A work in progress...15

It's been over a month now since I sent the first three chapters of my manuscript to the agent. Still no reply. Maybe this is a good sign, if it's been looked at and was considered garbage then maybe I would have had it returned by now? Maybe it's been moved to another pile marked 'Maybe'? Or more than likely it's still sitting at the bottom of the slushpile. It's fate intrigues me; I try not to think about it as I simply enjoy writing and I don't want to be distracted. On the otherhand, having an agent means my book will stand a good chance of finding a publisher, and isn't this what I want? Not so much fame, more kudos and spondulics.

I'm spending five days at my friends, Al & Elizabeth's this week. I was supposed to be looking after their cat, but sadly it looks as though he's gone to the great cat litter in the sky. Nevertheless, it's a great opportunity to write and I hope to get a first draft of the whole book completed. Their flat in Lewisham, London, is featured in my book so hopefully I will be inspired. I hope its going to be productive as it will be a bit weird being away from the family.

London

I have just got back from London; I feel lucky to be alive I was on a bus at 10am and had to be evacuated - I was very close to the London bus that was blown up. My office is in the vicinity of all of the blasts and it was like walking through a war zone trying to get into work. I have been off work this week on holiday, but had to go in today for a meeting. I was actually feeling very excited about going into the capital ( I live 60 miles away) after we won the Olympic bid. London is such an inspiring city, and a strong, tough city. I'm sure it will recover.

Of course the meeting was cancelled and I didn't have much work to do. I left my office in Farringdon at 3.30pm after I heard the main Waterloo station had reopened, where I catch my train. On the street there were thousands of people all walking, trying to get home. All the buses, tube trains etc had stopped running and it was impossible to get a taxi so we had no choice but to walk. The walk was about 3 miles and it was quite sunny and pleasant. It was surreal to see so many people crossing Blackfriars Bridge, like something from a horror movie, except people were perfectly calm and seem to be taking the disaster in their stride.

I got to the station and found that trains out of London were running normally. I had a 5 minute wait before my train departed. It was a relief to get home; it all felt very real and quite scary but it has not put me off from working in the capital. I had been expecting something like this, as did everyone who commutes into London. Thank God it wasn't me this time.

A work in progress....14

It's three weeks since I sent my manuscript to the agent. Still no reply, but I'm expecting it to be returned in the sae with a no thanks message. He advises to allow a month, so there is still hope, but with each passing day it diminishes. I work as a production editor on a political magazine and we have just gone to press with the July issue. We are not publishing an edition in August, which means I can take the whole of July off to write. This is my opportunity to finish the book. I am concentrating all my time and energy on it, as as I may not get another chance like this.
Today I have a huge hangover from celebrating finishing the magazine and my birthday. I stayed in London at my friend Al's place. We stayed up until about 2am playing Who records. It reminded us of being teenagers again. Music is so important to us, it is the one thing that made a difference in our lives and it's always great to revist The Who now and again as they were the ones that started it all for us. I feel inspired and confident. I want to do a lot of cycling in the hills, yoga and swimming while I'm off - and not drink too much. I need a clear head and lots of energy to do what I've go to do.