displacement

Current work: playing with outlines/ a bit of research

Listening to: Def Leppard

Reading: next on TBR

When the plot isn’t working, you need some displacement activity. And usually for an author that means the stuff you’ve ignored for way too long because you’ve been busy on a book.

Hence I cleaned the oven yesterday. (The Lakeland stuff you paint on with a brush is great. So is their Magic Oven Liner. And so is the stuff where you put the oven racks in a thick plastic bag, squirt in some acidic cleaner, and leave it to soak for the rest of the day. Now we have lovely, shiny racks; bearing in mind that I cook a roast dinner three times a week, it really did need doing.)

I also let daughter take a pic of me on her iPod and turn me into an alien. Absolutely not posting that here (how come everyone else in the house gets a thin face and I look like Michelin woman, then?), but I will post a pic that made me smile. This is Kleptodog giving me The Look. Yeah, it’s an ‘I want treats’ look. But with a difference: this one means ‘you let Chlo dress me in deelyboppers. Deelyboppers! My poor, injured dignity. I soooo need a treat to help me get over the shame…’ (This is also because DH gave him a haircut, and Byron’s ears aren’t quite even. So walkies means he gets the doggy equivalent of the playground sniggered ‘haircut-u-ut’.)

(Dear ed. Of course I am not procrastinating. Their voices were very clear when I gave you the outline three months ago. Then life got in the way and, um, now they need wheedling back. And I think they might have the wrong names. Hence displacement necessary while I work it out.)

Plan for today: annual health check (and explanation of why my BP is sky high right now - ha ha, FC strikes again); guitar lesson; and pummelling my outline into shape. (Pummelling. Kneading. Ooh, lightbulb. I have bread flour and yeast. However, we have no proper butter or raspberry jam, so maybe not…)