I’ve arrived in Cornwall, after missing my train down (I was stunned to find that, thanks to traffic being responsible, I was simply handed a particular piece of paper, told to give it to the guard, and wasn’t charged a penny. Getting a new ticket would have cost me £70, so I was especially pleased), and this experience was made even more fun by one of the most spectacular colds I’ve had in a while. I’ve spent most of the last couple of days sneezing my head off, and while I was very productive book-wise yesterday, today turned into a day of Lemsip-provoked slumping, and listening to the Doctor Who audio discs I need to review for SFX (One of which was fairly rickety, but the other of which was extremely good). Productivity needs to return to something resembling normal tomorrow, as I’ve only got two weeks down here, and I don’t want to spend all of them sniffing and being miserable. The first five chapters of the book are now shorter and more streamlined than they’ve ever been before- but I really need to move onto the dangerous chapter 7-10 zone, the area that’s caused me so much trouble before. If I can get through this, I can get most of it done. My aim is to have a polished version of the book that’s ready to send to people by the end of the year, and hopefully ready for agents and publishers pretty soon after that.

Now all I’ve got to do is figure out exactly how to survive the financial turbulence of the next few months.

No news on the flat. The Estate Agents are at least showing people around, but we’ve got no bites yet. Funnily enough, I’m feeling fairly philosophical about it. Our new house is, however, going to demand that I get back into driving pronto, as neither walking nor bike-riding is an option.

Change is good. I have to remember that. Change is good…

(My ‘TV Eye’ looks at American television will return soon. I also want to do something on the Sixties Doctor Who DVDs I’ve gotten recently- THE WEB PLANET and THE DALEK INVASION OF EARTH. I’ve just got to concentrate on the book at the moment, as there’s a frightening amount to do. At the least, I saw last week’s HEROES today- top notch stuff, and warming up for some seriously big stuff to happen over the next couple of episodes. Also saw GALACTICA, which was an improvement on last weeks, but still suffering from the ‘let’s keep all the episodes self-contained’ phenomenon that really doesn’t do the show any good.)

Am currently working my way through season 1 of VERONICA MARS, and can now understand why I’ve been hearing so much about it. I’m only six episodes in, but it’s already going in some dark and intriguing directions.

More soon…