Vacuum cleaners and books and Covid and Amazon.

Such a mixed couple of days. I completed several tasks that needed completing, and rejoined The Writers` Guild, and our vacuum cleaner broke, and we became reglued to the TV, just like in March and April, to see where Covid is now leading us.

Our oldest grandson is starting university – we have no idea what kind of life awaits him. I have a hope that he and others in his position will feel special, unusual, significant, given that they are starting university in the middle of the Corona Pandemic. As T`s degree is in Psychology I find myself also hoping that looking at how people deal with the pandemic will add a fourth dimension to his studies. I remember when our oldest child started university, and Jeff remembers with sadness, even after all these years, how his parents desperately wanted him to live at home, and not go away like so many other students did in the sixties. So he never left home – and never forgave his parents or himself! The bitterness of course disappeared after a few years, but a sense of envy and regret still sweeps over Jeff when he hears of children `leaving home,` to study.

Daunt books don`t accept unsolicited books to sell by the way – I enquired about the slim paperback version of M E and Me.

I rewrote another story. The Emissary. Deleted two or three beginnings of stories that never got written. I read The Last Princess, by Huddersfield author John Wheatley, and gave it a really positive review on Amazon. I`m sorry now I haven`t reviewed lots of books on Amazon. It can, I suppose, take up quite a bit of time.

Have started reading Akin, by Emma Donoghue, and am surprised to see she has used what I sometimes complain about. The ubiquitous opening of a story – its launch, being the death of a mother. Apart from the fact that she is a brilliant writer I am looking forward to reading Akin, and seeing what she makes of my `motif.`