Can't think of a title

I really can’t (that doesn’t bode well for a budding author, does it?)

Nothing dramatic going on, but lots of lovely progress, in general really:

· The new book is starting to take shape, slowly but surely. I’m still only jotting brief paragraphs & ideas down at the minute, hence the mini-word count, but I’ve had some great ideas about character, themes, plot development, so I’m feeling very very positive about it. On the subject of plot development, many thanks to everyone who has shared their plotting ideas and book suggestions with me, both on here and over on the novel racer’s blog. I am creating a sort of amalgamated version of several of the suggestions and coming up with my own peculiar method, and it seems to be working so far. I’ll blog a wee bit about it when the plotting is all in place.

· On Saturday I attended a writing day school as part of my OU A215 writing course ~ TOTALLY inspirational, and I’ve come away with a new project partially on the go ~ the topic was life-writing, something I never really envisaged myself really going for, as previous attempts at autobiographical writing have been quite difficult for me. Nothing seems to come to me, apart from things that I don’t wish to write about, and I am fearful of offending my family and friends too (it feels like a gross intrusion to write about them, to create a version of them that they have no control over).
We tried out a few exercises in the class, and I found that a lot of childhood memories of my grandparents flooded out. In fact everything I wrote that day was connected to them somehow. Ever since I have found myself frequently recalling memories of them, especially related to their house (which is, incidentally, the house in which myself and my husband now live ~ we purchased it from my grandmother when she moved into a bungalow). I feel like I’m surrounded by ghosts, not in a spooky sense, but in a personal and emotional sense.
So, for reasons as yet unknown to me, there are stories about the house trying to get out, and I think I’d better start recording them. I’ve set a notebook aside especially for writing these memories and anecdotes down as they come to me. As I said, no idea what they’re for, just yet, but I think it will all come to make sense eventually (as well as giving me a head start on my life writing assignment for the course, too).

· I’ve been running again, a lot, after the pre-wedding / honeymoon hiatus. It’s a relief to get back into it, to be honest ~ not least as the writer’s backside is developing an unattractive case of post-wedding spread. No, its nice to be getting back to being fit again, and to getting outdoors for the inspiration. Tonnes of ideas occur to me when I’m running, usually triggered by happening upon something I would not have seen otherwise. I’m still nursing, from several years ago, the image of a buckled metal fence, with bits of car bumper embedded in it, with a bouquet of those trick flowers that a magician would use lying nearby. There’s a story there somewhere, I’m sure…. On Sunday I went running in Jesmond Dene, and I’m still smiling ~ absolutely beautiful location.

Facebook: there’s a lot of it about all of a sudden, isn’t there? I don’t really know what I’m doing, why I’ve been invited/added or what it’s for ~ is it like Myspace but for grown ups?.....