Sunday morning, coming down

M'friend Andrew phoned last night, to invite me to breakfast this morning. I sent myself a precautionary e-mail last thing, to ensure that I remembered (so smart! I was v pleased with myself, for thinking of it), and so was there exactly on time and properly peckish. It's a v civilised thing, to share breakfast with old friends and new. Tho' I did wind up giving one new friend an hour's tutorial on the whole being-a-writer thing, full of Profound Insights. Go not to Chaz for advice, for he will just say and say...

Then I walked in the park, and saw Today's Children playing hide-and-seek among the trees, just the way we used to - except that they were using their mobile phones to taunt each other. "I can see you! I can! You can't see me...!" So that's what they're for...

And now I am back at my revisions. I have cut eight thousand words so far, and am between a quarter and a third of the way through. But I did just find a little jewel in the mud:

"[The rebels] were men of the same cast as the imperial soldiers: lean, exhausted, filthy. The flip side of the same defeat, and she didn't think that even they would call it victory."

That's what I love, y'know? Lines like that are worth living for.

A quick question

We (in the UK. at least) have a phrase, "all manner of ways". Clearly it means "all kinds of ways", and that "manner" is a presumptive plural; but it is expressed in the singular form. Which being so, is it correct to treat it as a singular - "There was all manner of ways" - or as a plural - "There were all manner of ways"?

(cross-posted to cranky_editors)