• 23rd December 2012
• 3

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After a wasted  half-hour trying to get to my blog on my new and disobedient iPad, I’m back with my trusty PC to send my thanks and best wishes to everyone who reads this.

I’m looking out over the Thames which seems about to burst its banks (could that be a metaphor for something? What?)

My good news is that I got a windfall (the kind of thing you read about in bad novels: unknown distant relative dies intestate), and I’ve got accepted along with the whole of my windfall on to a University of East Anglia/Guardian two term course on How to Complete the First Draft of Your Novel. The tutors are Adam Foulds and James Scudamore. I loved Foulds’   ‘The Quickening Maze’ which was shortlisted for the Man Booker last year- it’s about the poet John Clare and his time at an asylum. Now I am reading and much enjoying Scudamore’s novel set in Ecuador, ‘The Amnesia Clinic’. Trying to be teachers’ pet, I suppose.

And I have been having another go at plotting my novel and improving what there is of it (about  20,000 words but every time I look I feel  compelled to delete some more of them).

The bad news – well, Arvon didn’t agree to any  refund or voucher in relation to the Totleigh Barton radio writing  course I missed because of flood warnings. They are perfectly within their rights. Be warned: take out insurance when you book on a course in a remote setting, even if it is in the UK.

Recent writing: a story about a sad old lady who wakes up dead and feels much better for it. If you ever see it in print, don’t bother to read it – you now know the twist in the tail.

One publication: a letter in Writers’ Forum extolling the use of internet dating as a source of ideas.

And another jolly evening at group 2012 – some very fine flash fiction was read out.

Next time I’ll try to share some of the wisdom I hope to  glean from Adam Fouds and James Scudamore.