Good news... sublime, even...

So very good news this end: my editor likes my second book. She has concerns about structure and boring things like…. what exactly the point is…. but she says that it’s funny, warm, and the dialogue is ‘sublime.’

We could put it on my gravestone: Marianne Power did not know what the point was but her dialogue was sublime.

It’s good enough for me.

As soon as I got off the phone from her - my dialogue on the call was sublime - I opened a bottle of Prosecco. Well, first I went to the supermarket and bought the Prosecco. I wondered if the moment called for proper Champagne but then I saw the price difference and decided it didn't.

So just to sum up - Marianne Power’s dialogue is sublime and she is finally learning some financial lessons.

The book is about LOVE and tries to figure out how to live a life with love in it that doesn’t involve walking into the sunset with The One.

It explores different kinds of love - physical love, romantic, friendships, family love, community love - which I think is my editor’s concern about what the point is… it’s a bit sprawling at the moment.

But we can figure that out together. My biggest worry was that my lockdown depression would seep through the book but apparently it didn’t.

My editor - the most clever woman in the world, one with exceptional taste and good judgement - says it is very funny.

I recounted this to a friend who reminded me of a conversation I had with mum after I’d done stand up comedy for Help Me!

‘I thought it was going to be terrible!’ she said. ‘I never think of you as funny… Your sisters, yes, but you… no...’

But it’s official: I am funny.

And it’s no mystery where I get my knack for sublime dialogue.

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Happy Valentine’s Day, all. It’s a balls of a day created to sell cards and to help restaurants make money, but maybe it’s not a bad day to remember the love in our lives.

We wrote about this on Saturday’s workshop. We wrote down what we loved about ourselves, what we loved about our lives, what we loved about the world at large.

My LOVE list was broad: I loved sky and clouds and sea and pasta and cheese and Prince and my family and my friends and I loved my bed and hot baths and walking on the beach on a windy day and coffee and coffee shops and sitting in coffee shops looking at windows and laughing with friends...

I loved that I am funny and that with my singleness comes great freedom…

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I’m in this month’s issue of Red magazine, with an article about my lockdown love affair with my neighbours. It’s one of my favourite pieces. The rest of the issue looks really good too. I like Red a lot. It has real heart.

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What I’m reading

This piece from Emma Thompson on her relationship with her daughter and her mother was beautiful.

I have not yet read these articles but they sound great: (some are behind a paywall)

Romantic Love isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

My Platonic Life Partnership Went Viral on TikTok

I was single for most of my life and then I found love at 51.

I’m 37, I might be single forever and I’m happy with that.

What I learned about Open Relationships From 50 People in them.

Finally, Conversations on Love by Natasha Lunn in out in paperback now. I underlined passages on almost every page. I could not recommend it more.

What I’m watching

So I came to France for a month’s working holiday and found that even though I am living metres away from the sparkling blue sea and idyllic cobbled streets, I was still watching hours of Netflix.

One morning I woke up and, even before getting a croissant, I thought: can I fit in an episode of Friends? Then I thought: that’s not good… so last Monday I decided to take a sabbatical from TV. Noflix as my friend called it.

I was aiming for a month without telly but I lasted five days, when I caved and watched Inventing Anna. It’s by Shonda Rhymes of Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal and it’s about a con woman. It was very enjoyable, pacy, frothy and good clothes.

So Noflix has turned into Lessflix. But that’s OK I think.

What I’m buying

I am a walking, talking baguette, covered in salted French butter… and last night I took a creme brûlée to bed with me.

WORKSHOPS

There will be a Writing for Fun and Sanity workshop this Saturday 19th February. As always, pay what you can, no reading out loud, there is opportunity to chat with lovely people and never any pressure to.

Love xx

ps - Thanks for messages re last week’s newsletter about people being tired. I spoke to a life coach who says that it’s the ‘copers’ - people who have had to hold it together for other people - who are the ones who are struggling now. The upside of not being a coper and having cried through most of lockdown, is that I’m now feeling quite perky. Being in France, helps with that obviously.

Nieves, on the other hand, suggests that the cure for tiredness is doing things we love.

xxx