THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

Current Work: Still on catch up... seems endless and PC is playing up!
Listening to: The printer churning out something Man Friday has produced
Reading: The Broker by John Grisham

Writing In the Summer Months
I always feel more inspired in the summer to get writing, make lots of plans to write and have the same opportunities to write. But somehow at the same time I find it more difficult to write. Having visitors is a welcome interruption to my routine and I have plenty of time to get things done - I even bragged last week about it making me more focused! It does to a certain degree, but the outputs never seem to materialise. I'm a bit plagued as I'm writing this as the PC has been on meltdown most of the day - it seems to get slower and slower and despite my cleaning it up and trying to run it on very little it just plays up. Which gets me mad and when I'm mad I can't write. The heat is also a little distracting and my writing brain seems to turn to mush around the middle of the day, but plenty of writers have the same dilemma, so there must be a way of getting around this. So what is all this preamble about? As you can see, this is the only entry this week, so I'm combining it all into one. Lack of sleep and visits to the beach and airport and cooking for two young men who have the appetites of an elephant (do elephants have large appetites?) has scuppered my plans this week.

Book Worm

Echo Burning by Lee Child



Genre: Its a thriller, crime sort of thing
Characters: Jack Reacher (of course) he's an ex military man with a habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He's big, clever and not afraid of anything it would seem. He's a great protagonist and I really have a clear view of him sort of Hugh Jackman type of thing... oooerr that's got me all of a spin. Then there's Carmen, a Mexican woman he meets and her daughter and a host of other not so nice people. Oh yes, there's a lesbian lawyer called Alice (I think) who sounds pretty cool.
Plot: Well, as in all Jack Reacher novels there are good guys and bad guys and Jack is a good guy who sorts out the bad guys. Sometimes there's a bit of romance, sometimes the love interest just doesn't work out and you end up feeling sorry for poor Jack. But essentially he's a one man operative and I don't think anyone could tie him down.
Quick Summary: I've only just got into these novels, my Man Friday and his two youngest sons love them. They have a typical format and very stylised, but as I said you get to know and love Jack Reacher and want to know where he's going to end up next. This had an interesting addition of a small kid which isn't very common in these stories.
Recommendation: Definitely a yes, even if you don't think you like the genre - try it.

Confucius Says...Comments on the Life of a Writer

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.

- Helen Keller

Three Cheers For... (well there has to be something? Doesn't there?)

• Submitted five queries - yes that's 5, one was rejected last week and so I just winged it straight off somewhere else, and another was a follow up I just decided to submit somewhere else because of time constraints
• One article submitted to Suite 101 on the principles of Lunar Gardening - it was really interesting researching this article as I sort of operate a kind of moon practice here at Casa Grotta - seems to do OK.
• Spent a considerable time editing an academic paper written by Swedish authors, always quite a difficult process as you don't want to alter their style or message - still very satisfying
• I hope to get the rest of the All Will Be Well manuscript uploaded on the writing software I have so I'm putting this in as a potential
• Have done lots of research about submitting manuscripts to Mills and Boon following a discussion at Writers Abroad with my writing pals!

See you next week.