Get me, I've only gone and blogged!

Lordy, it appears I have started a blog.  I’m sorry about that, but there you go. I never thought I would, but now I have, and that is all.

Several people have informed me that this is a must-do step in the process of promoting myself, and my writing; although having a blog to promote a book that is nowhere near complete seems a little premature, but there you are.  At the moment, I have about two thirds of a novel and thirty-minutes of a television script, and here I am trying to drum up a ‘readership’.  Do you feel like reading? Yay!  Keep going then.

Initially, I was going to wait until Eurovision to launch this (May 26^th 2012, as if you didn’t know…tsk tsk) but then several things made me think that wasn’t a good idea.  Firstly, as Eurovision is quite clearly, one of the best nights of the year (Christmas Eve is pretty good too) I know I will be too busy dangling the bunting, forcing party hats on unwilling siblings' heads and creating what can only be described as kitchen magic resulting in an Azerbaijan-inspired buffet, so making time to sit down and write something profound will be difficult.  Secondly, after just reading Nigella Lawson’s latest blog (she calls them kitchen witter) I have now come to the conclusion that I don’t need to be profound, nor build up to some massive launch with a spectacularly well-thought out and inspirational post.  I absolutely LOVE Nigella’s writing in its many and varied forms, but her witters are short, to the point and sometimes discuss as basic a topic as the meal she ate the previous evening.  Whilst I will leave the foodie posts to her, it is reassuring to know I don’t need to upload an academic essay every time a post is required.   In short, I should stop thinking ‘I really must start that blog’, and instead, just start the damn blog. 

So, to conclude this inaugural post, I will bring you up to speed about the Nov (Novel, in case that’s not obvious - capital letter because it is my baby) as I like to call it.  I’ve been writing it in short bursts, each week for the last nine months.  Whether it is any good, I have no idea, but it is loads of fun to do, and it is giving me an outlet for all the creative juices that were rather suppressed before.  In terms of style, I am hoping that I’m channelling lots of Armistead Maupin, a small amount of Lisa Jewell and sometimes even a bit of Rosamunde Pilcher.  These are just a few of the authors towards whose style I find myself regularly drawn.   It is also apparent to me that the basic plot of the Nov owes a rather large debt to the type of character-driven films I love.  The ones where a bunch of people in differing situations meet up at some sort of event, realise some things about themselves and then move on - their lives changed in a meaningful way for evermore.  Think ‘The Breakfast Club’, ‘Peter’s Friends’, or even something periody like ‘Gosford Park’.  Well that’s what I am trying to write.  At the moment it is absolutely nothing like any of the authors or film plots that I have referenced, but at least if I know what I am aiming for, I have more of a chance of actually achieving that at some point in the future.  

So in the spirit of Nigella’s Witters, I’m going to keep it short and sweet…for now.  Just wait til Eurovision night – I may post that essay after all.