Clear Thinking

It’s been quite a week or more – ten days to be precise: back and forth to London twice – and in the heat, the Royal Albert Hall, the rolling hills of Surrey, countless motorway road works, champagne – twice, a party and a final show. All of this played out against the backdrop of a crazy man with a gun on the loose in Rothbury, the hitherto sleepy town, just up the road in Northumberland, where the sky was awash with helicopters and the countryside and streets flooded with armed police, armed vehicles and journalists from across the UK. On balance, last week, leafy Surry seemed a safe bet.

And the way it all finally ended – who says truth isn’t stranger than fiction?

On the subject of fiction – it’s a long game waiting to know the fate of your novel – about six months now — but I’m not complaining – it’s a game I’d much rather been in than not.

Thanks to the hard work of my agent my Danny Beck novel is still out there under consideration with both mainstream and independent publishers, and what has been really encouraging for me is that one editor already likes it very much. Unfortunately a deal is currently not possible for various reasons, however it bodes well for the future and I am so pleased that it has found such favour with an editor and her co-publishers. Someone in the publishing world believes in my novel and often (perhaps not in this case, although maybe – time will tell) one person is enough.

So back to waiting and writing of course – and back also to remembering the Seven Habits of Highly Unhappy People! one of my Clear Thinking weekly insights (if you want to find out more or subscribe then click the link) – the habits listed are Judging, Criticising, Complaining, Blaming, Arguing, Competing and Controlling (i.e. trying to control others)

OK so it’s impossible not to employ some of these habits some of the time, I know, but resisting them leads to a much more positive outlook and comes in very handy when you have to deal with rejection, disappointment or difficulty. Try it and see.