Apologies. You may have wondered at my lack of activity. I have been busy, busy, busy and not getting anywhere particularly quickly. Half term, a visit to York (by the way Leeds Armoury is stunning; I could easily have spent a whole day there) and then I return to find my Dell laptop is completely spaced out. God knows what happened but it’s still in sulking mode despite hours/days of TLC and coaxing. Maybe a few too many blackouts have frazzled something inside but it is 11 years since I was in IT (and my eyesight is worse too). I’m hard put to fix anything via the registry nowadays – it’s amazing what you forget after a decade.
Where was I – oh, yes, ‘being busy’ + PC playing up + major panic when I couldn’t access my novel (final draft 75% complete!!) which resulted in my absence from the blog-ether.
But my brain was still whirring away. I have several questions/observations.
1 – I love the ‘Idiot Abroad’ series. I know Gervais et al think him to be a numbskull but I find him strangely insightful and extremely gentlemanly. Several times he has been in situations where another would have walked away/shouted/lashed out but he was polite, courteous and self-effacing. I would rename it ‘An Idiot Gentleman Abroad’. I raise my glass to you Mr Pilkington – for someone who hates being outside his comfort zone you handle yourself with a great deal of equanimity.
2 – Recession, cuts, redundancies… The backlash has taken its time in coming but here we are, reeling under a direct strike. That whip was wielded with devilish accuracy and still managed to miss the backbenchers and bank managers! I just wonder what the other hand is doing – having a good scratch?
3 – If you like to read, enjoy philosophy and entertain various disparate thoughts churned together to make silk, smooth, buttery conclusions then I highly recommend ‘The elegance of the hedgehog‘ by Muriel Barbery. Loaned to me by a friend, I found it so enthralling that, in the manner of Remington, I bought myself one.
4 – Sod it, PC is playing up again so I’m off to bed. I’ll try again in two days. If we do have a funeral for the laptop then it may be a few more days than that (mourning period, don’t you know).
Banished by Bea Turvey
Scribbled thoughts of a mad woman 
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Reviews don’t always tell you whether you’re going to like a book, but that one does really sound interesting. I’m between books (reading) right now. I have a book on learning during the senior years that I need to reread and review. The author is an online friend who sent me a copy, and I’m ashamed that I haven’t done the review yet. He’s probably given up on me.
My Nano novel is SF, takes place in the near future when one state is experimenting with a new penal system. Should hit 20,000 words today. The synopsis, if you’re interested, is here: http://catana1.livejournal.com/60370.html I’ve only published on my Live Journal blog so far, under one variation of my usual online name, but hoping to do several ebooks next year. Lots of stuff in various stages.
Looked up Elegance of the Hedgehog on Amazon, and put it on my shopping list. Though goodness knows when I’ll ever get around to it. So many books… Was mightily amused by the prominent one-star review and “pretentious crap.” Well, the book sounds typically French, and thus problematic for the average undereducated American.
I loved it. But then there are other books with great reviews that I really couldn’t stick.
So what are you reading now and, more imortantly, what are you writing. I couldn’t make it out from your blog. How far along are you? What else have you written and what name have you written under?