Work at the moment is very strange. I feel less secure, but at the same time am working more hours than ever before. Money is tight, but only because of spending commitments on things like a wedding that seems very good at soaking up cash.

Note to self: Don’t get married again. Well, I’ll try not to. All this means that whilst working on the bread and butter I’m struggling to find time for the books. Still, I’ve had the same struggles in the past, but I’ve met the deadlines in the end.

There should be another book reading at some point soon, given the tremendous success of the last one in September. By popular public demand I’ll be reading another. Actually, this time it really is a book rather than a short story. I’ve been looking at serialising ‘Daytrippers’ over around four readings (you can’t expect people to sit and listen for more than 90 minutes at a time, hence the need for four parts).

The recording we made at the last reading should be getting edited and I’m told may be available as an audio CD to buy. I’m also thinking of approaching one of the radio stations where I’ve worked at in the past to see whether they might be interested in broadcasting it if we can nibble it down to under an hour in length (It’s about sixty-seven minutes). That might mean sitting down and rerecording a little. Or perhaps speaking a little faster?

And finally. It isn’t often I get motivated to respond to an editor or agent who displays such crass arrogance and scant regard for professionalism. Actually, scrub that, I’ve never bothered before, so congratulations, because this one’s the first. Quite an achievement given the ten, no, eleven years I’ve been doing this. The man does not return the submission despite it having a fully paid up SAE, then just sends patronising abuse when I politely ask for it back because a less time-wasting publication responded favourably to me over it within a more reasonable length of time.

I think it is safe to say that there is a reason that the magazine in question isn’t widely available. Indeed, I had a job tracking it down in the first place when I was looking for a magazine taking longer stories than the ones I normally write for. Still, I’m sure the credit crunch will weed the wannabes from the big boys.

A thought occurs: given Americans call jam ‘jelly’, and jelly ‘jello’ does that mean that in America jellybeans are called ‘jellobeans’? I must check next time I’m over there. No there’s a wonderful excuse for a jolly abroad; I’ll go and see if I can sell that idea to some-one.