Ouch!

Well - the trip to the dentist has managed to put paid to much of life as I knew it for the last couple of weeks... "It'll take about ten days to settle down" the dentist had said when The Toyboy Trucker rang the surgery to see if my screaming and sobbing was normal... What he didn't say was that the optimistic ten days would be days spent with a face like a football, days spent watching the clock for the four hours to be up so I could take another handful of pain-killers, days (and nights) spent clutching a hot water bottle to my throbbing face and praying for oblivion, days spent wondering if I'd ever feel human and pain-free again. On the plus side I couldn't eat anything and have lost nearly a stone...


So, here I am almost restored to full health - and with a mountain of things - writerly and not - to catch up with. Sadly, I know the spectacular weight loss will be but a fleeting thing as I'm now so bloody starving that I'll eat anything that's not nailed down. Still, The Toyboy Trucker, Elle and The Doctor - not to mention my friends, and Vee and Em-next-door - have been brilliant. On the days when I literally couldn't crawl out of bed they rallied round and fed the cats, did the washing and ironing (that was a shock I can tell you because I Never Iron), and made me drinky things with a straw (which I couldn't control and dribbled a lot - giving my nearest and dearest an awful insight into what life will be like When She Gets Too Old To Cope).

I've spent my bed-ridden days (in between the sobbing and drooling and dribbling) re-reading my Agatha Christies. How clever was she? And so funny! I don't think I appreciated her humour when I first read them decades ago - but she not only had a wonderful clean writing style, great descriptions and brilliant plots, but a true acerbic wit. There are some one-liners in her Poirot books that I'd kill for. I wish I was clever enough to write crime, but I'm not. I can do straight forward beginning-to-end stories, but nothing that involves convolutions and machinations. Crime writers - you have my unstinted admiration!

The only remotely writerly thing I can tell you about is that my interview with Piatkus/Little, Brown is now up on their website. I quite like it - it makes me sound as though I know a)what I'm doing and b) what I'm talking about. If you'd like to read it, it's at www.piatkus.co.uk/home and you just scroll down to my bit and click on the Happy Birthday Christina! heading and follow the links...

Right, now I really must catch up with all the stuff that's been languishing for far too long - including several overdue blog posts. Back soon - I hope.