Raising The Bar

Image: Mikael Tigerström

Yesterday didn’t quite work out as planned, but in the end it worked out better. My intention was to head up town early but after growing suspicious about the overhead helicopters, I caught sight of the reason on Twitter: the Edinburgh marathon was on. This would mean the buses would be screwed so I changed my plans for the day otherwise I wouldn’t be getting anywhere fast.

I gave my day over to three things:

1- I watched Brian Taylor interviewing Alex Salmond in depth about his policies and ended up wishing Brian Taylor was running for something instead of Salmond. I’ve seen Taylor in action at the Edinburgh Book Festival and his ability to get to the heart of the issue and under a politician’s skin, while still retaining humour and the respect of everyone in the industry is a joy to watch. He had Salmond contradicting himself on several issues and came across to me as an egotistical politician who claims to have Scotland’s interests at heart, but in my opinion he will only (and already is) harming it.

I’ll give him one thing,  he’s managed to shift my opinion slightly on the hung parliament issue. I said before I was against it if it happened and I gave my reasons why, but I’m now prepared to also see that in some cases a balanced parliament might work and be a good thing. My position with regards to this GE hasn’t changed, though, i.e., I hope we don’t get a hung parliament in this case and at this moment in time. It would be a bad thing for us just now.

2- I finished reading The Butt by Will Self and had to stand back afterwards and simply admire what a skilled author he is. This was the first of his books I’ve read, and although I found it slow going in a couple of places towards the start, in the end I had to admit it was a lesson in the craft. Yes, at times it seems he has swallowed a dictionary, but reading it alongside On Writing by Stephen King may not have worked out a bad thing; advice and the purest result coming together to form a perfect example.

3- I gave the last few hours of the day to working on GREENER IS THE GRASS. After reading King and Self, I found the quality of my own manuscript to be strangely shite in comparison. Tuning back into some of King’s advice, though, I carried on in the hope of maybe tapping into it and that just perhaps, some of it might have worn off on me.

I made dinner for Gail coming back from her studio: sweet and sour chicken with basmati rice, and with tomorrow being a bank holiday and Laura away for the night, I suggested to Gail that we go out somewhere for the evening. After a short debate we settled on the flix and went to see Clash of the Titans–although if you believed our ticket stub you would have thought we were off to see a lesbian wrestling movie; Clash of Tit being our chosen perversion for the evening.

Of course, had I been paying more attention, I would have realised the reason we went to the 7:20pm showing was because it was the 3-D version of the film. If I’d known, I would have placed my contact lenses onto my eye balls before going, but as it was, I had to wear those ridiculous spectacles they give you over my own glasses. I spent most of the movie adjusting them and fiddling with the angles they were slipping into.

Today brings me mush joy and a wondrous love-filled heart. It’s the 3rd of May and that means I am off work for a whole week. I have a full one planned out, too, among the obvious things like writing and reading massively—I want to complete GREENER and make a good start on GATECRASH, raising my personal bar as I do so. I have all this time to work on my own craft I want to push the barriers a bit, test myself out, see what occurs.

I also have some external activities to look forward to:

• Edinburgh Writer’s Group meeting
• Trip to Perth to see my sister and her family
• Trip to Paisley to see St Mirren
• 40th birthday party to get bollocksed at
• Couple of trips into town
• There may be more… I’m open to ideas

To a great week y’all. Peace and out!

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