Today has been weirdly lovely, weather wise, which has been very conducive to revision. I've been able to play cello outside, which is slightly surreal, but the sound is so much richer. Of course, my joy is slightly dampened by the knowledge that today is both the beginning and the end of the British Summer. Come June, and half the country will be underwater, just like last year. And the year before.

Finished Mieville's The City & The City. Disappointing, in a word. There was so much potential, the first half was wonderful, full of tantalising glimpses and promises of strange and cool mysteries and academic disputes to be solved.But then the second half swung around, and the plot devolved into a dull detective novel, with a very unsatisfying conclusion. It's not a bad book, per say, just not anywhere near as good as I'd expected from Mieville (though that said, out of the four novels I've read by Mieville, only The Scar has ever been completely wonderful, with a satisfactory ending).

Back to revising now, joy. I think the thing I resent most about exams is the large amount of time either spent revising, or feeling guilty for not revising, and how both detract from all the things you've suddenly thought of that you'd rather be doing instead.

I just snapped the C sting on my cello. Irritatingly, it happened whilst I was trying to FIX it. 

OH WELL. It was buggered anyway. Definitely in its death throes in Orchestra on Tuesday. Allow me to demonstrate through the medium of letters the sound it was making: EEEEEARRRFGHKEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIIIERRDFGHKKKKKSSEEEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
I think that no c string is probably an improvement.

Also, by the end of January, my GYWO wordcount stands at 30,000/ 250,000 - which is roughly 12%.


Which is way over my goal, and shall stand me in good stead for May, when I doubt I'll be writing much, if at all.

Victorian/Gothic/Parody novel has grown, lurking at almost 8,000 words now. i think that it will be the sort of novel that once finished, will be put in a black box and never opened again. So far, as well as ticking the usual Gothic cliches of spiritualism, asylums, Highgate Cemetery and Sinister Nuns!, we also have a Bridget Jones style of friends, making snarky comments on the plot, which doesn't exactly help in keeping the tone consistent. OH WELL. Eliza (the MC) is very, very fun to write. Not least because she seems to have  very definite alcohol problems. I do not know how this happened.

Other Novel is also progressing well. It is about Pirates. Magic Pirates. Dead Magic Pirates. Tentatively titled Pages: A Hundred And One Days, it is, in part inspired by the mid books of The Odyssey. The idea of exploring uncharted seas, filled with isle full of withes and monsters and strange cities, was too appealing to resist. Narrated by all of the main characters, in first person, with the Circe character pulling all of the different narratives together, it is very, very fun to write.

Finally, Third Novel has appeared, based on some comments in my Jewish Scriptures class; that of Court Prophets. These are the likes of Samuel, Nathan and so on in the OT, who seem to possess considerable influence over the various Israelite Kings. A plotbunny came when I asked my tutor about possible rivalries within the courts between prophets. His answer: yes, but the only ones we know of won so completely, the others' names are never mentioned. I want to write this so much, a bitter struggle between prophets in a shifting society, to gain the ear of a king. I'll need to research other ANE cultures, plus Greek prophetic traditions, at some point. But, yes. This will be full of win.

Finally, the cello is awesome. Screw weedy violins and violas, cello is where it's at. It's only taken me six years of playing to realise this.