Is the name of the film that Mel & I watched last night, but I’m kind of starting to feel like I’m living in this film. The creative issue of the work mag is looming and all sorts of really talented people are coming out of the woodwork, its really exciting to see what everyone else does in their spare time (and alas, how we all have to come back into work of a Monday as creativity doesn’t pay). This is of course what its like for the majority, but I was lucky enough to meet a guy this morning who is kind of living the dream. His name is Ali and he works in books (and coincidentally it looks like we were at uni together, although separated by a few years, I think). His first novel is coming out in summer and he’s quitting work to continue writing his second (how great is that?!). I asked him if he could tell me over caffeine everything he wishes he knew when he set out on this crazy endevour. (My favourite bit of advice was don’t rely on your advance, they call it an advance but you don’t actually get it till your published, so a bit misleading in that aspect :-). I’ve written most of it down and I’ve promised to keep in touch when he leaves so I can ask him about anything tricky which is great, you just really don’t get that many opportunities to meet people with that kind of experience, I guess.
The setting in Oxfordshire is also adding to the current creative mood, I woke up this morning to a covering of snow a la Narnia and a bus that never arrived (Which I guess is a bit Harry Potter but it was cold and annoying at the time, if it hadn’t been for Malcolm the particle physicist and his wheels of steel I could have been royally stuck) but I arrived in by 9 so I guess that’s not bad. I managed to see Suzi yesterday before the snow arrived (although it was still pretty cold). We went to a cafe and looked through a couple of books that I’ve recently bought (500 cloth dolls and Sophie Dahl’s first fairytale thing, which is great) and my only one a year copy of vogue (the December issue, I can;t bear for all those trees to die just for my fashion fix, cause lets face it half of its ads anyway). Its always nice to see Suzi in that we like similar things and she gets stuff without me having to explain, like with all good friends I guess. I’m trying to convince her to get a blog as she’s a really talented photographer, and it would be pretty, but we’ll see. Right I better go I’ve got a crazy amount of emails in my inbox…
