Caturday – 25/11/2017 – Novel Writing Month

I did get out to a couple of local groceries. One, a very tiny but good and handy one, is right around the corner from me. The other is a short bicycle ride away (ALL on cycle paths); it is a small independent supermarket with a lot of Mediterranean products, from Italian to Lebanese. I bought a turkey leg there, locally reared meat (though not truly organic), cut into “shanks”. I’m braising it with onions, garlic and later, fresh ginger, as well as some lemon juice and a splash of leftover white wine. I often braise or make soup in cool or cold weather, as it can cook slowly while I’m working on the computer. Oh, I have at least three vegetarian dishes made as well.

It is very mild today by our standards but raining off and on. Livia was happy to venture out in the garden but it is raining again now – though not very hard – so she is curled up in her chair, next to my work desk and under the window. The weather today is suitably grey and drizzly for this month’s topic.

I’ve written many essays, as well as poetry and short stories but never really wanted to write a novel. I’m reluctant to reveal too much about myself, even if it wasn’t autobiographical. I’m translating a book now, which is a project of similar scope, but the challenges are different. However cats, while they are usually a calm presence after kittenhood, ensure that we devote our attention to them, not to the blobs humans type on the computer screen. They are right to do so.

I edited a novel at some point. Peeps who hear that I’m a writer think that copywriting/direct marketing writing is ’cause the writer is really wanting to write a novel and the former is just to earn a living. Not true in my case. Wrote some short stories, but I do not have a novel “in me”. Unlike these kits: