New York Cabs – Tilt Shift
Originally uploaded by confidentjohn
So I was already behind thanks to The Week of No Internet and then Harry got sick. And then Joe got sick. (They’ve only got colds, thankfully.) So I’m about 5000 words behind on NaNoWriMo and I’ve got edits to do on a YA book and an adult book and all my blogs have been neglected. So today, I’ve gone for optimum working conditions.
Just to set the scene, the front room of my (titchy) house is my office and that’s where my lovely, shiny Mac lives. But there’s no telly and therefore no Gossip Girl. Plus it’s chock-full of crap and my in-tray is overflowing. Not very relaxing or inspiring. The living room has the TV, but I have to use the teeny eee PC.
So today, instead, I’ve moved the lovely, shiny Mac into the living room and I’m working with Gossip Girl on. Bliss.
I’ve got an article in the Daily Mail today and I’m rather proud of it.
I’m not mad about the cartoon or the headline (there was no screaming either), but I do think it’s an important subject so I’d be grateful if you’d have a read.
That tagline seems familiar...
I’ve only just discovered Gossip Girl – the TV series, I mean, I read the first book when it came out. I know I’m years behind on this one (as I so often am – I’m only up to Season 4 of Buffy), but I LOVE IT SO MUCH.
I’ll tell you how much: I’ve watched almost the entire first season in a week. That’s 2-3 episodes per day. I couldn’t watch it over the weekend (thanks to pesky husband and kids hanging around) and I had withdrawal symptoms.
I’ve got such a crush on Dan. And also on Serena. And a little bit on Blair too (she’s just so evil). I’m even starting to get little frissons about Chuck (I know!). New York looks beautiful. And the amazing clothes! And Chuck’s terrible clothes! It’s all just so trashy and glamorous and fabulous and… actually I’ve got 20 minutes left of an episode I had to abandon earlier today (school run – pah!) – I’m off.
No, unfortunately I haven’t been in New York… well, not literally anyway. Last Sunday I upgraded my Virgin Media TV package and, as a result (of Virgin’s crummy customer service) lost my internet connection for the week. At first I was devastated. I practically live online. I work from home, do my banking online and have an unhealthy obsession with both email and Twitter. But then, after spending a day working on NaNo and watching Gossip Girl (more later), I started to feel better about the situation.
A couple of weeks ago on Twitter, David Baddiel (@ronskanky) tweeted something along the lines of ‘I wish there was a half term for grown-ups’. I enthusiastically retweeted, lamenting that there was no such thing… and then I was forced to have a week off. Now I’ve tried to take time off before. I’ve set limits (computer-free weekends, turning the computer off at 9pm, Julia Cameron-inspired ‘Artist dates’) but I never stick to them. If the internet is there, I will be on it. But last week it wasn’t there. And so I found other things to do. I read a couple of books. I cleaned the house (a bit). I wrote and I wrote and I wrote (and the book I planned to write became something entirely different. It’s now set in New York, hence the picture which is the wallpaper on my new computer – about which more later also!).
Now I wasn’t entirely internet-free (not possible) – I checked in at the library a few times, but what I discovered was, despite the fact that I check my email dozens (and dozens) of times each day, last week I only got one email I actually *had to* deal with. Just one. I missed Twitter, since, because I work from home, that’s my water cooler, but it was okay. The week felt quiet, but it’s good to be quiet every now and then.
*1776 words done today, which means I’m still about 1000 words behind, but I should be able to get caught up fairly soon.
* Probably not in the next couple of days, though, since I’ve got to do my copy edits for DELLA SAYS.
* Oddly, today I watched a Buffy in which Willow inadvertently blinded Giles and then a Felicity in which Molly inadvertently blinded Elena.
* I also bought lots of magazines (including my new favourite guilty pleasure, Coast – one day I *will* live on the coast, I will!) and plan to spend the rest of the evening reading through them all with a glass of wine.
* Written about 1800 words today. I should have written more, but I’m not worried because I had no idea what I was going to write, all I had was the image of a boy in a tuxedo, standing in Times Square, trying to hail a cab.
* Watched one episode of Buffy and two of Felicity. Was only supposed to watch one Felicity, but Tag from Friends turned up at a party and fired a gun so I had to watch another to see who he’d shot.
* And then we got drenched on the school run so, when we got home, we got into our PJs, made hot chocolate, watched the Old School Sesame Street DVD I bought this morning (more about that tomorrow) and ordered a pizza. Bliss.
* No words written today! Well, not for NaNo anyway. Got a commission for a newspaper article at lunchtime with a deadline of… tomorrow. So I’ve been working on that all afternoon and will continue to go over it this evening.
* That does mean that I won’t bother pitching for articles tomorrow (I give myself the day off from pitching when I actually file a piece!) so I can double up on NaNo instead…
* … assuming I don’t spend the day watching Buffy and Felicity.
Yesterday I received a copy of Vogue Covers: on Fashion’s Front Page. It’s so not the book for me. I know almost nothing about high fashion and Vogue is one of the few magazines that’s not even on my radar (along with Tatler and Harper’s). But I found the book intriguing.
It’s basically a collection of Vogue covers over the years. The original, illustrated covers interested me only in how different they are to current covers and that the magazine’s title was written in a different way every time. That would be unthinkable these days, when having a strong ‘brand’ is everything, but it made the early covers quirky and interesting.
My two favourites are the December 1940 cover below left – which is just so decadent, but also beautiful – and the August 1940 cover below right, not for the main picture, but for the title ‘written’ in swimmers.
These two I love just because they’re pretty. And do you notice something about the one on the left? I wonder when a national women’s magazine last featured someone smoking on the cover…
* Today I’ve written 1851 words, making it 3590 in total.
* I haven’t re-read, but I’m fairly confident that the tense changes every other paragraph.
* I left it *very* late today so now I’m off to watch Spaced. Night!
My gorgeous new website is LIVE! You’ll find it at http://www.keris-stainton.com.
There’s a link to this blog, plus my Twitter and Facebook fan page (which is looking a bit sad at the moment – I need to work out how to add stuff to it!)
The site was designed by the amazingly talented and completely gorgeous Gabrielle Luthy.
