the head pokes up above the parapet

Blogging has somehow slipped back into hiatus - one thing after another seems to be conspiring to keep me away from the keyboard.  Actually, it keeps me at the keyboard, but on the revenue earning stuff rather than the pleasure writing.  Even the short stories have taken a bit of a back seat recently.

However, there is starting to be a light at the end of the tunnel again, and there's quite a bit to get through, so hopefully soon you'll be treated to my views on Sandy Denny, 10k road races, Loch Ness, and, if you believe the MOD rumour mill, catastrophic procurement U-turns that will render our new carriers what could euphemistically be termed "interesting"....

The hiatus stumbles to a conclusion

What we see here is actual words in an actual blogpost - the shock!  The general craziness of life has subsided, but it's been a good time to take stock, reassess, and all the rest of it (to say nothing of note just how many ways the Chancellor has developed to extract my assets....).

When I first started this blog, last year, there was a manifesto of sorts to go poking around in the sort of places that people overlook - to say that actually there are wonderful places right here under our nose, and that to pass them up for a safari holiday, for example, is nothing so much as an abject failure of imagination.  However, it quickly developed into much more of a meditation on Englishness, rather than England per se, and I wonder if that doesn't need to take more of a back seat in the future - I'm pretty sure that my just about three figures readership has worked out where I stand and it doesn't do to become a one trick pony.  I think it's going to be a more rich seam to mine for the growing short story output to be honest - watch this space; there's a novel coming in the next year or so too!  It's only taken me seven years - now just got to find a publisher....

However, in the hope that the audience haven't quietly drifted away, seduced by shinier things in the slightly-longer-than-expected pause; coming in the next week:

What we need from the next Archbishop of Canterbury

Carrier Aircraft U-Turn?

and

The Biggest Bang you've never heard of (or heard)......

Matt

other people write things too...

Just while I'm vaguely on the subject of literary ventures, let me point you in the direction of a friend of mine who's currently preparing his first novel for publication.  It's always difficult to engage in log rolling when you are part of the struggle yourself, but in the spirit of doing something unusual/out of character on February 29th, I do urge you to go and have a read of what it's like to be a struggling author (albeit one with a multibook deal immediately on graduation.....):

http://henryvr.wordpress.com/

Oh, and happy leap year!  I'm always rather glad to see the back of Februaries - they're never very happy times (or, at least, they haven't been for the last couple of years....)