If you've been visiting this site in the last few weeks hoping for an update, I owe you a 'thank you' and a 'sorry': red-pen season is far from over and there hasn't been much time for cyber-niceties. However, I have tried to stick daily posts on Twitter and Facebook, so hopefully you've been able to follow those. (Incidentally, I should mention the new 'profile page' (?) I've been given by the people at FB: www.facebook.com/dariushalavi. Click if you're in a comradely mood.)
The process of sending the The Only Children to agents and publishers is now on the back-burner until September. I've completed a Doctor Who script which I hope to send to the Beeb in July and I've also submitted a few short stories to various competitions. All of which means that I'm more than ready for the summer break and for trying to get through as many paperbacks as I possibly can. The Mill On The Floss may well be the one I start with.
Speaking of Eliot, I wonder what she would've made of an item on the Today programme: nuggets of wisdom from great thinkers like Gandhi, Sartre and Einstein are to be included in service announcements on London Underground trains as a means of calming people down and improving their moods. Eliot's novels were nearly always lengthy tomes, so I suspect she might have been horrified by yet another attempt on the part of contemporary culture to package something complex into a convenient soundbite. Then again, I think I once came close to working out the meaning of life when I was between Hendon Central and Colindale.
A few days ago I was in London and I had cause to run along the South Bank. The reasons why aren't important: suffice it to say I was looking for someone who'd walked on ahead, and as I couldn't spot them in the crowd, I thought I'd better move up a gear. Now, I'm sure I don't need to point out that I didn't energetically burst into a majestic sprint of Olympian velocity, but I was fast enough to make the people in front of me move out of the way. And as I was dashing forth, I had an utterly depressing thought.
Here I was: male; possibly Asian-looking, possibly Mediterranean-looking, certainly foreign-looking; wearing dark glasses; carrying a bag; running through a thick London crowd during a typically busy lunch time. And I suddenly asked myself, "Is this a good idea? Should you be running like this? Wouldn't it be safer to slow down? Do you think maybe you look too... SUSPICIOUS?" And of course what I then realised is that 'they've' won. If I can no longer jog along the Thames for a few metres without wondering if some trigger-happy member of the Met is going to decide my face looks dodgy, then they have well and truly succeeded in planting fear inside us.
Yes, I realise I shouldn't be taking breaks during red-pen season, but I just wanted to let you all know about someone called Emmanuel Jal, in case you haven't already heard of him. A Sudanese rapper now in his late 20s, Emmanuel was kidnapped from his family when he was much younger and was forced to become a 'boy soldier'. His remarkable story can be read in the book War Child and it also forms the chief inspiration behind his album of the same name. If you ever get a chance to see him in person, make sure you go: he's a charismatic, humbling speaker.
He's also the founder of the GUA Africa charity which aims to improve the education of children in Africa. If you've got a few moments to spare, look him up on Google.
Wow, what a response! Thanks to every single person who took the time to write something; I really appreciate it. I received several direct messages from people who'd rather I didn't address their comments in public - as well as a handwritten note from the Divine L - but I'll reply right here to those of you who aired your views on Facebook.
Arafaat: No, I don't really want to give away too much, but I've included the word "sudden" in today's draft. Does that help?
Ambareen: Does today's rewrite whet your appetite?
Ujala: Thanks for reading it... but is it really that heavy?? And of course you're more than qualified to comment on it! Just get to the last page and tell me what you think! That's all there is to it.
Rebecca: My target audience probably is female, so I'm not going to get too worried about making the boys feel left out. But would you say today's draft is a little more guy friendly?
Harveen: I can see what you're saying, but the decision to make the pace rather breathless was quite deliberate.
Rachel: Oh my goodness, thanks for going to all that effort. I should've said that these things aren't really meant to be more than 80 words long, but I think you'll see that the version I produced today kind of follows the same train of thought as yours. I also forgot that the words 'literary fiction' really need to feature somewhere in there. There's just too much to pack in!
Lorraine: Cool. How about today's version?
Speaking of which:
A year has passed since the sudden death of her baby and Pauline has convinced the world her life has returned to normal, although she hasn’t coped with the situation and has completely withdrawn from her husband, Martin. But when she is plagued by a series of enigmatic letters, she is compelled to question the real reasons why she lost her child. Featuring a heart-breaking climax, The Only Children is literary fiction at its most intense and memorable.
I keep jotting down ideas for blog posts, but other writing commitments prevent me from being able to develop them. This is not necessarily a complaint.
After my last entry, I felt I'd been too flippant with the whole fraught subject of the late Jade Goody. I think I'd like to revisit the topic again before too long, partly because I've recently read some measured, thoughtful articles about her, and partly because of the demise of J G Ballard. It's almost as though the prophet and his prophecy have departed the world at the same time.
But for today, I shall restrict myself to a call for assistance. An agent to whom I'd like to send my book requires a three-sentence description of it. Could I please run my first attempt by you? I realise some of you haven't read the book, but that shouldn't be a handicap, should it? After all, the description is meant to grab the attention of those who aren't familiar with the whole text. Feel free to leave your thoughts in a public forum (like the Comments link on my site or on Facebook) or to send me a direct message. Here goes:
A year has passed since the death of Pauline’s baby and her life seems to have returned to normal. But when an anonymous letter arrives one day, it forces her to relive events which she has tried to forget and to question the real reasons why she lost her child. Concise, compelling and topical, The Only Children moves at an unstoppable pace towards a heart-breaking and memorable climax.
The house is back in order and Lent is over, which gives me at least two reasons to utter a resounding Alleluia. Now all I need to do is take complete possession of my 'new' study, because at the moment, it still seems to have possession of me.
For the last three years, my Lenten abstinence has entailed giving up all music and radio, which - when coupled with my attitude towards TV and newspapers - means that I plunge myself into pretty much a total media blackout. But inevitably, some news stories manage to reach me in the middle of my desert, and I always think it's interesting to compile a brief list of them. Here's this year's selection; make of it what you will.
~ Jade Goody approached death.
~ Jade Goody got closer to death.
~ Jade Goody was on the verge of death.
~ Jade Goody died.
~ The entire nation (?!??!?) mourned Jade Goody's passing.
~ Jade Goody had a funeral.
~ Jade Goody had another funeral (or maybe she didn't).
[I could go on in similar fashion, but I won't... and before anyone accuses me of speaking ill of the dead, can I just say that I'm not speaking ill of her, but of the people who seem to consider her demise one of the most important events of the century. Moving on...]
~ Michael Parkinson called Jade Goody ignorant and puerile.
~ An Italian town was struck by an awful earthquake.
~ The Bank Of England didn't lower the interest rate.
~ The Pet Shop Boys released a new CD.
~ A cabinet minister used tax payers' money to pay for her husband's pornography.
~ The world's leaders decided money will solve all our problems.
~ A newspaper vendor was unnecessarily attacked by a Met Police Officer. The vendor then died.
~ Barak Obama came to the UK. He brought his car with him.
I was going to say normal service has been resumed, but I guess it never really ceased.
![[Valid RSS]](valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed")
