Technicalities -- or procrastination?

First I had no ink in the printer, and WH Smith's in Brixton had coloured but not black ink ... I doubt agents would be too impressed by a fluorescent manuscript.

Now I have ink, and paper, but am lacking A4 envelopes.

I've got a half-hearted list of agents who'll accept fantasy work, however. It's rather depressing how many in the Yearbook say 'No science fiction/fantasy', as though it's a shady sub-genre of hackery.

Next week, the Rec (Brixton Recreation Centre) is closing till Christmas for refurbishment, so I won't be able to do my usual zippy lunch-hour workouts. Plenty of time to stand around in the post office queue, then, clutching cover-letter-and-synopsis-and-three-sample-chapters...

Laundry in the Garrett

The flat in which the Garrett is situated has a washing machine, but no drier. It's a first & second floor flat, so there's no outside space. The potential laundry-hanging space under the stairs has been commandeered by a previous resident's mountain of junk.

For the first fortnight or so of living in the Garrett, I hung laundry on an airer in my room.

I do not recommend this.

The Garrett is, as I've mentioned, "cosy". The airer takes up most of the free floorspace. Also, the heating wasn't on when I moved in (it being October), so the room was fairly cold and I kept the window closed.

Clothes don't dry well in a cold, very humid, room.

After my jeans had hung for three days, and my window was dripping rivers of condensation each morning, I realised there had to be a better way. There's a laundrette just across the road, and whilst it costs three times as much as Uni-washers to wash, it's as cheap as Uni-driers to dry. (About £1/load.)

Hence, yesterday and today, residents near the Garrett may have been slightly bemused to see me stagger into the laundry with a box-full of already-washed clothes...

The Garrett

Two months ago, I moved into The Garrett; a room in South London which could (generously) be described as "cosy", and which came sans desk and bookcase. It is, however, cheap enough to allow the "starving in a" not to apply.

Moving coincided (not coincidentally) with First Proper Job since Uni, and the world of 9-5 has not been comfortably compatible with prior Eng Lit student sleeping patterns ("long enough to miss first lecture" and "post lunch nap on desk in library"), nor with artsy sitting-in-coffee-bars-with-laptop.

Despite this, I've finally managed to finish the novel I started a couple of years ago -- "finish" as in "gone through fourth drafts, reader feedback sought and incorporated, final read through done for typos". Purchased the obligatory copy of the Writers and Artist's Yearbook today, and the process of submitting to agents will begin next week.

So, with the sudden end to one writing project, "Ali's Garrett" begins...