A woman's work....

Getting up twice a night to feed a small squally son tends to make my creative juices run rather dry, hence the lack of posting. It's the normal early baby chaos: there are piles of washing in various states everywhere, cat litter all over the landing and sheets that SERIOUSLY need changing. I won't go on, you get the less-than-fragrant picture.

I've long held the opinion that it's nearly impossible to look after everyone, have a clean house, clean clothes and a general state of domestic calm AND work creatively at the same time. There's something about the repetitive tedium of domestic tasks that dampens the creative spark. Or at least it always has done in me. Which means I haven't written anything fiction related for several months.

What is interesting is a very old, dear friend of mine (my mentor in book publishing, waaay back in the day) has similar issues but the key thing is - she's ALSO working. And writing and being published at that.

So I'm right, you can't to do it all. The answer is a) staff - what I wouldn't give for a general housekeeper-cum-nanny or b) let it all fall as it may and get the creative stuff done. Unfortunately, I hate mess so feel compelled to tidy up even if it means shoving stuff randomly in cupboards which drives Dr G mad.

Not sure what to add to that, except, thank god for my cleaners.
Lucy

The converse of 'In the Loop'

As breastfeeding means I sit down alot, I've been reading alot. I read somewhere that everything influences your milk (probably rubbish but hey, who knows?) so I've been reading macho books every so often, like 'The Requiem Shark' about Black Bart the pirate (brilliant if you haven't read it), and 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' by Hemingway.

I've never really gotten along with Hemingway, too misogynist for my tastes, so it's slow going, but on page 47 I found the antidote to Malcolm Tucker.

Originally printed in 1941, they obviously thought swear words far too racy so here's a snippet:

'...we blow up an obscene bridge and then have to obscenely well obscenity ourselves off these mountains...Go to the unprintable... and unprint thyself!'

How fab. This sorts out swearing in front of children!

So I'll unprint off, and obscenely post again soon,

Lucy

Forgive my tardiness, it's been a busy time

Once again, here I am, apologising for lack of posting. But I'm sure this time you'll understand when the reason is having a baby.

Suffice to say, the op went well, the surgeon was great (all the midwives keep saying 'very neat scar' which I hope is true), and the medical staff at Macclesfield Maternity Unit were/are fab.

At risk of sounding like I'm at an award ceremony, I'd like to thank everyone for the cards, presents, flowers, emails, comments and blog postings. We're all doing just fine but our state of wellness is def helped by the fact that bouquets of flowers keep arriving along with parcels, cards etc etc.

I didn't forget you while this was going on, and will write more about the joys of pain relief later, I just wanted to share one thing. Amongst the many 'moments' over the last week, one stands out, which was when I realised that there was nothing better I could be doing other than looking after my new son.

Yes, I know women across time have all felt this, but I haven't. It's rare for me not to be considering what else I should be doing, how many other tasks I could and should be cramming into my day.

But not right now. Right now, I'm doing the best, only and single most important activity there is. I believe it's called 'living in the moment'. And you know what, it feels great.

Lucy