Blog Entry: 5 Things on a Thursday
1. I finished a new short story today. Yay! This is the first short story I've written in over a year. (Actually, I had the original idea and wrote the first page almost exactly a year ago, but I wasn't ready - either practically, in terms of time management, or emotionally, in terms of the story's issues - to sit down and write the rest of the story until now.)
It's one of the few short stories I've written in direct emotional response to a loss, so I can't say that it was exactly fun to write, but it was really emotionally satisfying - and what was genuinely fun was getting to start a project and finish it within less than a week. Short stories: the yummy snack-foods of a writer's life!
2. The current Olympics are drawing out the REAL cultural differences between a woman brought up in snowy Michigan and a man brought up partly in sunny Zambia and partly in cool, rainy Bristol.
Patrick: "The Winter Olympics are boring. What's the point of the winter sports?"
Me: staring at him blankly "But...they're the only sports that are actually interesting!"
So in other words, we're not watching the Olympic events together. ;)
3. We're attending the London Literary Party next week, and I can't wait! We've decided to splurge and make it a really great (albeit short) overnight trip, so we went ahead and booked a really plush-looking hotel near Covent Garden. (By London standards, it's not even that expensive. But by ours? Yes, this is a HUGE splurge for us.) I can't wait to wear my new Little Black Dress, sip champagne, meet my agent's British co-agent, AND have a great dinner beforehand with my London sister-in-law, who's going to be spending the evening with MrD. But...
4. I have a LOT of stuff to get done first. I.e., my desperately overgrown hair (my bangs hang in my eyes in a very un-stylish way), my lack of any black shoes to wear with the Little Black Dress...eek.
I love living in our beautiful, small Welsh town. I do. But Tuesday, when I spent the morning shoe-shopping with increasing desperation, I found myself equally desperately missing Leeds - or rather, missing the Leeds high street shops. After nearly two hours, I gave up - I genuinely could not find a single pair of black mid-heel dress shoes in my size and in my price range.
Wah! This just shouldn't be so hard...should it?
On the other hand, in Leeds I couldn't walk to a coffeeshop and buy a vegan hazelnut brownie. I don't go to that many London Literary Parties (in fact, this is my first one ever)...so I guess I'll go for good brownies over good shoe-shopping almost any day. ;)
5. And without having to leave the house at all, I got the coolest package the other day. It was a beautiful 13" x 19" print of the front cover of my book! Barnaby Ward, my wonderful cover artist, sent it to me as a gift. When I opened the package and saw Kat grinning out at me, I actually cried. It was just so amazing to see her drawn so beautifully, by such a fabulous artist - the vision in my head all these years turned so perfectly into art. And it was such amazing timing to get it just after finishing Kat3! Right now I'm looking for a perfect frame to hang it on the wall. This was such an amazing gift to get. Thank you so much, Barnaby!
What about you guys? What have been the highlights of your weeks?