I've gone a bit quiet in recent weeks - not intentional, but a bit of a side effect of having a book to finish, and from working away from home for the past couple of months. It's amazing how even a few nights away from home a week can throw your whole system out of whack... I have a garden with rampant bushes that need a thorough prune, a front garden that barely qualifies as a garden, and a house in a complete state of disarray! Not that James hasn't been doing his bit - he's been great, but there's a bit too much to do by one person.
Writing four chapters in a book didn't seem like such a huge thing when I started, but it's managed to take over most of my life for the past few months. The editors are so friendly yet pushy - damn those editors. If I hadn't been an editor in the past, I would probably be more rude and less accepting of deadlines, but I know the process too well. It may be a different company, but certain things are the same. Production deadlines, printer deadlines, shipping dates, book titling - it's the same world. I keep vowing that this will be my last book - writing chapters while holding a full-time job is bad enough, but when the full-time job is so demanding, I'm really struggling this time around. Perhaps in the future when things aren't so hectic - I just enjoy using a different part of my brain every now and then, and writing is a great way to exercise a completely different set of neurons.
Anyway, Live8 is on the telly, Bill Gates has just showed up and introduced Dido (??), and Coldplay finally figured out how to really rock - by getting Richard Ashcroft up on stage to sing Bitter Sweet Symphony (which was absolutely fantastic!). And I'm still trying to spot my brother, Rob, who's apparently not too far from the front with a big white hand... It's been fun to watch so far - as Andrew Marr said in his short film on the G8 and what it might achieve, there's a real chance that debt will be dropped and aid increased... I wonder if we'll be here in twenty years watching another "Live" spectacular, or whether we really can make a difference this time around.