Changing my Mind...

The course begins on Monday - 10:30 in the morning, and I don't have a clue what I'm expecting to gain from it. No, seriously, not a damn clue...

I've read through most of the authors on the reading list now, and to be honest I've not been impressed by any of them. Took me an age to finish the last one 'Haunted' by Chuck Palahniuk and I think I'm beginning to understand why that was. I really enjoyed 90% of the book, but it seems I'm not the only writer who struggles to find good endings... Endings that grab you by the throat and shake you till your eyes rattle in your head. The authors on our reading list are all well known; prize winners; feted and lauded in the literary press, yet personally I still prefer the likes of Gaiman, Pratchett and (Bernard)Cornwell.

I've tried to understand what makes them prize winners I really have. What makes them so special to the Literati Glitterati; but now, on the eve of one of the greatest adventures of my life I put them on one side. They're not for me, and rightly or wrongly, I don't wish to be tainted by them. Yes, that's the word - tainted. They can write I grant you that, but theirs isn't a style I wish to copy. Nor for that matter is Gaiman's, or Pratchett's, or Cornwell's. No I have my own path to tread. Maybe I'm slitting my throat with these words, but what it means is that come Monday morning I walk up the hill to the Wood Lane campus with a completely open mind about the challenge that faces all of us doing this course.

Where it will lead I know not, but the excitement is so intense I can hold up my fingers and watch them tremble. 'Okay - Alzheimers...' I can almost hear you saying it, so don't pretend that's not what you're thinking - only you're completely wrong. Think I've already said something of the sort in the early days of this blog, but this coming twelve months is going to lead somewhere unexpected, somewhere special. Well, wouldn't your fingers be shaking if you felt that way?

Pia... if you ever read this, thank you. I owe you so much, for the way you've pushed me these past 8 months. The way you've criticised both me and my work, tearing down the walls I'd built to protect my safe and uninspiring little world. Forcing me at last to face up to the true realities of what my life had become. Some days you've pushed me to the edge of exhaustion. We've had our battles, and I know they've been pretty fierce at times. Yet whatever life throws at us, (and I believe that our journey together has barely yet begun), know that I will always be here to write for you. 'Tattoo Parlour' will be finished, and polished until it is of the standard you truly deserve.

With that off my chest I can now move on and start today's episode - Chapter 4.

Tack sjalv sa mycket...

Chris.