Thursday 7 February 2008

The Wasteland twice, Agents, Russian paintings, tea with poets

Wednesday was good.

I read The Wasteland on the train to London. Not having had it beaten to death at school or university, and coming at it fresh as a writer, I can't get enough of it.

I had been invited to visit a literary agent to 'talk about my writing', and did so with great interest.

Then treated self to a glass of bubbly over a solitary lunch.

Then went to see the Russian exhibition at The Royal Academy.

Then met a friend, a poet, for tea at a nearby emporium.

Then read The Wasteland again on the train home. It holds such perfection in every phrase, every pause.

2 comments:

Karen said...

That sounds like a perfect day to me :o)

I remember reading a story of yours over at JBWB, I think it was, a year or so ago, and was blown away by it. It featured a boy and a tunnel...was it part of the novel? Can't wait to read it one day!

Vanessa Gebbie said...

Hi Karen, thanks for dropping in.

That story 'The Time it Takes' ended up being the key to the whole thing. Two years later. Funny how these things work.

The relevant part of the novel uses the same image of a boy killed while trying to squash a penny in a railway tunnel but it is a small part of the whole... hidden inside a modern retelling of the story of Doubting Thomas.

I had to wait a long time before I found the voice I wanted to live inside for a length of time, and met characters I was prepared to let into my house for years!

good luck with your novel, too.

V