Well, I was on the train to London last Wednesday, using my mobile broadband to keep up with my virtual book tour, and just as we were pulling into Euston my laptop crashed, after which I had no other internet facility on it, the broadband hardware having confused it altogether! Not that I realized that last straightaway, as I went straight off to Faber and the launch of the critically-acclaimed novel 'The Hidden' by the outrageously handsome and talented Tobias Hill. This is an extremely clever and erudite novel, and it's quite funny that in person Tobias is so self-effacing. I had a great time, not least because so many people from the inaugural Faber Academy Paris course were there: Antonia Honeywell, Antonia Hayes, Cynthia Barlow Marrs, Sam Thorp, David Lee and Ronald Grover - all great writers, and remember, you heard about them here! And honestly, I'm just not used to that much wine...Afterwards some of us Paris lot went off for a meal to Tas, where my London crew, Matthew and Ben, were waiting. And then for more drinks... Really, it was all just a bit too much for me! I do remember the great conversation we had, though, and that Sam Thorp told me about a great article by Zadie Smith (which he emailed to me the next day). I had a ticket for the train back to Manchester at 10, but that had long gone before we even started eating, so I had to beg a bed at Ben's. It was next morning at Ben's that I switched on my computer and found out what was wrong...
The next day was a gonner: I spent the morning socializing (I could use my mobile broadband, but it was so slow!) and when I finally got to Euston the trains were reduced to a half service because of the weather, so I didn't get home till 5.
Can't remember Friday. My head was too full of all this other stuff to do any useful work and I certainly wasn't online.
And then on Saturday morning I had to go into town to get my laptop sorted, and the wonderful Apple shop where all the young men smile and say hello and one was thrilled by my laptop bag which is actually just a huge jiffy bag, because he's really into eco things, having been brought up in the Caribbean and surfing through plastic bottles.
And then I had to tackle the questions for the next leg of my virtual book tour on Sarah Salway's blog - I don't seem to find these questions so easy to answer! - and I've been working on them since, between reading scripts for the 24:7 Theatre Festival.
All of which is why I haven't been blogging, or started the new story I'm supposed to be writing...
No comments:
Post a Comment