Well, what can I say? I’ve been almost literally snowed under with bits of paper for the last few weeks and am only just starting to clamber out. University is in the final two months now, so everything is stepping up a gear, and I had wanted to have a go at submitting a paper to the Short Story Conference in Liverpool, but it’s just not looking like I’m going to have the time or energy. I’ve decided to put the writing first and the academic, scholarly stuff second.

So what does this mean? Well, as I can only sit back and wait for the editor to send back ‘Dolls’ to me with whatever revision she sees as necessary, there’s nothing I can really do with that book aside from generate interest. I’ve got a few people to chase up about it, but nothing major.

bluechrome expressed an interest in a short story collection a while back and I’ve compiled a list of what will go in it. One of the main stories will be my dissertation piece - midgets in a brothel dressing up as children and catering to pedophiles - so obviously I’ve got to finish hammering that into shape before it can go in. Strangely it won’t be the most ‘extreme’ or ‘depraved’ story in there. If I can convince the publishers that ‘Endure’ *is* publishable, that’ll be hands-down the Daddy in the collection. I’ve written a preface to sit before it as a big warning that it doesn’t have to be read, but, I’m sure I’d still receive some nice toasty flames for it. Can’t wait.

So yes, lots to do over the next few weeks and not all of it writing-related, so no need to stick it here. With stuff backstage being hard on and off too, it’s been very easy to feel like there’s too much on: to slip back from loving the juggling act and relishing being so busy to dropping one ball, throwing the others at the wall and sulking off to sit in a corner with a bottle of Jack.

The answer? Cats. Cats with poorly spelled and grammatically wonky writing.

It’s a little thing, but it makes me smile and get back to the keyboard.

Harhar spam.

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This entry was posted on Monday, February 18th, 2008 at 8:33 am and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.