First Write Your Book...

How many times do you have to write a book before it's finished? I've lost count now. Having done what I thought was the final draft, I am now doing the final final draft of Like A Flower, my novel about life, death, love and gardening.

It's going to be out this autumn and the publisher wants the copy (in perfect condition) this week. Initially, I dreaded the prospect of going through it one more time. But having got two-thirds of the way, I've found that I'm enjoying it. Good story, good characters and some intriguing twists... Can't quite believe that it's by me.

And meanwhile the new book, With Fervent Heat, is under way. Can't wait to read it... but I guess I'll have to write it first.

We Capture The Castle

I've been away. I'm back. Just had a great camping trip to West Wittering, which surely must have the most impressive beach in the UK.

The weather was amazing and we once more enjoyed those traditional family holiday things of doing nothing, eating beans by the light of a lantern, and playing cards into the night.

But best of all was making sandcastles. The one pictured above not only survived the incoming evening tide, but was still there at the end of the following day. A testament to the building skills of Charlie, Nevada and Victoria. And a reminder of a wonderful time.

Cheese And Onions

"I have always felt in the back of my mind, cheese and onions"... in struggling to find any music that I really wanted to listen to at the moment, I was grateful to be given a copy of The Rutles album...

Cheese and Onions (extrapolated, of course, from the Beatles A Day In The Life) provides one of rock lyricism's finest moments, when Neil Innes sings Lennon-style: "Do I have to spell it out? C, H, E, E, S, E, A, N, D, O, N, I, O, N, S, oh no..."

Sheer meaningless genius that really does put the whole thing in perspective... perhaps "too much ****ing perspective", as Spinal Tap would say.

A Medal For Morrissey

He may be a little crazy, but Morrissey provided a highlight of the Olympics with his declaration that "the spirit of 1939 Germany now pervades throughout media-brand Britain".

Isn't Morrissey's attack on mindless jingoism what you expect from rock stars? Well, it used to be. From Jim Morrison through to Johnny Rotten, it used to be part of the job description to attack and upset the establishment.

John Lennon did a pretty good stint in the job... only to be resurrected without his knowledge and appropriated for the Olympics (courtesy of Yoko Ono).

Paul McCartney... er, we know how that worked out. And even Pete Townshend, one-time angry young mod and subverter of the Union Jack, agreed to take part in the Olympics finale...

There was speculation about why Kate Bush didn't appear live (leaving one of her songs to be used completely out of context). Is it possible that she has too much artistic integrity?

Lennon alive (rather than Lennon dead) would surely not have allowed himself to be subsumed by the establishment. He might even have said something to leave Morrissey in the shade.

Honest Untruth

I don't have a lot of time for reading blogs. It's all I can do to find time to write one.

There are just a handful that I look at from time to time for inspiration, not least the Diary of a Desperate Exmoor Woman.

I thought I loved it because it was so honest. But as the author herself pointed out recently, blogs are no more truthful than anything else that we write or produce.

We're all writing what we think we should write... what we want to see... what we want others to see... so it's no more truthful than anything else we do.

But whether it's the truth or not, I strongly recommend the Exmoor Woman blog. Honestly.

Seconds Out

I have been away from my post/s. Now I'm back. The good news is that my novel Like A Flower seems to have found a publisher and should be available for downloading to your Kindle this autumn.

Having got one book done and almost dusted, it's tempting to get a second one under way. The problem is that I've had so many ideas that I'm not sure which to go with.

The front runners at the moment are With Fervent Heat, a story of the terrible ramifications of intense passion, and 'King Hell, a tale of addiction, love and friendship.

Hopefully, one will be underway soon.