The "back burner"...

A few nights ago something made me wonder about just what constitutes the contents of my mental back burner. Turns out it's a big old burner and no mistaking...

Some of the things sitting macerating there date back to my days at Art Colllege. I'd still love to make and film an installation of found objects on a beach; film it being built and then washed away by the tide, on a brilliant sunny day, add a soundtrack of summer beach sounds, and call it "All summer in a day". I'd still love to film the train journey from Charing Cross to the coast and synchronise it to the "Death and the Maiden" quartet. I'd still love to draw all the activitiy at a big theatre or concert hall; the spaces both empty and full, the rehearsals, the auditorium, the fly tower and storage areas and the stage in use and deserted...

There are stories that are ancient and stories that appeared very recently. The oldest dates back to my teens, the latest to just a few weeks ago, to a dream image of someone walking into a wood out of which blows thickly whirling snow, though there is no snow at all on the ground in the open. There are the stories I've been working on lately, and stories I have previously worked up into what I now realise was the wrong form. I've written three film scripts and three stage plays in my time and the Gods only know what possessed me to do so, since all of them would be better off re-written as straightforward narrative fiction.

I have, in total, besides "Ramundi's Sisters" and "Gabriel Yeats", both of which are finished and require only revision, another eight very promising stories, eight that are not quite ready, and eleven that are definitely not ready, but that still intrigue me. Plus three that are not fit for purpose, but have a grain of possibility lurking - a good central idea or a strong character waiting for the right home... twenty-nine healthy items all told, and three duds.

It's a slightly scary total. I've decided to make proper notes about the state of each idea, to see if that clarifies how "cooked" they are, and which ones I should start on next. Wish me luck; it's a big undertaking I've got there.

A nibble!...

A few months ago I took several metaphorical deep breaths and sent "GY" to the first of the literary agents on my list; today I heard back from her. It's a "no", which is a pity, but it's traditional for tyro writers to get many "no"s before they get a yes. So it's realistic to expect and accept a "no". The good thing is, it's a good no. Yes, there is such a thing...

Firstly, it's a personal message, not a standard response. It's clear that the agent has read the material and considered it, and then taken the time to give me some personal feedback. As I understand the business, this is pretty unusual nowadays.

Secondly, the feedback is very positive. She thinks I write beautifully and am a wonderful writer. Those are not my words - they're verbatim quotes. The problem - the reason why she's saying "no" - is not the quality but the "fantastical aspects of the plot". She's tried to sell a magic realist novel without success recently, and says she doesn't want to raise false hopes when she would struggle trying to get a me a deal.

Thirdly, she says she'd be interested in seeing anything else I have written that might have a more straightforward story.

I have of course written straight back to say "Thank you for your time and your feedback, and I may take you up on that". And I've had a reply already, saying "Best of luck and yes, please do".

So although it's a "no", I'm feeling pretty chuffed about it. I have had something moderately close to a nibble, on my first try. And I may send her "Ramundi's Sisters" when I finish revising it, since there is nothing fantastical in that plot, just a lot of painting and stifled Sicillian passion.

First signs of autumn

It's odd; the newspapers and the BBC are saying all the signs are that this will be a late autumn; yet everything I have observed suggests the opposite. A straw poll around the office (very unscientific, I know) produced similar thoughts to mine. Everyone has seen prematurely yellowing leaves, early blackberries and plums, and so on. This morning there was heavy, sparkling dew on the long grass, and for the first time this year I saw cobwebs covered with dewdrops, too.

I've noticed that the first blackberry-gathering expedition has got steadily earlier - when I was a kid it was a September activity, about ten years ago I remember picking blackberries on my mother's birthday in late August for the first time; now I am planning a session this coming weekend.

But this year, the official version disagrees with my amateur phenological observations. No matter; I know what I've seen. They look like good blackberries, too.

Not much else going on; chugging along at work, which is steadily busy at this time of year; a terrific Prom on Monday with the gorgeously (& most appropriately) Byronic Maxim Rysanov doing a lovely job of the delicate and difficult solo part in "Harold in Italy"; nothing yet from the first literary agent I sent "GY" to; and I've had my first courgettes, runner beans and french beans from the garden, but no tomatoes as yet.

And I've had some more bizarre horoscopes. Yesterday, a long-lost beloved was meant to come back into my life, a changed character. I must admit to being pretty relieved that this didn't happen. I'm honestly not too sure I'd want some of my past best-beloveds back. With the benefit of hindsight, I have usually ended up thinking "Thank goodness that didn't work out the way I wanted it to!", about a year after a relationship has ended.

Today, I'm meant to have a chance to make a romantic connection with karmic overtones. Oh, my!...

Constructive stuff...

Yesterday evening I:

Sewed patches on three pairs of trousers

Did a lightening extra edit on GY after re-reading part of it and seeing a new shade of purple where I'd not spotted it before

Made and ate a nice stir-fry with smoked tofu and greens

Watched the film of "Let the Right One in" - beautifully made and acted, not particularly scary, very, very sad. One of the best films-of-the-book I've come across. Could the fact that John Ajvide Lindquist wrote the screenplay based on his own novel have anything to do with it?

And - had a very good dream. One of my favourite sorts of dream, the kind that gives one the germ of a story. GY started with a dream, and eventually led me to over 100,000 words. No idea if this dream is cooking like that, but it was still a good dream. A Sci-Fi dream (oh, yes, I'm low, I am).