The Tipping Point

This week, exciting news - 'The Beauty Chorus' is on the front cover of The Bookseller in the UK: http://www.thebookseller.com/ If you scroll down the page you can get a first glimpse of the gorgeous design Corvus came up with. Still can't quite believe that all those messy, drafted pages are going to be A Real Book ... for someone who loves books as much as me it's a dream come true.

One of my absolute favourite books is 'The Mirror of Venus' - the pilot bought it for me in a second hand bookstore when we were first dating. The photographs are glorious 60s shots of beautiful kohl-eyed models with backcombed hair and the limbs of gazelles, and the words are by Sagan and Fellini doing a 'he said' 'she said' commentary. I didn't bring it here because I was afraid the censors would set to work with their black markers, but from memory one of the brilliant lines is something like: 'before the time, it is never the time'. They were talking about the moment when a relationship changes - that tipping point, that shift in chemistry. I was thinking about it the other day watching this classic clip from 'Picnic', because it reminded me of a scene I'm going to be writing in the new book (getting butterflies just thinking about it, a good sign hopefully). Like Holden's character, my hero is everything she thinks she doesn't need ... and yet. Holden apparently got plastered to do the scene - and it shows, but what a brilliant counterpoint to Novak's cool sensuality ...This moment, ('mesmerised, hypnotised ...') - it doesn't last. If you experience it, you never forget it. And maybe that's why we love love stories, because they allow us to re-experience it again and again.

Maybe starting something creative is like starting a relationship too. The time has to be right. You have to be ready for it. By the way, how many books do you have on the go at any one time? I'm just curious - today for me there's one of eleven MA novels, 'tough' research (ie, a lot of dry wartime history), 'fun' research (amazing biographies, the history of perfume ...) and a short story for tomorrow's class at Bloomsbury. Even here, travelling light, there are books in the car, by the sofa, by the bed, in the loo (well we are Brits and all the amusing ones seem to end up there :)

There's been a lot of reading going on - but as we've said before, writers write. At some point it's time to stop with the prep work and get down to business - and there is nothing, *nothing* like the boot camp that is (deep breath), Nanowrimo to push you over that particular tipping point. It's less about heady seduction than being clubbed over the back of the head and dragged back to the cave - but it is a very good kick start. I did it in 2008 and swore never again, but here we are. When I signed up today, I noticed several old friends up there - Martha, Rowena ... so who's with me?

TODAY'S PROMPT: 30 days, 50,000 words - enough to put the fear of god into any writer. But it is possible - and fun. If you want to hook up, I'm there under my real name. There's nothing like a great group of people to get through the month. If you've never tried before, why not make 2010 your first go? http://www.nanowrimo.org/