Holes (again), 24, library
Approximately-weekly news, #67
I made the mistake of relaxing.
The Hole (RIP underground car park) was filled with woodchip mulch and top soil, covered in grass seed, and booby-trapped with a dead branch, some sticks, a couple of slates to keep the branch in place, and regular squirts of Jeyes’ Fluid.
Five days, he waited. Five days, and then this.
A crater, presumable inspired by James Bond villains. (I must start hiding the TV remote when we go to bed.)
Note Harris in the top left of the photograph. Yes, he is drinking from a plastic trough with swampy water in the bottom. Yes, he does have fresh water in his bowl at all times. Yes, he is going for a ‘I didn’t see anyone working on a crater, guv’ vibe which he is not quite pulling off. No, we do not believe him.
Anyway. This is where we are: 100 litres of tree bark mulch, 30 litres of topsoil, a liberal sprinkling of fast-growing grass-seed, dead sea-holly branches, and tactically applied Jeyes’ Fluid around the perimeter.
That was yesterday. Four days until Harris’s next move.*
This morning, I had a slice of the most rabbity sourdough I have ever seen. It even has an eye, and the suggestion of a twitch in its nose.
I have been wearing my new socks. They were worth the 4,000 years it took to knit them.**
In other Footwear News, I have new wellies. If you had told me a decade ago that I would not only own wellies but spend Quite A Lot Of Money on them, I would have laughed you off Substack.***
With age comes wisdom, my friends, and that wisdom is manifested best in the desire for warm and - crucially - dry feet.
The Top Number for THE SECOND CHANCE BOOK CLUB in the US Kindle chart was 24. Actually twenty actually four. Thank you to everyone who is buying and reviewing and telling their friends. I cannot adequately express what seeing September’s story fly means to me. It’s a happy little fizz in the solar plexus every time I think about it. (And by ‘every time’ I mean 5 million times per day.)
Thank you, too, if you are supporting your local physical bookshop, or library-book borrowing, or swapping with your friends,**** or buying all of your books from charity shops. Thank you for being a reader. Writers are nothing without you.
The 99c/99p deal lasts until the end of September - click here if you’d like to buy/gift.
BMB and I had a trip to Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago. It was for a lovely afternoon tea (a birthday gift for Alan to which I selflessly accompanied him).
The tea was excellent, as was the ceiling we sat under.
Top marks, too, to the walls that kept the weather out.
Before we went to the venue, we spent some time at the National Gallery of Scotland, which is just beautiful. Possibly a perfect art gallery: not too big, thoughtfully curated,*****and architecturally interesting without getting in the way of the paintings.
Amongst all the beauty and spectacle, this is the small-and-in-a-side-room work that caught my eye.
It’s a sketch after Robert Adam called ‘Design for a Library Wall with a Chimney Piece and Overmantel (with a Roman “Vedute”)’. I can’t tell you why I like it. Is it the fact that all of those books look like collected works? Is it the odd-looking unicorn, or the picture over the mantelpiece (the vedute, apparently), or the fact that you just *know* that this (hypothetical) room is lined with shelves and has a rug with rich red tones and a couple of extremely squishy armchairs, perfect for reading? (Though you will find me on the window-seat, which is deep and velvet-cushioned, and nice and warm if you draw the curtains.)
I don’t know. But I do know that things like this, that snag my attention, are the elements that will, a couple of years down the line, make their way into a novel.
I suppose this is part of a not-very-satisfactory answer to the question of where my ideas come from. That is: all over the place, incrementally.
My beloved best friend Lou worked for a neonatal charity. In her last months, she was much amused by the idea that some friends and loved ones would run a half marathon in kangaroo costumes, in her honour. And she would be delighted (and not at all surprised, these people are awesome) to know it’s happening. You can read more (and sponsor, if you are so inclined) here.
Just a reminder that autumn/winter slots for edits are booking up. Look here then hit me up to book, or ask questions… and it’s not too early to reserve a January and February slot, which can be good motivators if you’re planning to finish a draft this year.
A postponement from a client means that a mentoring slot has come free RIGHT NOW. (Those details are on this page too.)
And there are a couple of workshop slots still available. The next ones will be in February.
There’s continuing good work from autumn in my part of the world.
Until next week, my friends, be well. And thank you for being here.
Stephanie x
*Yes, I am thinking of that saying about the definition of insanity being doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome. I wonder if Harris knows it.
**I had my feet crossed over when I took the photo. I didn’t have my shoes - or my feet - on the wrong way round.
***Except Substack was All Fields then. I would have laughed you off Twitter.
****I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: long live the Oxford comma.
*****Here I am, saying it again.