And today feels stranger still...

I was, as we say in Derry, "all lurred" with myself yesterday. I did eventually have a productive day., started book 6, tidied up book 5 a little bit more.
I went home in my lunchbreak and in the 45 minutes I was in my house I cleaned the bathroom, polished the gil's bedroom, hung out the washing, did the dishes, had a general tidy and emptied all the bins.
After work I sat down to read/ listen/ watch a pile of the stuff I needed to read/ listen to/ watch for my turn on BBC Arts Extra next Wednesday night.
I felt pretty good. I even had a glass or two of wine and as I drifted off the name of book six jumped into my head 'What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?' which I was very, very pleased with indeed.
And then when my brother sent me this video of Neil Hannon (who I normally find exceptionally annoying) dueting with Duke Special on it... well my mind was set. Book Six. will be fecking called 'What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?'.



So this morning I skipped (okay walked) into work in a marginally less grumpy fashion and emailed my agent avec the synopsis and name of the book.

The good news? She loves the name.
The bad news? Someone else already wrote a book about a broken hearted woman working in a bridal shop.

Balls.

So we are coming up with other ideas and yet, Kitty, my main character in WBOTBH (see I'm already shortening it) is shouting at me "But I own a bridal shop! I'm a hopeless romantic! Don't take that away from me too".

And while it is kind of scary that I can see and hear her (blonde, corkscrew unmanageable hair, blue eyes, wee but fiesty) and I can hear her (nice lilting and soothing tones except when she is angry) is it also very cool that a character is coming to life so strongly in my head.

This is the good bit about writing.