the best sort of day

Current work: fic and nonfic

Listening to: Kate Rusby, Little Lights ('Who Will Sing Me Lullabies' is currently my fave track on the album)

Reading: various research stuff

I’m busy sorting two deadlines at the moment. I needed to do some last-minute research on one of the books, yesterday, so I spent the morning in my second favourite place in Norwich. (The first, since you ask, is the cathedral, including its precincts. Contrary to popular opinion, it is not Hotel Chocolate, M&S or Sonkai – though I admit they are my three favourite shops.)

This is the Forum. I adore this building. It’s light and airy; it has a great coffee-shop (which does the best latte art in Norwich – as I discovered when I researched Breakfast at Giovanni’s); it contains my lovely local radio station, and also a branch of Jarrold’s that stocks every single one of my local history titles; and, best of all, the library is here, including the Heritage Centre (a place where I can be lost for hours). There’s also an exhibition space in the middle of the ground floor – incidentally, my mate Steve Denby will be exhibiting his photographs there next month, so if you like truly stunning monochrome artwork, go and seek him out.

Anyway, I had a really productive morning. The books I wanted were all there (well, obviously – I scoped that out beforehand on the library’s website); the librarians were their usual wonderfully helpful selves and found all the obscure stuff I was after; and it was so nice to be completely uncontactable for a couple of hours and do what I enjoy. DH knew where I was, in case there was a real emergency, but it was wonderful just to lose myself in the archives and forget real life for a while.

Nipped into M&S on the way home, so I also had a perfect lunch: crayfish and mango salad with coconut-chili dressing. Note, I was good and didn’t buy crème brulee. Thought about it… but behaved.

Afternoon spent sorting pics on the book, retrieving my post from the dog (nobody in the house believes me, because they’re never here when the post comes, but Byron waits by the letterbox, gently pulls the post through… and then takes it off to his bed, wagging his tail madly), and putting a few more words down before I had to do the school run. And then it was back to mermaids. (Last week was fairies. This week is mermaids. My mate and fellow author Maggie Kingsley has dared me to sneak mermaids into the Medical. Ha. If my ed is reading this: I have a very innocent smile on my face...)

Plan for today: have cancelled guitar, as am up to my eyes and have meetings etc this week, so I need to get some time back. So today is final push on the nonfic, and sorting out a tangle in the fic (that has to be done in the back of my head, while I'm sorting the nonfic and checking continuity etc).