Warming Up

We’re churning out books in the Herring household - hoping we can get the rights off JK Rowling to release Phoebe’s Harry Potter book (though it also involves characters from Encanto and Mary Poppins, so there’s a lot of work to do and I am not sure how much of the profits we will end up seeing) - Catie’s new book is out in just over a week and it’s a brilliant and funny read for any young readers you’ve got in your family (or old ones too for that matter). This one is about sexist boys not letting the girls do comedy - I don’t know where she gets her crazy ideas or how she dared publish this when I expressly told her not to, because I am the one who writes books in this relationship. Available at all good bookshops and also Amazon 

Not been sleeping well for a couple of nights due to some anxiety in my largely cushy life, so today was a bit of a strain as I had to prep for two RHLSTPs and drive to London and back to do them. Somehow I managed to stay awake throughout and had two fun and interesting chats with superbrains Ahir Shah and Mark Watson. The Phoenix is a really nice venue for these shows and it’s a bit more a relaxed atmosphere with a smaller crowd. 60 or so people turned up to watch, so it was much more intimate, though a step up from talking to people remotely. 

I listened to Watson’s latest novel “Contacts” on the drive and it’s a great concept for a book - a guy sends out a text to all the contacts in his phone (people he knows well and others that he doesn’t) to let them know he is about to commit suicide and then turns off his device. It’s a neat little hand grenade to throw into the lives of the characters and Mark explained the book is about how technology actually has lots of positive sides, rather than the negative ones we tend to lean on. I am only a little way into the book so don’t know if the main character kills himself or is saved - I suspect the latter, but it would be a bold choice to let him go through with it. But I love the conceit and Watson’s writing is always enjoyable and human. It reminded me of the Midnight Library (which I had alternative universe issues with) but only because it’s about someone who is trying to end it all. 

Mark and I have quite similar career trajectories and attitudes to work and have had to work through some of the same issues and we both just get on with stuff and try to not mind that we don’t have the same successes or bank accounts as some of our contemporaries. I look at him and think it’s odd that he doesn’t realise how successful he actually is, but then I look at myself and think it’s odd that I don’t either.

 But listening to this book did make me think it would be cool to try and write a novel myself, though I don’t know about what. “Everything Happens For No Reason” petered out a bit when I tried to write that as a book, but it’s a sprawling and untameable idea and maybe I need to find a simpler conceit, that is nonetheless gripping and original. Or maybe I should just get on with the book that I am being paid to write first.

The ticket machine in the Cavendish Square car park ate my ticket for the second time in three visits (and I deliberately used a different machine this time). It’s slightly irksome to have an unnecessary delay when you’re desperate to get home, especially when the parking costs as much as it does. The man I spoke to on the intercom phone didn’t seem surprised and just told me to say my name into the intercom on the way out. I don’t know if he was able to see that I’d paid or just trusted me, but if you’re wanting to see if you can park for free in central London this might be worth a shot.