Great week so far, been hitting my daily word count on Downstream Book 2 (title to be decided later). Currently at 8,800. Only about 80,000 to go ; )
It was hard getting started, but today, I really hit my stride, 2,000 words, which for me is a good days writing. Things are starting to flow again with phrases and ideas popping into existence all on their own, rather than being forced out from behind the sofa like scared cats!
W.P. Brown and Joe are having an interesting conversation in Bridgeman Antiques when the unexpected happens… Can’t wait to share it with you! Perhaps I will share some chapters soon.
And, I really enjoyed my guest slot at Nathan Van Coops launch party. A first for me. Thanks to everyone who dropped by. It was nice to have some friends there!
What I’m reading
Just finished The Silver Linings Playbook, by Matthew Quick. I saw the film first (a few years back) and really enjoyed it. Thought it would make good inspiration for Joe’s second outing. I wasn’t wrong. Mr Quick certainly knows how to tell an engaging story about normal – albeit broken – lives. Highly recommended.
Currently halfway through The Humans, by Matt Haig: Okay, so I am always late to the party but this book is blowing my mind. Absolutely loving it so far! What Matt Haig has accomplished is very, very clever. Combining a strong theme, buckets of philosophy and aliens! And then mash it together into a sensitive, beautiful and compelling thesis on mankind. To be able to weave all of this into a novel and making it laugh-out-loud one minute and heartbreaking the next. True Inspiration Squared, for moi. Brilliant, brilliant book.
Streaming
Vikings. Stretching reality, (A bit like Outlander) Where people, who should be absolutely gross have makeup and nice teeth… I mean, come on! They would have been thick with dirt and probably reeked of 3-day-old dead fish! Just the body odour would have been enough to scare off a modern army. But, the storylines are very entertaining and it does bring history to life. It is barbaric of course. Everything is taken; money, land and treasure via gallons of blood and cleaving swords. I can’t deny it, finding new lands must have been exciting. It’s just a shame that so many people had to die.. I find myself constantly shouting at the screen, ‘No, just be nice,.. you don’t need to kill them!… Oh, they’re all dead.. Okay..’ And then everyone drinks barrels of beer, has sex and then it sort of turns into a soap opera about family disputes for a bit. I like it.. It’s addictive and one of those TV binge-fests where you sing along to the theme tune.. I even hum it during the day.. which makes me sound a bit mad, to be honest.
Movies
Sully: Tom Hanks just brings it. Such a small, slow story in many ways. But the structure. Very interesting… Inciting incident is a dream of what could have been. Clint Eastwood directed and brings his usual toned-down human element to proceedings. What it means to be a hero, but also how the media can overtake that. Compelling stuff. Don’t watch before going on your hols.
To Watch
- Spiderman Homecoming (Can’t wait)
- Dunkirk (Looks incredible)
- Baby Driver (Cool as)
So many great things to watch at the moment.
What I’ve learned this week
Trying to soak up some culture. Went to see, ‘The Magic Flute.’ Opera is basically a load of themes and morals smacked into the audiences brains with a jack-hammer with almost no cohesive storyline. Don’t get me wrong, I loved it but it was as if a small child had written it, very quickly… “The hero had a magic flute, he played it and then a dinosaur came along and then the king farted and then and then etc. Crazy and a lot of fun.
Something Cool
Noise Canceling headphones. My goodness. Bose really know what they are doing. Wrote an entire chapter in a busy, bustling local coffee shop, all the while in total silence. Ambience, people, movement but complete focus. Thank you technology for almost everything you do.
