Funny how events never turn out quite the way you expect. It’s almost as if, in the moment just after the custard pie hits, you suddenly think back, and realise- “Oh yes- how on earth did I manage to not see that massive custard pie that was flying towards my face?”

One of the reasons I’ve been out of touch, is that things aren’t going too well. If everything had gone according to plan, I’d currently be doing pretty well financially, not have to worry about anything but working on the novel for a couple of months, and everything would be pretty peachy. Instead, the company that I spent most of the last few months working for has just gone into receivership without actually paying me any of what they owed me- which is £4,500. So, no. I’m not happy. It’s very easy in a situation like this to just get randomly, incoherently angry, to want someone to at least lash out against, but it’s not happening. I don’t know what’s happening with Hotdog- the magazine that I actually started out my writing career on- but I don’t know if I’m going to be writing for them again. It’s just rather sad- for the first time, I genuinely felt like I was actually getting somewhere, that i was finally getting to grips with what it meant to be a freelance writer- and then this happens.

Still- almost as soon as I got the news, I then found out that one of the publishers I read for wants me to look at one of their manuscripts- and it’s a doozy. It’ll get me some nice money, and I’ll get to go in tomorrow, have a chat, and have a meal. It’s a small thing, but it made me smile.

Things change. And they always get better. It just seems difficult to believe sometimes.