Dragon tattoo by Richard:- http://www.myspace.com/richie_tattoo_artist

Richard spent a rough night due to the cold he's caught. Consequently he spent half of today in bed. He's sat in his Man Cave now, watching a documentary about The Beatles, with Saffron purring in his lap. He likes some of their music but not all of it. Saffron couldn't care less what's playing so long as she gets her ears tickled.

Anyway, while he was snoring triumphantly in bo-bos, I was busy tapping away on this puuter. Today's word count for Bethany Rose is 1,879 words. I love it when a character does something unexpected. I had no idea Bethany was going to move into a haunted house! This MS is very different in mood from Rowan. Whereas Rowan has a languid romantic feel to it, BR is much, much darker.

Did anyone tune in to 7 Waves Radio today? Four members of Riverside Writers were guests on Cath Bore's Lunchtime Forum show: Tim Hulme, Peter Caton, Eileen Murphy and Peter Hurd. I'll be back on air at next month's session, having volunteered to opt out this time to allow some other people a turn on air.

No news about the postponed Wirral Bookfest 2009 yet; and no wonder, with the situation regarding the threatend closure of so many of Wirral's libraries and other community resources still undecided.

The good news, though, is that playrite Sylvia Taylor has agreed to visit Riverside Writers and give a talk/workshop on script writing. The date is yet to be confirmed. Sylvia has co-written for the BBC and used to run her own theatre company. Currently she's making small films (which have been shown on the huge public screen in Liverpool city centre), planning full-length films, and works in community art development.

Riverside Writers met last night and we had two new people join us, which is always nice. Last month’s writing project was to create a poem or short story with the title of The Killing Tale, and all but one person had produced work for that.

We were joined by John Gorman of the Wirral Academy of Arts, which has just been granted charitable status. He was able to tell us that the public performance (by professional actors) of submitted work for Wirral Writers Inc has been postponed until April 2008, in order to combine this event with another literary festival and so make promotion more effective.

The bad news is that the Hallowe’en ghost tour has also been postponed until next year, because apparently I’m the only writer who’s produced any work for it! What happened to everyone else?!! Ah well, c’est la vive… I’ll use my work elsewhere in the meantime.

If anyone’s in Liverpool on October 4th, drop into Central Library on William Brown Street, as there’s a Poetry Marathon as part of National Poetry Day. I’ll be taking part in the afternoon.

A change of subject….

It looks like there’s a storm blowing in for this evening. I’m having to keep an eye out for raindrops while I’m typing this, as I’ve a line of washing outside. I ought to give some thought to tonight’s dinner, too, as Richard’s going to a Fish concert at the Pacific Road Arts Theatre in Birkenhead, which is a very nice venue, actually. But his friend Lee will be here around 6pm, so we’ll need to have dinner early.

Actually, Lee and Lynn have just come back from Portugal, which they absolutely loved. The place was spotlessly clean and the people were very friendly, and the food was great, they said. They waited ¾ of an hour for a bus to take them to the next village. Only later did they realise they could have reached the village by walking along the beach for fifteen minutes!

They brought me a gorgeous shawl back. It’s red and goldy-brown, in a paisley pattern, with silky tassels. I wasn’t expecting a gift at all, so that was a lovely surprise.

Ygraine and Emily are behaving themselves. Amazing, isn't it, how a long walk can have that effect?!!

Actually, we’d no sooner returned home when the algid skies began pouring forth their contents once again – which gave me the perfect reason to continue working on a short story, The Reluctant Monk.

This will form part of a group of short ghost stories which are all to be set in Oxton. They’ll need to be short - 500 to 1,000 words - to keep peoples’ attention, as it’s intended that these stories will be performed outdoors by actors around Oxton village this coming Hallowe’en. Short stories mean actors and audience alike will be able to retain a modicum of warmth between tour stops if the weather turns out to be awful!

I've got a headcold. *snuffle* Is my brain really stuffed with hot cotton wool?