Worthing

We had a lovely Easter weekend in Worthing: I didn't touch a computer for over 72 hours! The weather was a tad blustery, but we had a few walks up and down the beach regardless. Many of the highlights involved food... ;-)

We highly recommend Bryce's Seafood Brasserie, for gorgeous food at very reasonable prices and extremely good service

The Pizzaria on Warwick stree (I think Pomodoro Mozzarella) for their calzone, and their amaretti-biscuit-with-rum-and-dark-chocolate-ice-cream...

Liming Grill/Restaurant for their Sangria and sharing platter

A lovely cake shop called Marguerite's on Warwick Street which opened about a week ago... gorgeous little dark truffle chocolate cakes and a lovely proprietess.

It was great to be out of London for a few days -- I didn't see a single police car. Managed to read the whole of Celia Friedman's Feast of Souls, a gripping dark fantasy with strong characters, an intriguing world and compelling themes. Also read Jostein Gaarder's The Ringmaster's Daughter which I enjoyed but which seemed a little thin somehow. (The plot seemed claustrophobic, but perhaps that was intentional...)

The Connaught Theatre was a wonderful venue to see a film in: we paid the extra £1 each to have a box! Same price as our local Peckham Multiplex, but considerably nicer. I wish I'd not insisted on seeing There Will Be Blood, though, as despite the many Oscar nominations, neither of us found it as interesting as hoped ... we both agreed that cutting about an hour out the middle of it would have helped. I think I should resign myself to having very low-brow taste in films.

We felt very welcome at Cornerstone Methodist on Easter morning, and if we'd known about their cafe earlier in the week, probably would have popped in for a coffee. A lovely Church building and congregation, and a joyful Easter service.

All in all, a great break. :-)

No more Tuesdays off

Things are busier again at work, and so I'm back in five days a week. I'm really missing having the Tuesday to write blog posts and work on my short story course, but the extra money's going into savings.

Good recent writing-related news:
- I've achieved my goal of finding another staff writer position before the end of March. :-) I sent a guest post to www.dailywritingtips.com and they liked it so much they asked if I wanted to be a staff writer. I jumped at the chance!

- I had a guest post on "I will change your life", a great, very well-written and well produced blog that I love. It's at http://www.iwillchangeyourlife.com/2008/03/19/start-with-your-body-7-life-benefits-from-losing-weight

- I sent a guest post to www.crankyfitness.com which they're going to use (though possibly not for a while)

- I had a story rejected from Woman's Weekly with "much too strong for us, but a good style, so do try us again".


Goldsmiths' still haven't written to me, so I don't know yet whether I have an MA place from September or not ...

Relaxed Weekend

I've had a fairly relaxed weekend, without much writing. Saturday started with a shopping trip to Lewisham in the morning, some writing networking with other bloggers via email during the day, then a very nice evening out at The Village Inn (what used to be Page 2) at the other side of Nunhead. Wonderful tapas (especially the blue cheese breaded mushrooms...) and a nice, relaxed atmosphere. Like most of the pubs/restaurants round here, we were surprised how empty it was -- 8pm on a Saturday night, and we were the only people in the "restaurant" back room (though there were some people drinking in the bar.)

Though, of course, the rugby was on...

I've been thinking over my goals for the next few months, and I've decided that I want to focus on building up some income from freelance writing: I'm really enjoying doing articles for www.diet-blog.com and want to try to find at least one other site to take me on as a staff writer. Skellie's Anywired has been really useful, both with practical tips and in making me think it is possible to make a living from this. My ideal combination would be something involving staff blogging, my own blog(s), writing books (fiction and non-fiction), and some small-site web design.

I'm going to start offering a few guest posts to blogs I've been reading for a while, and try to build up some more contacts. I have a few ideas scribbled in my notebook already...

Interview over, should hear in two weeks...

I think it went okay this morning. Maura Dooley, who interviewed me, was absolutely lovely -- it was much more of a relaxed chat than most interviews I've had! She said they take about a third of the people that they interview, and that they'd let me know within a couple of weeks.

Of course, I always come out of interviews (and exams) thinking of all the extra things I should've thrown in ... but I'm going to put it completely out of my mind for now. Nothing I can do until I hear their decision.

I also drafted the second assignment for my short story correspondance course this afternoon. Not very happy with it; I didn't feel it was working even at the planning stage, and now I've written it, the storyline seems too loose and the "science fiction" elements almost tagged on. Hoping it'll improve after some mulling and redrafting, or hoping I get a better idea to write...