from my family, naturally) my favourite person on the entire planet. What am I talking about? the solar system, the universe and beyond. (Although, I must point out, this accolade is subject to a severe review if, for any reason, my book isn't published.) More soon - too tired to type any more!!!

*That is, I completed the changes over a weekend, not by "yesterday"! If I could time travel, I'd be a lot younger than I am right now, and busy telling everyone how to live their lives. In fact, I probably wouldn't survive. Someone would bump me off for being a bossy know it all.

I've been very remiss, haven't posted for quite a while. When I returned, I couldn't log on! Major panic, but I finally worked out (techological genius at work) that I was using the wrong email address, having changed my log on details on a random whim. It made me think about how often our lives can be affected by the whims of others. We talk about the cross roads in our lives, "the road not taken" the regrets and triumphs that make up our lives as a result of our casual choices. "If only I'd caught that train" or "if only I'd thought before sending that email" - even "if only I hadn't overslept" - I could go on endlessly. Poems, films, novels, plays, real lives played out along a certain track because of one chance choice.

But what about the random whims of others that so often dictate the direction of our lives? Someone likes the look of you and you're offered a job - or the converse.

Some complete stranger at the other end of a letter likes what you've written and offers to publish . . .

If you take into account other people's whims and chance choices about you, as well as your own, the chances of being who you are, where you are in life become almost impossibly random.

Does anything make any sense? (I'm not just referring to my ramblings here - this is a wider philosophical question!)

My achievement (edited version!)

If anyone's wondering why the 'google news' link and 'edit me' links have appeared apparently randomly at the top of my blog screen, rest assured, this isn't the result of some random blog activity. No, it's my technological incompetence rearing its shaggy pretechnosapiens head once more. Yes, I tried to 'edit' the link to a link to my publisher's website and no, it didn't work. What is it with me and edits?

If you click on one (don't ask me which one, I can't be expected to remember everything - or even anything) it takes you via some miraculous virtual highway to the details of CUT SHORT - a short cut to Cut Short. The other one takes you to Crime Time magazine (article on page 14-15 I think - another memory lapse) I'd intended the links to be identifiably named and also to appear in the links section of the blog, not appear hovering weirdly in space. There's also a link on the profile page which calls itself a link to my webpage. It's not my webpage, but it is the webpage about Cut Short on my publisher's website.

So I've achieved something. I don't understand how I did it, and it's not what I intended, but it's something. Which is quite an accurate summary of my life as a writer. Sound familiar?

ROLLERCOASTER

This evening I missed a lecture on forensics that I was particularly keen to attend. I couldn't find the venue and nor could about five different police officers I asked to help me. (By this time I'd become peripherally embroiled in a huge demonstration outside the Houses of Parliament - hence the significant police presence). Not a good evening.

Unusually, I read my horoscope in the paper on my train journey home. "Do you really need to go?" the horoscope asked. "Why do you put yourself through these things?" Why am I doing all this? I asked myself. What am I doing?

When I arrived home, I realised I hadn't found the venue because I'd looked up the wrong address. That didn't help my mood... Just as I was feeling really miserable, I found an email inviting me to talk about Cut Short at a literary festival.

So I can stop feeling sorry for myself - for this evening, at least.

Is writing a roller coaster for everyone, or am I just unhinged?

Why do we do it?

I've not been posting lately because . . . wait for it . . . have you worked it out yet? . . .
because I haven't had anything interesting to say.

The new date for CUT SHORT is July 2009, according to my publisher, to whom I am eternally grateful for having faith in my talent. I'll wait and see what happens this time.

I wonder if the Post Office appreciates what a stirling job we writers do, sending out letters in A4 envelopes (paying a premium for the large size) stuffed with synopses and extracts (extra cost for additional weight). I couldn't say how many letters each publisher receives daily, or even how many publishers there are, and then there are the agents. If publishers and agents et al decide to accept submissions online, I suspect the Post Office will go the way of the telegram. (Do they still exist?) Anyway, I've done my bit this week. In a few months, letters may start falling through my letter box. Of course they're likely to be rejections if they arrive at all, but at least I can comfort myself that I'm helping the Post Office. It's an ill wind . . .

Given the rate of rejection, why do we bother? Answers on a postcard, please . . . or you can reply here on the blog (sorry Post Office - but you did keep me waiting in a queue for HALF AN HOUR this morning - I wasn't going to mention that, but it just slipped out.)

Life's full of surprises

http://www.crimetime.co.uk/publishing/ct54.pdf

I have NO IDEA how this happened but I've inserted a link on my blog:

An article published in Crime Time Magazine, pages 25-26, pages 14-15 on the screen

Thank you to Debs and Aggie who gave me instructions on how to insert the link which I succeeded in doing after only about four attempts.

Is that laughter I can hear from all you IT literates out there? Don't care. I've inserted a link on my blog - (still not sure how it happened.)

Here goes again -

Here is the link to an article about Cut Short (or not - depending on whether I manage to insert the link or not...)

Now I've forgotten what I'm supposed to do...