I wish authors would not whinge. It makes them seem greedy and grasping and if they are, they need to keep it to themselves.
Susan Hill
Susan Hill, author of The Woman in Black and the forthcoming memoir Howard's End is on the Landing, loses her dogs, predicts the demise of high street bookselling, and declares global warming a scam.
Monday
What do you do? Go to London when the two Border Terriers have been missing, possibly stolen, for 24 hours, or cancel? If you cancel, what exactly can you do to find the dogs other than what you have done already? The usually run away to hunt and come home. Worry, but go to London to have lunch with lovely Jane Goldman, who has done a fantastic screenplay for the film of The Woman in Black. Jane is extremely lovely and very beautiful and has bright red -cherry red, that is - hair. And six dogs. She understands my worry.
Tuesday
Having torn up the first four chapters of a new book because I don`t really know where it is going, I realise that I have written six books back to back and decide I need a gap. So I`m taking one till after Christmas. As the garden centre is mid-way through putting up its Christmas displays and Grotto, I guess that isn`t long. But I will go to my Red Hut - a converted Cotswold shepherd's hut at the top of the cherry orchard - with a notebook and pen and a flask of coffee and make notes for the next crime novel. Notes are not writing.
Wednesday
People watching in cafes. Writing in Restaurants, as David Mamet has it. I do both. Notebook, pen, newspaper, coffee. People. I ear wig too. 'I always think there's nowt artistic about a Bizzy Lizzie.'
'Did you know Arthur died ?' 'Oh yes, I just took his library books back.'
I wish authors would not whine about libraries and about second-hand bookshops and Oxfam bookshops. I wish authors would not whinge, full stop, it makes them seem greedy and grasping and if they are, they need to keep it to themselves. We get PLR money now anyway and I thought most of the point of writing was to get people to read you. Would I do it if nobody paid me a penny? Well, I`m not getting paid for doing this.
Thursday
Sun. Indian summer after the usual rubbish real one when everyone was on holiday. Always happens like the cold that always goes round - schools go back, out comes the sun. It was the same when I was a child before anyone had heard of global warming, the biggest con and scam in my lifetime. Did you know that it was very, very hot 1,000 years ago? They grew grapes in Aberdeen. I think it was Aberdeen.
The first apples are thumping down. And pears. And walnuts. I must pickle those. The other day someone told me how to make Nocino, a liqueur from walnuts. You buy a big jar, fill with green walnuts, cover to the brim with gin. Lid it. Leave for three years. It goes dark walnut brown.
Friday
Boring, Boring. Boring. All day writing data to go up on my new website. Well, re-designed, re-vamped, re-jigged, re-launched. The guys at Pedalo, who look after it, decided the old one was tired and dated, and they were right. New design is brill but they can`t do the content, I have to, which means writing about my own books. I hate writing about my own books. And I have to look up all the ISBNs and prices. Thank God for Amazon.
I`m not a person who predicts much, good or bad, I wait and see what happens, but I predict that in ten years the book trade will have been shaken up a bit more so that there are no high street chains - no Waterstones or Borders, Amazon will reign supreme over internet bookselling because its customer service is unparalleled and they got there first. But the small well-run independents, often incorporating coffee shop, and home to local book groups etc, will thrive and prosper.
The old style indie bookshop with the cross proprietor and notices hoping people have clean hands - those won`t be able to stand the heat.
Saturday
People say 'have a great weekend' but self-employed writers and freelances do not have weekends. I am working this weekend, but will take Monday and Tuesday off. I sleep every afternoon but I often work till 3.am. Only the owls are awake.
We put up two new nesting boxes to attract more barn owls. We have one, in the barn. Its entirely silent, pale, ghostly flight across the night garden in the moonlight is astonishing. I`m glad I am often awake to see it.
Sunday
Papers? Why bother when 80% get thrown straight away. Everybody says the same thing but do they listen?
I am reading a book to review, a book for fun and a book for a panel discussion at the Cheltenham litfest - but I often have five books on the go. I go through the shelves looking for the first Dickens of the winter. I generally read three between November and March. It's a long time since one was The Old Curiosity Shop I`ll start there. Then what? Great Expectations, one of the best.
I want a try-again book too - one I haven`t managed to finish but feel I should. The Magic Mountain? Moby Dick? Just not Ulysses. I really, really have given up on Ulysses.
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Howard's End is on the Landing is published by Profile books on 15th October.
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Monday, 12 October, 2009
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