LATE NIGHT EDITION 1st May
I woke early to get to College. I switched off the alarm.
I pulled back the blinds...
Fucking rain again.
It is England, 2003, and on a rainy morning on May Day Tony Healey trudges through muddy puddles that splatter up his jeans and over his shoes, and gets to College.
Only when he gets there, wet, miserable, cold, tired, bored, etc etc, he finds that half of the class hasn't turned up so the teacher turns everyone out, letting them have the morning off.
So he trudges back through the wet streets to his home, has time for a coffee and some quick toast, and then heads back off out for English Language.
*
Somewhere in my day today I found the time to shoot with my digital camera and put 'em up on the site. I hope y'all liked them. Seeing the circus there sure was a surprise.
*
Tomorrow two of my work mates leave for pastures new. Samyo and Xin leave tomorrow after work and never come back.Thankfully, I'll get both of their e-mails tomorrow and we'll stay in touch.
They're the funkiest Chinese guys on the planet.
I'll post some pics of them tomorrow in my last LATE NIGHT EDITION of the week. I don't post anything in my diary section over the weekend, remember.
I got a bit further with The Grapes Of Wrath. I could weep its so beautifull.
Fucking read it.
*
I found an interesting link to a site concerned with metaphor today.
Here is the address.
www.leicestershire.gov.uk > > > go there and click on the education link. If I remember correctly its around about there.
I pick up FREE ENTERPRISE tomorrow. So that should be cool.
On Monday I'm gonna blow some of my money on the TAKEN DVD boxset. I dont really have the money to do so, but what the fuck.
We're talking DVD here!?
Tonight I'm going to watch A CLOCKWORK ORANGE... again. I love that film. I find it hilarious... why does everyone else find themselves disgusted by it?
Tomorrow or Sunday I may go and see DreamCatcher at the cinema. But I'm not sure yet.
If I do, expect my take on it in Monday's Diary entry.
*
I got my mark back today for my short story that I submitted for coursework. This is the final mark that counts for one third of my final grade in the whole course.
It was 42 out of 60, which means a B.
I had to submit two pieces, one a radioscript and one a short story. My radioscript was absolute gobshite.
So it's dragged my mark down. But if the radioscript had been good, then I would have gotten an A for it.
Which is fine by me.
At least I nearly touched the sky...
Mind you though, saying that, last year I got an A in my Shakespeare section of the exam. So go figure.
*
Here is a brief extract from my short story AFTER ANNA which you can read here on this site under the WRITING section.
AFTER ANNA - Final Draft
Written by Tony Lee Healey.
The night had gone on for what seemed an eternity. But it was light outside; the many gas lights that they had had installed specially for the wedding gave a warm glow that made the snow appear golden. The night air was cold, and...
I stopped there. I had begun writing my new novel, my seventh in fact, early in the summer break. It was now nearing winter and I was no further along. I had written three lines; they were perfect lines that were in keeping with the style and voice that I had written my previous novels in. It was just that I didn't seem to be able to progress past them. I knew roughly the story that I wanted to tell, and how to tell it (with my experience in the publishing business, it comes quite naturally) but for some reason I found it almost impossible to continue.
I would sit for hours at a time, putting in maybe one word an hour. Those words would later be deleted, and I would be left with what I had before. A condition that I had never before believed in, occurred to me every time that I sat down at my laptop to write. It made me feel sick to my stomach every time, because I knew why this was the case: Writers Block. It was like a brick wall in front of my mind, cutting off my imagination's contact with the keyboard. I knew precisely why I had it.
My girlfriend had died two years before, in a horrendous car accident that the doctors had told me, would have killed her within seconds. It had taken me a long time to even accept it, let alone deal with it. I had taken to smoking a little dope for a time.
One night, totally stoned, I had seen her walk into the living room and sit opposite me. She sat there smiling, and then vanished. After that I never lit another piece of dope; I didn't want to see my own manifestations of a woman who was no longer here, and a woman whom I had loved. I wanted to remember Anna as she had been before she had set off on that foggy morning of June 23rd to drive to her parents house.
It had taken me a long time to get back on track not only with my life, but my career. Aside from writing romantic novels, I teach creative writing at an all girls College not far from where I live. Its miserable money, since I'm not officially a proper teacher and only teach for three periods a week, but it gives me something to do with my day other than sit in my study writing. I also get to read up to twenty short stories every weekend, which (I think at least) keeps my mind fresh and active.
The night had gone on for what seemed an eternity. But it was light outside; the many gas lights that they had had installed specially for the wedding gave a warm glow that made the snow appear golden. The night air was cold, and...
I stared back at the glimmering laptop screen that sat ready and waiting. My fingers tiptoed lightly over the keys.
The night had gone on for what seemed an eternity. But it was light outside; the many gas lights that they had had installed specially for the wedding gave a warm glow that made the snow appear golden. The night air was cold, and Susan wondered why she was outside smoking, when she could have been inside; smokers were allowed at the wedding reception, weren't they?
And as soon as it appeared, it was gone...
*
Read the rest at your own disposal.
Sleep well everyone. Tomorrow night I buy the pizza, my treat.
Look after each other.
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