Westward Ho!
It would have been nice to report on a week’s Arvon course at Totleigh Barton in Devon and tell all three of my devoted readers how to write for radio. But it didn’t work out. I did go west and visited my friend Jane and her bulldog Oscar in Truro, Cornwall. It rained, as you probably know. On Sunday night I chickened out – there were flood warnings in the vicinity of Totleigh Barton and in Cornwall – and I’d heard from a friend that the track to the Arvon place was no fun at the best of times. Maybe I’ll never know how to write for radio. Serves me right for being such a coward.
So I must press on with the novel and try to do better on the short story front. Some little triumphs to report: I was short listed in the Yellow Room Flash Fiction Competition – didn’t win anything, though. And Ether Books published two more of my stories: ‘Googling the Wife’ and ‘Out of the Sea: two Cornish love stories’ – the latter a romantic tale set in Zennor, one of my favourite places in Cornwall.
Since returning to Oxford I have written a sad little story about a woman who wakes up dead and feels much healthier and happier and I’m putting the finishing touches to a rather upbeat story about someone changing sex.
In keeping with the West Country theme, I’m re-reading bits of Lorna Doone. It’s rather good, though it probably wouldn’t find an agent or a publisher nowadays.