Writer's dilemma

So having 'finished' my novel while on sabbatical last year, I am now wrestling with the conundrum of how to know when it is really finished, to the extent that I will be happy to send it out and be judged by it.

One criterion was length - I had in my mind a minimum word count for credibility, below which it was feeling more like a novella, but I have now passed that magic figure.

I don't want to be one of the people who does 17 versions of their novel over almost as many years - and in fact it's rarely in my nature to re-write anything too much, the patience wears off. But I take it as a good sign that if anything my interest in 'Mother of the World' is increasing - I still keep having good ideas to flesh out the characters, having been told be several people that I may be 'under-writing', and they are definitely real people now who haunt my head whenever they get the chance.

I'm also having fun reading over each of the main characters' stories separately to check for internal consistency. And then of course there's the fact that I'm actually going to Cairo in May, having written about it from second hand accounts, so that's bound to give me ideas.

Guess it might be a month or two yet...

Mayor alert

Saw Boris Johnson on the escalators at London Bridge this week, with just one companion. This almost makes me believe he could be a fit mayor of London after all - I do love a politician who is not afraid of public transport, not to mention the public. I'd still bring back Ken though...

Me-tal-li-CA!

So, it turns out that Metallica really do exist! They are not just a figment of my fevered imagination - how exciting. They delivered a storming performance as expected, though seeing them at the O2 is just a little bit like watching on a really really really big TV, or perhaps inside a space ship that could take off and you would never know. Their clothes are an entertaining span of several rock decades (70s cut off shirt and drainpipes; 80s-90s basic blacks; 2000s baggy shorts and socks...). Sad but True was the highlight for me - even made it worth further transport battles with the absent Jubilee line. Replacement bendy bus to Stratford after midnight, anyone?

Lost in space

Oops, so March came and went then... In my defence, I have been stuck either at work on on public transport. RANT ALERT...Southern Railways were not my most trusted people anyway, but what really beggars belief is that last Monday they left me anD a train full of commuters in total absence of information for over an hour and a half after the train lost power. Eventually, in desperation, people took matters into their own hands and started climbing off and walking along the track, thus precipitating a slow official progress off the front of the train. When asked why they had said nothing, officials said that 'the communications were down' - first of all this certainly wasn't true in the first half hour, when we were told there was a power cut. Secondly - it's a train full of people. They have voices. If you can't walk down (and frankly they could have though it was a little crowded), ask people to pass a message on! So far as I know, no-one was hurt, but no thanks to Southern. Oh and the best part is that the front of the train was a foot into Balham station the whole damn time...