Who was driving and where were they headed?...

From today's TV3 news headlines e-mailout "Police Find 14 Sheep Crammed Into a Car" - as a writer for children I love this kind of headline. Of course, as an animal lover, my first thought was for the welfare of the poor creatures, but the second thought following swiftly after the first was, which sheep was driving, and where were they headed? A bar perhaps...? Okay maybe not a bar if its a story for children but this is a headline ripe with possibilities. Trouble with me lately is that story ideas are popping out like, well, popping corn. I've had three new novel ideas in the last week (one the result of deciding I rather liked the word Runny as a character's name). And like me, my ideas are annoyingly impatient. I have two other must-do projects on my plate at the moment and these ideas keep bouncing excitedly into my mind's eye. I love new ideas, I just wish they had better timing. I am at the hard part for both projects which renders me especially distractable. And being generally undisciplined just adds a degree of difficulty. I need to be locked in a cell, or become a hermit or take Holy Orders.....

And no matter how pressing my deadlines are, as expectations continue to be inversely proportional to reality I have been desperately craving distraction in the form of good-dumb-fun movies. I've recently seen Iron Man 2 and Prince of Persia and while neither are optimal examples of their genre or form I have thoroughly enjoyed them none-the-less. They are pure escapism with my favourite kind of leading guy (buff, handsome, witty and smart and not Tom Cruise) and those hours in the cinema have been most fortifying.

And now, courtesy of the miracles of modern technology, this week you can find me in several locations at once. I shall be, as always faithful friends, burbling on here at my very own blog while simultaneously guest blogging over at UK blog Tall Tales and Short Stories.