GETTING BACK ON TRACK

Current Work: Non Fiction (Suite 101), Novel - editing

Listening to: The news, more job losses in the UK

Reading: Rosalind Franklin, The Interpretation of Murder

First...Thought for the Day

I need someone to protect me from all the measures they take in order to protect me. -Banksy, street artist (b. 1974)

Writing Space
Our ‘office’ occupies an old garden kitchen space in the lower half of our Italian casa. It’s the coolest place in the summer months when temperatures can reach 50° in the shade. This is largely because it needed to be cool for the animals that used to live here and large holes around the windows and new central heating system. Our house is 300 years old so a little draught is expected.

And, naturally, it stays cold - very cold. Makes sense I suppose but not ideal for writing. My fingers and toes go numb in about fifteen minutes and I can see my breath. Despite my Man Friday installing an oil radiator, which he ensures, is switched on each morning and the amazing number of layers I put on so that I resemble a Michelin man, it remains cold. Lucky for me we have a laptop, which I can use upstairs, next to a very hot radiator and not too far from log fire. Perfect. Well, nearly. I prefer my PC, the keyboard is the right size (I have large hands for a female, but that’s another story). And all my stuff is around me. This temporary arrangement has me going out and up and down stairs like a yo-yo. But I suppose that keeps me warm.

Websites
I have a website, which I have used for my non-fiction style of writing, but I’m thinking it’s not the right format for my fiction stuff. So because publishing my fiction is a major part of my writing plan this year, I’m thinking of developing a separate one, which is less formal but just as professional. I just hope that I don’t spend most of my precious writing time to updating websites and blogs! But I believe they are an essential tool in any writers’ box and unless you put yourself about, even in cyberspace, you won’t be found. I’ll keep you updated.

Writing Projects
I have finally completed and signed my writing plan. OK I know it’s only between the paper, and me but as I’ve said before, I have to take myself seriously. I have sorted out the first draft of my novel, putting all my bits of paper, scenes and so on into some kind of logical order and put it all together. I have also drafted a short story – the deadline is next week so I have to get my skates on – and will be working on that over the weekend. So all in all not a bad week.

And Finally the last Word of the Day:

etesian

PRONUNCIATION: (i-TEE-zhuhn)

MEANING:

adjective: Occurring annually.

ETYMOLOGY:

The word refers to the annual summer winds of the Mediterranean. It's derived from Latin etesius, from Greek etesios, from etos (year). Ultimately from the Indo-European root wet- (year) that is also the source of such words as veteran, veal (in the sense of yearling), and veterinary (relating to the beasts of burden, perhaps alluding to old cattle), inveterate, wether, and bellwether.

USAGE:

"British gold medal hope Paula Radcliffe suffers from asthma. She will be praying Greece's etesian wind will blow away much of the Athens smog."

Paula Radcliffe Suffers From Asthma; The News of the World (London, UK); Aug 8, 2004.