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Sunday, January 04, 2004
Some Japanese people, yesterday Japan suddenly seems to have become achingly trendy. This month's Arena magazine has a guide to life (and underwear) in Japan. Then, of course, there are all the J-themed movies coming out: Lost In Translation, The Last Samurai (anyone seen it?; any good?), Kill Bill Volume 2 and, um, well, I'm sure there are more on the way. David Mitchell, author of Ghostwritten has a new novel out in March too. So all this means that I need to get my arse into gear and finish Sayonara Baby before the zeitgeist moves on to Korea or El Salvador or somewhere else I've never been. I'm about 92000 words in, and counting. I don't even have to click 'word count' - the total is always there at the bottom of the screen, goading me. Actually, 92000 words is enough for a whole novel, but unfortunately you can't just say, 'Right, that's 300 pages' and end it. There's all that annoying plot resolution stuff to deal with. Sigh... I think the real reason I haven't been rushing to finish it is that the thought of going through the whole agent- and publisher-seeking thing is just soooo depressing. I'm seriously thinking about self-publishing it and using my marketing, ahem, expertise to flog it online. Apart from becoming a world-famous author, my other new year resolutions are: 1) To go to the gym twice a week. I will conquer the boredom of the cross-trainer and get that flat stomach I've always dreamed of. 2) To develop gravitas, as mentioned below. 3) To collect all 7 DVD box sets of Buffy. One of these resolutions might be easier than the others. |