Tuesday 18 November 2008

Spandex, Surprise and Spain

I haven't been off living it up in Bad Blogger territory - honest. It's the computer having a funny turn again. It's decided to shut down on me halfway through anything I've tried to do over the past few days. A joint problem with a) the server and b) the hard drive (allegedly). We've had it sorted (allegedly) and it should keep going now. I really hope it manages to stay alive until Moonshine's finished (although I've got quite good at remembering to save on to the memory stick each night - but you don't want to know how damn long it took me to learn how to use the memory stick... I know a child of three can do it - but I can't.) - and no, Moonshine won't be finished by Christmas. Not a chance. Not now. That's the deadline of Oct, Nov and Dec missed then - oh, well done - that has to be a deadline-missing record - even for me...



During the intermittent moments while it (the computer) has been behaving itself I've been writing Moonshine in tandem with some more stories for Woman's Weekly. Yes, I know it's masochistic given the last lot of rejections, but I had these ideas and they wouldn't go away...




Then we had the two parties over the weekend - a sort of grown-up one and a 1970s night (hence the pic). Now, I'd have expected the 1970s one to be the shocker - but no! It was fun - camp, noisy, nostalgic, enjoyable - but nothing remotely odd happened. (Well, apart from everyone we know wearing acrylic fright wigs and spandex and platform shoes and singing Long Haired Lover From Liverpool a lot.). No, it was the posh party one that threw up the big surprise.




With hindsight it was a great *what-if* plot line - but at the time I was too stunned to think of anything apart from how the hell do I handle this... Quick scene setting: glitzy restaurant in Oxford; a crowd of people known to both me and The Toyboy Trucker (some to both of us, others individually); we all travelled separately and met in the bar. After the initial scrum, and clutching drinks, we all started introducing ourselves as you do. The Toyboy Trucker fought his way through the mob and said "... and this is P who works at our place and this is S, her new boyfriend..." And I turned and smiled and started to say hello - then stopped. S, P's new boyfriend, was someone I knew well. Very well. But not quite as well as I knew his wife...

Aargh!!! Well, what would you have done? S and I just stared at each other in frozen horror, I babbled something stupid at both him and P, then avoided them like the plague for the rest of the evening. It's none of my business. Or is it? I won't tell S's wife - not a chance! I won't tell P either - that's down to S, isn't it? It made the evening really weird though, and I felt very uncomfortable. Discussing it with The Toyboy Trucker when we got home, he agreed that it was best to leave it alone. I'm sure someone, somewhere will inform all interested parties pretty damn soon - but it won't be me! Will keep you posted of any developments...

Oh, and the Spain bit in the subject line is because I've been asked to do The Book Show on Radio Europe Mediterraneo on Thursday this week. I got very, very, very excited about this because REM is based in Malaga, and I had visions of being whisked off by private jet to a few days of sun and sangria - but bugger - no... It's being done over the phone. I said I hoped it would be in English as my Spanish O level was pretty dismal and things have gone right down hill linguistically since then - and they've assured me that REM is the biggest English-speaking radio station in Spain - a station especially for ex-pats on the Costa del Sol, Costa Blanca and Costa Dorada. Last week REM's Book Show had Sophie Kinsella and Marian Keyes - oh goody - no pressure there then!!!!

I'll let you know how it goes - but until then - um - adios amigos....

8 comments:

jill mansell said...

Hi Chris
And here's me, wondering how to start off my new book. Many thanks for embarrassing party scenario - that'll do nicely, thanks!
(Poor real-life people, if only they knew how shamelessly we scavenge for ideas...)
How fab that Broo is now your agent - she's so lovely!
Love
Ji

Christina Jones said...

Jill - oh I'm so pleased my social dilemma is to be put to such great use!!! You're more than welcome! Being so close to it I couldn't use it, but you'll do it the justice it deserves - fantastic! And yes, I'm thrilled to bits to be a Broo-ette. She's a star! Changing agents was a bit of a difficult thing to do - but it's all lovely now. Will be blogging about my Broo-lunch shortly...

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

Love the party story, though it must have been cringingly awkward at the time. All those parties, what fun.

Congratulations on the interview, though shame that it is over the phone.

Christina Jones said...

debs - awkward wasn't the word! Still cringing... And we seem to be having a party-fest at the moment - you know how it is - you go months with no social life at all and then wham! everyone seems to be celebrating something all at the same time. Will blog about the interview tomorrow - went okay -ish...

Margaret McDonagh said...

I can't imagine how you felt, turning round and coming face to face with the husband/boyfriend. What a ghastly situation. As Jill said, great for inspiration, but a desperately awful place to be in real life. I am sorry.

I hope the wretched computer will hold up long enough for you to get Moonshine and the WW story finished. I am so pleased things are flowing and long may it last.

Hope the interview with Spanish radio went well. I'm sure you went down a storm and they loved you.

Catch up soon.

Lots of love,
Mags xxx

The Brokendown Barman said...

hello there. just wanted some info on the writers bureau.
is it worth trying?

Jayne said...

oh no - what a position to be in! I hope it all gets sorted out quickly!

The interview sounds very exciting, my Dad lives over there so I'll have to tell him to listen out :o)

Christina Jones said...

mags - thank you. so far so good with the computer and the writing - have got everything tightly knotted in the hope that it'll keep going long enough for me to finish the vital stuff. Will blog about the radio prog...

broken down barman - can't recommend the Writers Bureau highly enough! They turned my writing life around. You've got nothing to lose (great book title???) by giving them a go - so do it, enjoy it - and good luck!

mummy - still wincing over the P&S debacle. Hope your Dad (actually ANYONE) managed to hear my radio thing in Spain...