“I learned that the richness of life is found in adventure. . . "

"It develops self-reliance and independence. Life then teems with excitement. There is stagnation only in security.”

Yes, whoever you are, William Orville Douglas. Oh - Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

To show what a shallow-minded individual I am, I can't see the word Orville without seeing THIS:

 ...and it STILL makes me cringe.

Back to adventure and excitement.

I sent off Of Night And Light this morning.

Last night, I was sent a draft copy of the poster for the film, Filth, for which I wrote the screenplay!

Whooo hooo! AND they spelled my name correctly! TWICE!

My screenplay for the NY director, working title, Creep like a rat, is coming along very well.

I am excited...

I am not stagnating...

The upside of putting my work out there FAR outweighs the downside of possible disappointment.
 

“I've always envied people who sleep easily."

"Their brains must be cleaner, the floorboards of the skull well swept, all the little monsters closed up in a steamer trunk at the foot of the bed.”

The quote is from David Benioff, author of City of Thieves - and I love it. Oh, how often I relish the way people can put words together, and I read phrases over and over again and smile at the sheer joy of them.

It's a self-evident truth that if I sleep well, life goes SO much better. Just lately, I've been sleeping very well. And now I'm smiling at myself and a childhood memory...

I was at primary school and my parents were contacted by the head-teacher because I had written an essay starting thus: "I have always had difficulty in getting to sleep unless I am heavily drugged."

Out of the mouths of babes...

No, being heavily drugged does NOT explain why I'm sleeping so well!

One thing does, in particular, I assert:

I am being true to myself, in integrity with myself, pursuing my life as a creative writer - so my brain IS cleaner and the little monsters ARE closed up in a steamer trunk...

F.S.Church

I just have to keep that lid closed...

“You have to find something that you love enough to be able to take risks, jump over the hurdles and break through the brick walls that are always going to be placed in front of you."

"If you don't have that kind of feeling for what it is you are doing, you'll stop at the first giant hurdle.”

Absolutely, George Lucas.

(smart bodyguards!)

I can't count the number of hurdles I've been stopped by, for it felt like forever, then jumped over...hours, weeks or months later in the writing of Of Night And Light. Too, too many of them.

Another few scrambled over yesterday.

• Finished yet another revision
• Arranged for it to be sent out for a report...to a commissioning editor, it turns out
• Lost my nerve and read through it 'just one more time.'
• Printed it out.
• Packed it up

And today, off to the Post Office 

I can't decide whether the hurdles are getting bigger or smaller.

And will this be the last one?

Who knows?

Just call me Gail Devers.

"Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast - you also miss the sense of where you are going and why,"

said Eddie Cantor - and I hadn't heard of him either - but, for your edification (and mine) he was an American comedian, singer/songwriter who died in 1964 so I can't feel too badly about my lack of knowledge about him. One of his hits was, apparently, "Makin' Whoopee."

 Well, that cheered me up on a miserable Friday morning!

There, you see! Slowing down and enjoying life allowed me to spend time finding out about Eddie Cantor and listening to his song.

And yesterday, for the first time in forever, I actually repaired a pair of jodphurs and a pair of harem pants (Note the variety in my life!) with an ACTUAL NEEDLE AND THREAD.

Look, here I am, if you don't believe me!

I am ashamed to admit that I don't usually bother to repair clothes, asserting to myself that I simply haven't the time or the competency. I 'put them on the mending pile' and eventually bin them when I can't bear to look at them any longer.

Well, it may not be the prettiest job in the world but now my maroon jodphurs have a crotch instead of a gaping hole! (You'll be relieved to learn) And the harem pants are no longer split right up one side.

And I enjoyed doing it. It was a peaceful occupation.

“The best way out is always through.”

I've always loved Robert Frost. Well, not him so much as his poetry. Yes, it's over-quoted but I'd certainly place 'Stopping by woods on a snowy evening' high on my list of favourite poems.

by Susan Jeffers

So - the best way out is through, is it, Robert Frost? Oh yes it IS!

I found that out yesterday during the process of writing the synopsis of Of Night And Light

This was the task. Take a 54,000 word novel with about thirty assorted characters and several sub-plots as well as the main storyline and write a synopsis that fits onto one A4 page (with regular not microscopic font and proper paragraphs) - oh, and make it interesting and fun to read.

Easy-peasy. NOT

This was me. Write a few lines then get frustrated and stop. Make myself a coffee. Write a little more. Get VERY frustrated and stop. Think of other jobs that suddenly seemed way more important. Cross out the lines already written and decide I'm a rubbish writer. Write a few lines and stop. Wonder if it's lunchtime even though it's only 11.23.

BUT then...take a step back.

Look at who I am. Who I am is a writer. The future I created for this year is "to shift the balance of my work life from corporate to creative" which includes "being taken on by a literary agent for my children's writing and have Of Night And Light published."

So why wouldn't I want write this synopsis and make it sing and sizzle?

So I did!

Nobody said it was going to be easy...but at least I could smile a little more.

“Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone."

"The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.”

So said Lin Yutang.

The difficulty is to work out what is non-essential...

To me, for example, cleaning cobwebs from walls and ceiling is DEFINITELY non-essential. Not to mention cruel to the poor wee spiders who've spent so much time constructing them.

Peter would Strongly Disagree. (I had a beautiful cobweb on the wing mirror of Olive Oyl the Freelander. It had been there for days and Peter had the audacity to CLEAN IT OFF on Sunday!)

This is all my way of confessing that I didn't write the synopsis of Of Night And Light yesterday.

I was very busy doing lots of important things. I can't quite bring to mind exactly what they were but I'm SURE they were essential...

You know, like cleaning cobwebs...

"A synopsis is a cold thing. You do it with the front of your mind."

"If you're going to stay with it, you never get quite the same magic as when you're going all out."

J.B. Priestley

 It's easy to agree with J.B. Priestley on the subject of writing a synopsis. Seriously, I find it more difficult than writing a novel in many ways. Seriously. Like a logline or a pitch for a film, it's SOOOO hard to encapsulate all the passion - and yes, all the magic - into a few words.

Annoyingly, it's most likely the synopsis that an agent or publisher will look at to make a decision about my work.

Today I'm going to say 'Pah!' to J.B. Priestley!

I'm going to rewrite the synopsis of Of Night And Light from my heart.

 Open to the possibility of magic...