Gaza - What else?

Hmm. So there are various sides to this story. Who knew?

I've just come back from visiting one of my favourite columnists - Thomas L. Friedman (that's the wonderful thing about the net - he didn't even know I was there), who put the whole thing into interesting perspective in his New York Times op-ed piece The Mideast’s Ground Zero

Mr Friedman is part environmental activist, part economist, part many other things: I recently downloaded podcasts of his book The World Is Flat and listened to all nine hours straight; and when I grow up and make lots of money I intend buying his newest book "Hot, Flat and Crowded" (you'd think the government would zero-rate books, wouldnya? Make them cheap as possible so that they're as accessible as possible. But not a chance - books are as expensive as they can be because there's more tax to be collected that way. Maybe there's an ANC plot to blinker the proletariat by keeping it as uneducated as possible? Now there's a thought...)

Back to Gaza, though: remember the Eagles' line "the more I think about it ol' Billy was right, let's kill al the lawyers, let's kill 'em tonight?"

Maybe if we did that to the religions, kill 'em tonight, we wouldn't need the lawyers, and then we wouldn't haveta kill 'em (the lawyers, I mean).

And Mr Friedman has argued that we fund terrorism by our ridiculous reliance on oil. So maybe the other leg of the cure for Gaza lies in finding a cure for fossil fuels?

Huh?

Writer's Block. Sunday, January 4

I woke. I ran. I stretched (viruous, wasn't I?), I showered under the garden hose; I loaded and unloaded the washing macine (twice); I read (Bryson's Shakespeare. Couldn't put it down); I slept on the couch; I ate a tuna salad; and I edited reams and reams of stuff.

What the hell ever happened to WRITING?

If I were to dare open the file, I think I'd find the last story (that's new fiction) I worked on happened about 6 months ago. It's only half way through (!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - writer's frustration depicted by illegal use of multiple ! marks). It's far from finished (!!!!!!!!!!!!). It's bugging me (!!!!!!!!!!) and yet I just can't get to it.

Sigh. So this is writer's block?

Belthar's Garden

So I finished revision number 6 and sent the manuscript off to the publishers on Boxing Day. Quite an appropriate present for them, don't you think? Or is that arrogant?

I realised on that day that this book has so far been five years in the making - it began in 2003 - an unusual day because that was when I saw the whole theme of the book in a flash (and I remember where I was when it happened). Usually, I have to drag my stories out of their closets, screaming and kicking. Unkulunkulu's Music cost me almost an entire kitchen (smash a glass? Not me. I can smash a wooden table AND break its legs and - pah! - a solid cupboard door is NOTHING).

I was walking the dogs (all theree of them were still alive then - now it's only Veisha) past the old steel barrel at the end of my driveway when it happened and I came inside and smacked out the first few pages in an hour. Then it lazed around a while, and then got going in fits and starts, until it got itself done about a year later. Now 5 re-writes down the line, and I think it's looking good.

Well, let's see what the publishers say. And please - hold thumbs for me.

New Year Blogolution

Yeah - that's it: my new year's resolution is to blog more.

Let's begin here, shall we: with a vlog post by a bloke called Benny Lewis about learning to tango:



Learning tango in Buenos Aires from Matador Network on Vimeo.

I'm next...