Hello, my friends and the occasional relative!

The end of a long day. He says at 7.51pm. I need more days like this. LCCN applied for, ISBN for 3 versions of The Gardener and The Goddess assigned, synopsis written, blurb rewritten and finalized. Cleaned up my office: I’m no longer in danger of being overcome by a confetti of papers like Robert De Niro in Brazil. There’s more to do, but the chaos no longer laps around me as it did. So much better. In amongst this I did chores around the house, worked out, went out for good Greek food, came home via 2 shopping stops and made a new meal, which I haven’t touched as I’m still stuffed from the Greek food. I ate between 4 and 5, so am I now in my blue plate special era? Could be.

I still have more to do, I need to add my legal pages and dedication to my manuscript. Plus a page begging for reviews. Is that still a thing? I can do that now I have my ISBN for ebook, paperback and hardback sorted out.

I managed to watch a movie, kind of:  it was a modern gothic that had a terrible critical rating – I liked its ambition, and its use of classic 19^th century references, it was definitely not awful, but I kind of only watched 50 to 75% of it whilst cooking. Why is it recipes always wildly underestimate the cooking time of vegetables? Cauliflower can remain brick-like for more than 8 minutes. And I always have to add more broth or liquid to ensure things steam properly. Definition of first world problem right there.

I am very grateful for this life, and fortunate to be living it. The radio told me about death by pager today. Horrific. To live in comfort is an incredible blessing. The US is locked in its painful endurance test of an election process. If we changed it to a 6 week sprint can you imagine how much less money would get spent on campaigning? Could we redirect those monies into charities, please?

I spent Saturday and Sunday looking for a voice in Scots. I’m progressing, slowly, vocabulary is opening up to me very satisfyingly – I can listen to spoken Broad Scots and understand way more of it than ever before, (I listened to Billy Kay’s address to the Scottish Parliament – excellent stuff) and I have realized that some of my odd circumlocutions, my fondness for using negatives to describe a positive that I mostly edit out of my writing, are very Scottish in nature, the rhythm of Scottish English that still echoes its Scots progenitor. But still, I’m a three year old with the wrong end of a crayon.

The thing is, I feel there is a ‘something’ in me that needs to find its way out in that written voice. I had some thoughts before I started learning, I think they are too trite now. I’ve had other ideas, but none have had that clean bite of conviction that tells me when I’ve got a god idea I can work with. I’m gnawing on the bone, sooner or later I’ll crack it. I’ve wanted to incorporate it into the next book, but I’m not going to be good enough in time for that.

This blog brought to you by 2016’s Hidden City, an album by The Cult. Haven’t listened to it in a while – it is enjoyable, especially as a lifelong fan. Hey – they released another album in 2022! Cool, Imma buy it.

I’m obviously tired, I’ve used “era” and ‘Imma” without shame.

Take care out there, my friends, and have more good days than bad, if you can.