A fist banging on my door at midnight is not something I would normally associate with Swanwick! (Apart from the year we had the fire alarm, of course.) When we have a full complement of delegates we take over the whole of the Hayes Conference Centre. This year, for a variety of reasons, our numbers are lower and we’re sharing the building with other groups, including quite a few children and teenagers. It’s wonderful to hear the exuberance with which they play games, practice their singing, or just hang around chatting. But is it impossible for youngsters to close a door quietly? And I’m thinking of putting a sign outside my room saying ‘Do Not Bang On My Door At Midnight. None Of Your Friends Is In Here. Just An Old Lady Trying To Sleep!’ But, at least I woke this morning with today’s piece drafted ready to go.
Thankfulness
Today I am grateful for the wonderful sessions that kicked off the week. To Allison Symes for her random generator exercises that not only gave me the idea for the flash fiction piece we were supposed to be thinking about, but also a much longer piece that could well end up as a novel. To Simon Whaley for the first part of what promises to be a really useful course on Creative Non-Fiction. And I loved the quote from Lee Gutkind: Check facts. Debate the truth. To Brian Price for making sure I will keep my facts accurate when killing off my characters in future. To the Chatteratti Quiz Team: we tried, guys; we really did. And it was going so well until that last round. And finally to the Committee for the great addition to the programme: Meet and Greet (a sort of Speed Dating without the awkward bits) where I got to meet some new people and found out interesting facts about people I’ve known for years.
Anticipation
I’m looking forward to another busy day in the Book Room. Yesterday’s team handled the first day’s crowds very well. Today will be calmer; and if the card reader continues to behave itself, that’s a real bonus. There’s more Creative Non-Fiction to come, plus two whole hours on Promoting Our Work (and we all need to work on that). Then I’ve carved out some writing time for myself before this evening’s guest speakers. The subject is poetry. Not something I’m great at, either as a writer or a reader, but I keep trying. And we’re finishing it off with a Sing-A-Long around the firepit, although given the heat and the risk of fire (have you noticed that ‘tinder-dry’ has replaced ‘unprecedented’ as the newsreaders’ favourite word?) it may well remain unlit.
Oh, and I’ll try to remember to take some pictures today so I can stop using stock images in these daily posts!