Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Playing Catch Up

I can heartily reccommend Helen M. Hunt as a perfect house guest. Not only did she bring a bottle of wine for her hostess, but a book too! How civilised is that? Daphne, by Justine Picardie, has now found itself on the very top of my reading pile!

Helen and I collected Cal from the station in the morning (although it was still the middle of the night as far as Cal was concerned), and we travelled on to Bournemouth together. Now, I always thought having kids in the car was distracting, but kids are nothing compared with writers, and writerly conversation...
You know those Police!-Stop!-Action!-type documentaries? Where you're sitting in the police car, bombing down the fast lane, blue lights on? And some muppet is sitting in the way, completely oblivious? And the policeman starts mutttering, 'come on, get out of the way'? And then the car brakes, and lurches into the middle lane? Well, I was that muppet. In my defence, Cal is really tall, and she was sitting in the middle seat, so I couldn't see a thing out of the rear window, except perhaps, just a corner of a blue flashing light, when the cop car got really close and angry... Fortunately, I was only going a little bit over the limit, so it wasn't me they were after...

As with last time, I thoroughly enjoyed Della's course, and would encourage anyone, with any interest in writing commercial short stories, to attend if at all possible. The woman knows her stuff. She knows the markets too, inside out, and she makes suggestions that leave you thinking anything from 'now why didn't I think of that?' to 'I'd have never worked that out in a zillion years'. Unbeatable!

The let-out-of-class drinks meet was great too. Womagwriter (who is local) came to join us, and I wondered that the West-Brom-watching locals thought of us, discussing the finer merits of first-person versus third-person points of view. We did sound a bit nerdy! But who cares. Great day, girls. Thanks!

Okay, so will whoever nicked the last week, please bring it back now?



The lovely Karen Clarke has given me an award. It is supposed to be because I have cheered her up, but really it works the other way around. Thank you Karen!

I would like to pass this on to Sally, who always appears (at least) to have a smile on her face!

10 comments:

Kath McGurl said...

It was lovely to meet you, Leigh! Glad you didn't get stopped for speeding. Not sure they'd have accepted 'But it's Cal's fault, she's so tall' as an excuse.

Quillers said...

Aw, thanks Leigh. It's not true. I'm a miserable old so and so really.... and if you believe that you can knit fog ;-)

Jill Steeples said...

Glad you enjoyed the weekend, Leigh, apart from the close shave with Mr Policeman. Put him into a story!

What a lovely thought of Helen's to bring a book as well as a bottle of wine. I'd never have thought of that, but from now on it will be my gift of choice.

Glad you're back, I've missed you. You cheer me up as well.

Kerry said...

Hi Leigh - you cheer me up also! I saw Pickardie talk about researching Daphne at the British Museum earlier this week - she became totally unhinged by the idea of hidden bronte manuscripts apparently - let me know how you get on with it, it on my to read list!

HelenMWalters said...

Love the flashing police lights! Robert Barnard wrote a story about a missing Bronte manuscript by the way. A second novel by Emily.I think it's called 'The Missing Bronte'.

Lane Mathias said...

Was Cal sitting between two baby car seats by any chance?:-)

Glad you had a lovely time. It's been great reading all your accounts this week. Am most envious! Glad the police weren't after you. 'Lady Writer with Speeding Ticket ' would not be a good story!

Congrats on cheery award:-)

Karen said...

I'm glad you had a nice time, with a bit of police action thrown in!

I'm seriously considering one of Della's courses...they sound great.

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

Sounds like you all had a great time. I think I need to buy the book too. I almost did last week but was most restrained and put it back on the shelf (bought two others though).

Zinnia Cyclamen said...

I'd love to do one of those courses. Maybe one day...

Leigh Forbes said...

Womagwriter - Ditto. Ditto. And, no I' don't think they'd have bought it either! And lovely to see you too!

Sally - You're welcome! And, no, I don't believe a word of it!

Maddie - Thank you! Yes, Helen is very civilised. I too am going to nick the idea for the next time I go visiting!

Kerry - Oh, did you? You lucky girl! I could see myself becoming obsessed with something like that too. I'm really looking forward to reading the book, and I will let you know!

Helen - Flashing lights courtesy of Photobucket! Another book to read? Marvellous. Bring 'em on!

Lane - No, she wasn't! No such excuse. All the seats were with respective children in other people's cars! Well, get yourself down to Bournemouth; I know it's a long way, but it's worth it!

Karen - I can't recommend Della's courses enough. She's simply brilliant. Go in feeling like a dimwit. Come out feeling like you've actually got a chance!

Debs - Oh, dear, and now you'll just have to go back and buy the other one anyway!

Zinnia - Not one day. Now! Really. Both times we've only had six to the class, and it's been so good.