shoes 24 March 2010
bloody dongle on strick again – sorry!
just to say that buying purple shoes is a great way to cheer up.
as is workshopping comedy scripts at the bbc.
that is all..
nun 22 March 2010
The predictive text for MUM is NUN, according to Mandy (regular to the site) so she is forever sending her daughters messages from a religious hermit type…
I had one of those deliciously BATS moments today, and it cost me. Basically, instead of standing still at a traffic lights I decided to run as the oncoming traffic, well, came on and my i-touch went flying and fell into 2 parts on the opposite pavement. I snapped the back onto it and tried to switch it on and, like anything that hits the ground at speed, it was reluctant to show proof of life. Moments later, in panic that it was dead, I was showing it to various Shopkeeps, none of whom could help me. In a fit of fear that I would have to travel (tomorrow) without noise in my ears I imagined it unfixable and bought an ipod nano, only to come home and have my lovely original device shake off its fall and begin to work again…expensive panic from Pauline there…I’d‘ve preferred the 2 pairs of shoes they didn’t have in my size in the shoe shop I’d been in just before I ran across that road (LIKE A FOOL!)
bright 21 March 2010
Many of you who follow this blog will know what I mean when I say the future is looking better than it was – yes, rewrites are helping it get all fixed. Consequently the McLynn mood is improving EVER so slightly (till the next setback, that is, and it’s out there WAITING for me, oh yes…not that I am paranoid or anything….)
My friend Sally was telling me today that when you use predictive text on your phone if you type in ‘low’ you get ‘joy’ – I have decided to favour one above the other from here on out, but with no grudge to ‘low’ anymore seeing as how it can come good in some circumstances.
sean dunne 20 March 2010
I did 2 events at the Sean Dunne Festival today in Waterford (Ireland’s Sunny South East) and they did me the world of good. I talked about writing and read from the extant novels and, whatever the audiences took away, I must admit it gave me back a little of my self confidence so I thank all involved for that. It was also great to meet other writers (and we had all sorts from crime to poetry) because they have to be the most positive and supportive bunch you will ever meet – we are all aware of how hard (and nuts) the process is and how damning we all are about our own works-in-progress.
I even wrote a little.
And the sun (sort of) shone.
My friend Lynn Cahill, lives and works there now, showed me the beautifully refurbished Theatre Royal which put the gub on me to do a live show, and also the Cathedral in which she works complete with Norman stone sarcophagi (and more) and I do love a good church. The lads buried there are still within the vaults, including an ex-mayor of the town who has a most unusual monument showing him basically as a skeleton with the warning that this is how we’ll all end up. Fantastic altogether.
head 19 March 2010
Ah lads, me head is WRECKED with these rewrites. I keep hitting a brick wall – well, actually, different walls but fairly constant. And it can be just the smallest thing that sets me off into a tail spin. For instance, today, I ran out of paper to write on and you’d think it was the end of the world that had happened. SO, instead of crumbling, which would be truly ridiculous, I am going to simply walk to the shop and buy myself a copybook – see? simple solution, so panic be GONE. I will be glad to see the end of this phase of the writing and hope that the sense of achievement I assume I’ll feel will bring a bit of The Happy. Also, bet I’ve been here before with you all on every book, but each seems to ratchet up a notch and the whole process gets that bit harder…which is as it should be…but bleddy hell a break would be a good thing…it cannot come soon enough.
Off to Waterford now so I hope the countryside will shine and wave to me and lift the old spirits (and if not, it could be time for spirits!)
crocuses 18 March 2010
Has Spring VERY suddenly sprung??? Everywhere I went today crocuses had appeared, and lovely miniature daffodils around some random municipal trees in the Irish capital. Really lovely to see. But not a sausage nor, more to the point, a jonquil at all (at all) in the McLynn garden – strange. Perhaps they’re still on strike after the builders pounding the place to shit last year…for the whole year (and then some…) I’d love them to make their presence felt as yellow flowers are the greatest, particularly after the dark winterness just past.
I’ll be speaking at the Sean Dunne Festival in Waterford on Saturday – a solo breakfast session and later an afternoon gig with some other lovelies…for those of you in the area.
judgement 17 March 2010
re: the future
I hear from Dave in Canada that a US preachers says Judgement Day is May 21st and the world will end in October…just so you all know. Seems my attempts to fix the future could not come at a better time.
Although it was Paddy’s Day today I had nary’s the one green thing, not even a sprig of broccoli. I didn’t even put green dye in my white wine this evening. I was reminded however of a St Patrick’s Day when I was a student that was spent in Belfast and we put dye in our pints and all resultant wee was green when it came out the ‘other end’…which is probably sharing too much but, hey, there’s stuff in the world you should all be aware of – forewarned and forearmed and all that…
future 16 March 2010
The new novel takes place in one spot throughout a year…but different years…and part of it is set in the 22nd century. This is where I have started on the rewrites as both Clare and Himself had various issues with it. And so I have to tell you there is a problem with the future. But, also, I want you all to know that as of now I am FIXING the future, so please don’t panic. By the time you get there, to the Future, all will be well.
In the meantime a little bit of my past is beginning to unravel. I have had a lovely, cotton, blue and white striped duvet cover since I was a student. That makes it some 30 years old. I remember when I bought it, at a sale in Laura Ashley, I had fallen in love with the thing but couldn’t really afford it. This morning (early) lying in bed and sipping the lovely mug of tea I have trained Himself to bring me, I noticed that it is beginning to fray. I refuse to let it go gently and am resolved to mending said frays and letting it stay a while longer with me. And I’ll tell you what – it doesn’t owe me a red rex of what I spent on it all those years ago and, in fact, was and is probably the best value item ever.
notes 15 March 2010
As you may know, The Husband has taken an interest in the novels I write, though given a choice he’s more of a history book man. Anyhow, he’s one of the people who reads the first draft and gives notes and they are usually very good and very helpful. It is That Time with the latest novel as I begin rewrites on this very day. I had 2 great sessions with Clare, my editor, last week in London. And, last night I ‘got my notes’ from Richard. And very insightful they were and are too. The good thing is that he really likes the book, as does Clare. I am so close to it now that I can’t tell the shape, heft or worth of it, though I expect the next 2 weeks to bring it into my heart properly again. And for once I didn’t really get the ‘you’re better than this’ note so the material is up a notch. But it is not without its moments…and when he reads those moments out loud (usually phrases I don’t particularly like myself and put in so I could move on BUT also, sadly, moments I thought quite poetic and a little beautiful) the cringe factor is massive. But I must admit, it can also be very VERY funny. His low, crisp voice can take a thing apart without any effort at all!
Now to fix the thing…
pajamas 14 March 2010
My mate , Ger, is visiting – great as I haven’t seen her in AGES. We’ve been friends since we were 12 and we just pick up wherever we left off. We hated one another on sight all that time ago but then settled into being bezzies. She has a daughter who is 25 and another who is 4 – long story but it makes me a tad paranoid at my age as she is forever torturing me with the notion of the ‘post parent dying pre menopause baby’. The Smallie was fascinated to know what we’d be getting up to – basically a slumber party at my house but at least I now know that for that you wear pajamaramers for one of those so it’s good to know the proper term for what I’m wearing. I don;t suppose the Small Girl has been at one where quite so much wine got drunk and nonsense talked but that’s all ahead of her…We obviously were on a rich vein of chat last night because I wrote some phrases down to remind me of various nuggets…only one of which makes any sense to either of us now…