Thursday 25 December 2008

Greetings from the Snail Shell

Season's greetings for whichever season you're in.

It's summer here. Or, as I like to call it, cleaning-out-the-mouse-poop-from-under-the-sink time. Sure, it's a bit of a squeeze to fit that on a card but I like to make my own, picking out the words in mouse poop. Add a sprinkle of glitter and voila!. (I wonder if Martha Stewart's thought of that?)

Christmas is a bit of a non-event at the Snail Shell. You might have already worked that out. It's even less of a non-event than usual (perhaps entering the realms of an anti-event) because I've still got a bucketload of work to do between now and 5th Jan, which is when we all return to uni.

I've drawn up a work schedule. Unfortunately, I belong to the Arnold Rimmer (Red Dwarf) school of timetabling, which requires that you devote so much time to preparing your schedule that you have to produce another one to accommodate the lost day. But that is also such a long process that you end up … well, you get the idea. Lists, as I've said before, are a legitimate substitute for achievement.

Among the things to do on my timetable is manuscript revision. I got my MS back from the editor last week. I opened the package with great trepidation but was delighted to see that the amendments are minimal. (Mind you, that joy was short-lived because one of them was mixing up 'hear' and 'here'. On the first freakin' page.)

The problem with editing — and illustrating, which is also on my schedule — is that while I'm concentrating on that I can't think about creating new stuff. It takes time to switch from one mode to another. This is part of the reason why I haven't been blogging lately. The other part is down to my day job, about which I'll say no more.

Anyway, I'm getting back into blogging. I'm getting back into creative writing. And I have an under sink cupboard that it completely free of mouse poop.

Merry Christmas one and all.