Cooling Karma, Year Seven, and Lovely Bob...

You've caught me yawning this morning. Too much Twitter-scrolling at beddy-bies instead of a decent night's kip. If someone could tell the Leaker of Parties that I need some rest, that'd be grand. It's all too compelling, click-baity, and ridiculous to close my eyes. Oh, and utterly fury-making too. How am I supposed to sleep with that shower still in charge? January always hands us Big News Events, doesn't it? But I can't lie. There's something marvellous to be said for karma. The cooling balm of powerful men who thought they could do as they liked without consequence, being held accountable for five minutes. It seems they're all over the place at the moment. More of that please, if you don't mind.

I'm not even trying to be
funny or mock-arrogant,
 but I was really impressed
with myself when I read this
back. It stands up OK I think.

Writing News

Well now, it's begun again. The latest project - aka Book4, aka Leeza McAuliffe Part 2 - is underway. Here's where I'm at so far. 

• Re-read Leeza McAuliffe Has Something To Say. ✅
• Make notes about conventions, annual events, key dates from the previous year. ✅
• Make a list of big events and key plot points that will take place throughout the new book's narrative to bring the drama. ✅
• Make a list of small events, funny situations, and snippets of real life that will fit between the big events and keep things flowing. ✅
• Cut out all the big and little events onto strips of paper and arrange throughout the timespan of the book plan. ➡

You see? We're well underway. We're immersed. The planning of Leeza McAuliffe is slightly different from any other book planning because it's a diary. I need to spread the peaks and troughs, drama and suspense over the period of a year. Which means I need narrative rise and fall, twelve times. That's what I'm working on this week. The rise and fall of all the drama, balanced with the mundanity of everyday life as a girl in Year Seven. Also, I need more info about Year Seven. It was easy writing her Year Six experiences from my know-it-all position as an ex-primary teacher. This time I'm going to have to do a bit of research. Watch out children of my friends who are at high school! I have questions for you!

Culture

Bob Mortimer's book, And Away, is utterly lovely. If you've had a health scare and are coming back from a near-death experience, this book's for you. If you loved Vic and Bob's Big Night Out and all the subsequent Reeves and Mortimer stuff, this book's for you. If you like fishing, or the TV show Gone Fishing, or Paul Whitehouse, or the 90's comedy scene in general, this book's for you. I picked it up for a quick look and put it down four hours later when it was done. I'd had a lovely afternoon. 

TBF, I've had to
zoom in quite
a bit here.

In other culture news, I've finished Netflix's Stay Close. It was gripping and enjoyable as well as preposterous and frustrating. I shouted at the screen whenever Cush Jumbo drove from her Blackpool-based home to where the rest of the plot took place, via the Runcorn Bridge. The toll charges she would've wracked up would bankrupt her! And then of course, there was The Dream. Yes, St Helens' very own 'big head sculpture' made several appearances. As I can see it from my landing, it made the Blackpool coastline location all the more confusing. For clarity, I cannot see the Pleasure Beach from any part of my house. All this has done is make me feel solidarity with the 1980s residents of Jersey when Bergerac was being geographically wrong all over the shop. TV develops empathy, folks. Let's never forget that.

This is the exact opposite of
what went down. No chickpeas
no dancing, no energy.

Food and Drink

Last week, I had planned an interesting tea that I'd found on Pinterest. It was a chickpea thing with a sticky maple marinade, and jasmine rice. But events conspired against me. A mixture of pre-menstrual backache, as well as an overwhelming lack of desire to marinade chickpeas, led me to order a mid-week Dominos pizza. And Reader, it was fabulous. Made all the more fabulous by my last-minute, devil-may-care, frig-the-calories, attitude. I heartily recommend such spontaneity to put a spring in your step.

Out and About

I had a Friday night meet up with my sixth form friends, which was just excellent. What with all the nonsense, it'd been about 18 months since we'd done that, and last time it was in a freezing back garden. I also had a cinema outing when I saw Scream 5 at the Odeon. It was - and I will NOT mince my words for anyone - really good. Stand down, Kermode. No other reviews are necessary.

For those that like the lighter days, I hope you're enjoying the daily extra minute's sunlight. All the light began at 8.18am today. Sadly, because of my vampirish lifestyle, this plays havoc with my mood. I miss you, Shortest Day of the Year! We'll meet again, one day! Still, on we go, regardless. Hope all is well where you are and with what you're doing.

Have a lovely week, folks.