h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi there.

The curiousity is killing me - what were you reading?? What are you writing?

My job will kill me with boredom anyday soon. All that keep me semi-sane is writing. And reading.

If you want to chat anytime, drop by my page for a , a or a , you are very welcome!!

Curiosity killed the kit?

Currently having my post-prandial at work.

I've been reading quite a lot recently. The commute to work is great for that I find, even though it is only 10 minutes on the train. My last books have been

No Logo by Naomi Klein,
Rediscovering My Family by Sue Arnold,
Under the Dragon by Ryan Mclean

So one book about commercial globalisation and its injustices and two about Burma and its injustices. All of which were very readable despite the heavy background.

What I want to write is a few short films. Could be about anything really. I've written three already, but I've made two of them and what I really want are surplus ideas so that I can refine, redistribute and discard. I'm going to start a film and tv course in September so I thought I'd try and start with some ideas to work with. Still it gives me plenty of time to stop reading, begin to start thinking and eventually write again.

Your job sounds like it has the potential to be interesting, but it sounds more stressed most of the time. Don't let them get to you.

Are you writing stuff at the moment?

Currently writing a trilogy (influenced by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, with a soupçon of Neil Gaiman throw in), a black comedy TV series (but will antone have the guts to make it?), and a book of short stories (working title: Invasion of the Voddy Snatchers - not that I'm obsessed by drink or anything.)

Unfortunately I seem to be really tired at the moment, so I've got "sitting staring at a blank screen" syndrome.

I've got the prospect of scripting a musical one of my colleagues has written, and also an exposé of life at a small publishing company.

Wow. Nothing if not prolific.
Who is Gabriel Garcia Marquez?

I know what you mean about tired at the moment. I don't seem to wake up until 11 o'clock at the moment. Which would be fine if I wasn't in work from eight thirty feeling like barely reconstituted death.

I stare at blank pieces of paper instead. I can't stand staring at blank screens. Nearly everything I've written (except messages) goes down on paper first.

Mm - I know what you mean about the half-eight thing, that’s when I start too. Sometimes at eight if I’ve a lot of work to complete. Leaving the house at half-seven .

Gabriel Garcia Marquez was a Spanish novelist and story-writer. I first got into his work when I took Higher-grade Spanish over one year (with no previous Spanish experience, I might add). We read El Colonel No Tienes Quien Le Escriba (No-one Writes to the Colonel) in its original Spanish for our talk/dissertation, and I really liked it. Then I read La Casa de Bernarda Alba (which I /think/ translates as The House of Bernice White - not sure about the Angliscised version of the name.)

Recently I read One Hundred Years in Solitude, which is a novel about four generations of this family, all living in a strange little South American town where weird things happen and are taken as normal.) It’s worth reading if only for the cultural references, but a lot of people say they found it hard to get into. I loved it, though. It made a deep impression on me.

I find I work better in front of a computer, sometimes. I get sidetracked with drawing things if I have paper in front of me!

More I think.

I find drawing things helps. Well sometimes. If I draw characters then I can see what they are doing and I can write about that.

I've heard of La Casa De Benarda Alba but haven't read it. No-one writes to the Colonel is a fantastic title. Titles are funny things you either come up with something exactly right - or you spend days not managing to think of anything useful and end up going for the working title.

How's the work doing this week. Seems fairly quiet here today. Probably won't last.

One of my colleagues just handed her notice in. . I've got half an hour's peace just now, as it's lunch. I'm sitting with my water and my salad, how healthy . Glad to hear someone's having a quiet day though!

Went to write over this weekend and got the tricky prologue that I've been wrestling with out of the way. I hate prologues, but they're sometimes necessary. At least now its done.