Anniversary

Today is my twelfth wedding anniversary. Presents? I made Jill a cup of tea and she gave me a pair of pyjamas. Hmm. I think we've drifted into that relaxed comfort zone where you don't need to state the bleeding obvious like 'I love you', swap cards or buy flowers. Maybe I will next year, just to surprise her, but I imagine I said that last year.

On the writing front, for anyone following my path to superstardom (ha!) -- THE LIGHT KNIGHT RETURNS is near completion. Give me a week, it should be done. 10,000 words. Another biggie. I can't really call it a first draft as this is a reworking of a story I wrote nearly 3 years ago, one of my first actually. I thought it was great at the time, but once I'd gathered a bit more experience, I realised it was pretty rough. Loads of flashbacks and POV slips made it a confusing jumble of scenes. (Having said that, my mate Russell still regards TLKR as his favourite story.)

A couple of years ago I decided to make THE LIGHT KNIGHT RETURNS the basis of my second novel, a sequel to the unpublished LEMON. Since then I've decided to rewrite LEMON, working THE LIGHT KNIGHT RETURNS into it, rather than as a standalone sequel. And now, here I am writing it as a short story again. I'm still harbouring the fantasy of making it a novel, but I see this as a way experimenting with certain characters and settings before wasting tens of thousands of words going down wrong roads with the novel. Also, I can get some feedback on the short story, find out whether the idea floats or not. It is far-fetched, even by my own yardstick of far-fetched, which is more of a milestick really.