I didn't mean to go to market...

[desperance]

...Well, actually I did mean to go there, obviously, but only to buy mushrooms and look at books.

I appear to have come home with two ducks.

It's not my fault, honest. Two fresh ducks, for a fiver? This is not the kind of deal I turn down.

I think I shall curry the breasts, confit the legs and make soup with the carcasses and wings. Oh, yes. Should you want me, these autumnal days, you will find me in the kitchen.

Why yes, as it happens, I do have an urgent story to write. Why else would you seek me in the kitchen...?

But seriously: this morning, in bed early, I had pretty much decided it had to be a ghost story. A ghost story told in a fantasy world: I liked this, as a conceit.

This morning late, here at the machine, I read through what I'd written - 4000 words, more or less - and wanted to tear it entirely up. Or not that so much, perhaps, but to distil it all to a single sentence that I haven't actually written yet.

So I went shopping, and had the retail experience described above; and in the last two minutes of walking home, the story completely remade itself in my head, so it now has a plot (of sorts), and a theme (of a kind), and I can keep the material I have (for the moment). So that's all right.

It's going to be a heartbreaker.

Comments

[dedbutdrmng.livejournal.com]

I was with a huge group of people and lots of us ordered duck. It came with boiled vegetables and I'm not meant to eat vegetables. So I wanted to change that. Which led to one of the most surreal conversations I've ever had.

Me - Could I have the duck with chips, please?

L/Lady - It doesn't come with chips.

Me - I know. But I can't eat vegetables. So could I have chips?

l/l - No, how would I know which plate was yours?

Me - Err, it would have chips on...

L/l - But what if I put the chips on someone else's order? Then they wouldn't get their vegetables?

Me - Err. Well. I'll just sit down.


I once interviewed Kim Newman, he had venison stew. Is it a writer thing?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

That is a bizarre conversation.

I think people other than writers do eat venison; it's probably not worth keeping it on the menu, just for the writers who happen along. Perhaps we all have sympathy for the stag at bay?

So why aren't you meant to eat veggies? Is an odd proscription...

[dedbutdrmng.livejournal.com]

My insides are all messed up. I can't eat vegetables but can eat potatoes. Which is odd. Basically, anything which is good for normal people is bad for me. I miss peanuts. And brown bread.

This time a year and a half ago I weighed under 7 stone. I'm more normal looking now. But it foxed real life for a bit.