Rochester WI…

This week I braved the early morning M25 and set off to Rochester, Kent to talk to the WI.  This was booked months ago, the first of many talks this year and so it set the standard.

What a lovely year I have in store - a warm welcome, coffee and cakes, an attentive audience – what more could you wish for on a cold February morning?  It makes up all the lonely hours sitting in front of a screen, trying to reason with characters who will not behave as I expect and unlike me, aren’t trying to follow the plot. 

I’ve had one very truculent character this week.  Her name is Tina and my plan was for her to have a bit part in this book. Tina is a Muriel Spark character, unreliable, delusional and gloriously self absorbed. I only needed her to answer the phone and stay quietly in the background while I figure out how to weave a backstory into the present predicament.  Our Tina has other plans.  She’s one woman hissy fitting hussy and  I cannot keep her down.  Six solid hours with her on Monday and I needed the WI, and the coffee and the cakes to restore my sanity.

Thank God for the WI. I look forward to to the next talk.