Start the way you mean to go on ...

Well, so much for my plans for a relaxed year.  Four days into 2012, and I am already frantically leafing through my diary, wondering how on earth I’m going to fit everything in.  There was a time when I had a reputation as a recluse, when I was super disciplined and sternly refused to go out when I was writing.  I think I may be having a delayed adolescence as now it’s all about a social life and weekends away and holidays and oh,  yeah, I’d better write a couple of books too ... 

I had my kitchen and attic bedroom repainted while I was away over Christmas and the New Year, so there is stuff everywhere, and I still haven’t properly unpacked after two weeks away.  I got home yesterday evening, and all I seem to have done so far is create more mess.  All the clutter is making me twitchy but it seems too hard to deal with it.  I keep picking things up and putting them down again and feeling ineffectual, which is not a good start to the year.

Anyway, time for me to lash myself back to my keyboard.  Revisions for Time’s Echo first, and then it’s back to Frith and George, whose story got rather shelved in the post-nose, pre-Christmas limbo.  The much-trumpeted We’ll Always Have Paris is finally out in the UK this month, although I still don’t know when it’ll be released in North America. 

First, though, I’ll be in London on Friday 13th January, for the opening of “Caddington Hall”, the fifth and final exhibition in the project (Now that would be) Telling which features works by artist Hayley Lock and five writers in different genres, including me. I wrote a short piece in the style of a Regency romance, based on a portrait for the project,.  I’ve always loved Regencies, so it was fun to try my hand at it, and I’ll be reading an excerpt at the opening.  I’ve never done a reading before, so if you’re in London, do come along!  Details below.

(Now that would be) Telling at Caddington Hall opens on Friday 13 January 2011 at six o’clock in the evening at Transition Gallery, Unit 25a (second floor) Regent Studios, 8 Andrews Road, London E8 4QN. Featuring new work by Miss Hayley Lock and a commissioned text by Miss Jessica Hart, curated by Miss Catherine Hemelryk. The opening will be followed by a reading of the text by Miss Jessica Hart. All most welcome.

(Now that would be) Telling is on view until 5 February 2012 during normal opening times.

“Caddington Hall was a grand residence in rural Bedfordshire, sadly demolished in the 1970s. Hayley Lock has created a new series of works for Caddington depicting lovers of a Lady of the House in sumptuous velvets, brocades gilt and fringing referencing interiors of a bygone era and digitally manipulated landscapes that play out stories of their love. Scandal and romance collide further with romance novelist Jessica Hart’s short story that accompanies the exhibition.”