Edinburgh

Three weeks without a post. This is partly because of my attendance at the Edinburgh Book Festival. It was an interesting event which seemed very author-centric. The event I was part of included Daniel Clay and Ross Raisin, whose books I read in the week before leaving for Scotland. We each read for about ten minutes and then took part in a chaired discussion about the themes in our books. Afterwards, I went to the London Review of Books party where a speech was made that ended with laughter at the announcement of a forthcoming LRB debate (in London) about the future of Scotland. Shame, it damp-squibbed the rest of the speech, which was about no one knowing what the future of the novel is, but that literary 'events' are becoming more and more popular. Does this mean that authors will have to do more performing monkey tricks? And if people are less interested in novels, why will they be more interested in literary gigging? I hope the future of the novel is safe. I've just got started. I hate it when I arrive at a party and people start leaving, know what I mean? 'Oh, you should have been here earlier, it was great…'

Other news: I have a pencilled timeframe of March/April for the exhibition at the NAC. Have painted windows. It took two days and that's just the undercoat.

Thoughts about novel: Simplification.