Cold Turkey

Right, time to put an end to this blog break and relieve the heart palpitations threatening the lives of my readers. 21 days is simply far too long to go without an entry. I suppose I should have realised that before I went away and set up a guest-blogger (like the supply teacher everyone prefers) to continue the merriment while I lay on the sunbed in Turkey.

Talking of Turkey, you probably don’t want to hear about just how beautiful the weather was, just how relaxing it was to spend 11 days lying around doing nothing, just how enjoyable it was to have the chance to read for hours on end, just how pleasurable it was to eat out at restaurants every meal or just how good the local lager was. So, I guess I won’t say anything about that then…

If it makes you feel any better, I did have to go through the experience of a 5 hour delay at the airport, which also gave me a taster of what it might be like to be homeless as I tried to sleep on a bench or on the cold floor outside the toilets. 12 hours after I’d been resting on a sunbed and here I was with not even the slightest bit of padding for my poor little head. I know many people have had far worse airport experiences, so I won’t allow this to become a ‘woe is me’ moment but it was tiring and frustrating nonetheless and did give me a slight glimpse of what many people have to go through on a daily basis. Not good.

I have to admit that I did check my own blog a couple of times while away (which, on the plus side, has now added Turkey to the list of countries from which someone has viewed my page – give it a few weeks and I’ll forget that it was me and will assume I have a new follower), just to check that everything was OK and that no-one had left me an urgent message saying that they couldn’t cope without an update. In fact, I found it quite difficult to detach myself entirely from this new ‘I’m a writer!’ persona I’m nurturing at the moment, and I scribbled down the opening chapter of novel number 2 one day mid-way through the holiday, along with a sketchy plan for the novel as a whole, which included features such as arrows, half-finished numbered lists, question marks and squiggly lines crossing out ideas. Desperate to read it yet? Strangely, it already has a title (and a far better title than novel number 1 to boot). Even stranger, the word ‘boot’ in the previous sentence gives you a massive clue as to what the novel is about. I mean, I’ve effectively given it all away if you think about it. Just play a little game of word association and it won’t take long to end up at the key word of the title. One clue: it rhymes with flu. Hopefully it’ll turn out to be just as contagious…

I also met a lovely family who spoke to me as if I were undoubtedly the next great author, for which I am very grateful, and so I do hope that if they have ended up reading this blog and if they come across the novel on its imminent launch that they won’t end up being too disappointed!

The next few weeks are big weeks in the life of Sam Lenton. They’re still 7 days long, in case you think I’ve struck a deal with God for a bit extra, but they’re days in which various writing projects are coming to a head and so I am hopeful that there will be news to share in the forthcoming blogs. If these entries become a little more self-centred than usual (I know, I struggle to see how that’s possible either) then I do apologise and I ask you to put it down to youthful exuberance and innocence rather than arrogant triumphalism or whatever else might spring to mind. Besides, there’s always the return to work at the end of August to bring me back down to earth anyway.

It’s good to be back.