Eternal Sunshine Of The Newly Painted House

Martin’s in New York and I’m jealous. Somehow, the fact that people can send me emails and update their blogs while they’re away doesn’t seem a positive development. Not when spring hasn’t sprung and I’m getting up an hour earlier than usual because we’re having the outside of the house painted and sleeping in the spare bedroom because we’re having the bedroom painted as well, to give the painters something to do when it’s raining… and I must remember to go and water Martin’s plants.

Oh, enough moaning. This morning, there is no pressing university business and I got an email from the editor of my non-fiction book that, for the first time, didn’t give me any more work to do! Final proofs should arrive on Saturday. I’m meeting my adult fiction agent soon, so I ought to be cracking on with a novel for her to look at. But the painters are making a lot of noise and I deserve a break, so, in half an hour, I’m going shopping. As is my old friend (we go back to the early days of Point Crime), top YA novelist Anne Cassidy who has a new website including the blog that I’ve just linked to. Go read. (Not sure about that pink, though, Anne…)

Finally, a couple of quick recommendations. Best movie of the year so far is the spendid ‘Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind’ and Clare Littleford’s new novel, Death Duty has one of the most effective endings I’ve read in a long time.