Mixed

It’s Friday morning, it’s 5.55. a.m. and I need to say hello to you, and then immediately start work on the sequel to Plotting for Beginners (known in emails between Jane and me as PfB2.)

The house has been quiet this week in a good way and a bad way, and we’ve caught up with our sleep after the lovely rigours of the visit from @JetLagToddler and her family.

Dave has had a flu-type virus since Sunday, and is still feeling awful. I have managed to keep from catching it – thus far - by dosing on aconite as a prophylactic, using a different hand towel from him and a different tube of toothpaste.

Wednesday was a good writing day. Yesterday was a bad one because I couldn’t concentrate.

On Tuesday I got a great statement of sales from the wholesaler which made me feel very optimistic about the success of BUT I TOLD YOU LAST YEAR THAT I LOVED YOU.

And then yesterday I got a bill from the printer’s warehouse for the storage and packing and transport of the book (to the wholesalers) and it made me think there is no way to make any money in this business.

And lastly, at teatime I went with my friend Mary to see Like Crazy, a bittersweet romantic drama, at the Sheffield Showroom. Mary always tells me how many stars the Guardian man has given a film, but she doesn’t read the review till after she’s seen it, because he once spoiled a film for her by giving away the plot. The man in the Guardian and I have very different tastes. He liked Greenberg, for example, (he gave it 4 stars) and I LOATHED it. So when Mary told me, as we sat down, that the Guardian man had given Like Crazy 4 stars, my heart sank. As I watched the film, my heart rose. At the end of the film, I didn’t know where my heart was. And it’s been that kind of a week.