Pencil marks

I’m having a really good time this weekend. My writer friend, Chrissie Poulson, has finished the first draft of her new novel and she’s asked me to read the manuscript and criticise it. She and I agree that it’s really enjoyable (as well as educative) to look carefully and critically at someone else’s writing, when they are happy for you to do so.  She wants me to comment on anything that doesn’t seem quite right, or that I think could be improved – from plot to character to phrasing to typos. She is a really good writer, and I am particularly in awe of the way she jacks up the tension in her novels. In fact, I could easily stay in bed this morning to find out what happens next, instead of getting up and going to Quaker meeting.

Here’s a picture for June that has nothing to do with Chrissie’s book: the view over my back garden wall in June 2006.