Author diaries

[Previous entry: "Rabbits and Builders"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "Message from Newfoundland"]

18 September 2003 Entry: "Trains and dust mites"

Well, yesterday was the day. I handed in my MA portfolio and now just have to wait for the results. It was a strange feeling, after two years, realising that I won't be making the journey to university a couple of times a week. It's become so familiar that sometimes, when I'm supposed to be driving to the railway station, I've been on automatic pilot and headed to my usual parking spot.
Since my last diary entry, I've been to London and Reading as part of my "proper" job (i.e. the one that occupies weekdays and provides that essential pay packet). Both involved train journeys. I love travelling by train. In my teens I went on one of those Eurorail trips and became so addicted to the journeying that I can remember very little about the places that I visited. The trains and the people on them are the images that I brought home.
I am probably the worst person to sit next to on a long journey. For one thing, I must have a big notebook to write in, then something to read, book plus newspaper, and a cup of coffee.
On my train journey back from Reading on Monday night I used the time to work on a radio play. I'm doing the Ignite course on writing for radio which began with two weeks at Sunderland University in June - a fantastic experience and steep learning curve for me. The problem with dialogue is that you have to hear it, so it's probably just as well the carriage was almost empty as I mouthed the lines to myself, timing it with the stop watch on my mobile phone.
On my trip to London, I was trying to think about small things. Like Ellen I've got that task at the moment. I'd just read an amazing article on dust mites. This, and the realisation that I was sharing my hotel bed with so many creatures, set me not only scratching but writing. Then I became a bit worried. Would dust mites dream? Did that sound too ridiculous? Only one thing for it. I tracked down the author on the internet and sent him an email with the poem. No, I was ok - so thank you Robert Dunn in Australia for technical info and some of the images in the poem.
Still on the internet, I've downloaded the latest stories for the save our short story website to read, hopefully over the weekend, and also visited the new poetry magazines archive set up by the Poetry Library. This is a free access site to an increasing list of publications, including Magma, Smiths Knoll, The North and lots more. Is this a great idea? Well, I enjoyed reading some of the poems and I think it will be useful, but it's no substitute for sitting with your own copy of the book (or borrowing someone else's as there's a limit to the number of subscriptions we can afford). Also, mags depend on sales to keep going. I hope people will dip into the online archive and decide to subscribe to at least one of the titles, but it could work the other way.
Looking forward to the return of The Verb on Radio 3, Saturday night. If you're a regular listener, don't forget it's got an earlier start at 9.30pm. Happy listening!