Tuesday

The monthly new titles meeting is upon us again, which involves sales, marketing and the bosses sitting around discussing which books are important, which aren't, and which are just funny. It's not terrible, just long - today it comes in at just under 2 1/2 hours, which isn't bad. The main problem is that it starts at 11am each time and runs over my regular lunchtime. It's no fun getting down to the alphabetically-later publishers having to cough or talk to cover my stomach rumbling.

The rest of the day is spent preparing for the writing part of the sales kit - which I decide to begin by tidying my desk up a bit. It's nice throwing away the stuff that's been cluttering my desk, particularly when I had mistakenly worried that it might important.

In the evening I catch up with some writing in between watching YouTube videos and chatting to Alex on the phone and Jamie on Facebook - who has just found out the school he'll be teaching in from next term; the madness of my little brother being a teacher now - before K gets home armed with a new video game for us to play.

I had asked her to try and blag a copy of Blur since I saw its Mario Kart-baiting advert on YouTube, having half-hoped it would finally be the next-gen successor to the superb Mashed on the XBox/PS2. It's not - but it's good fun. Made by Project Gotham developers Bizarre Creations, it's effectively a cross between Burnout, Mario Kart and Wipeout - and while not a classic like any of those, it's fast, chaotic, carnage racing. K and I take turns at the races until I get upset that she's better than me and we switch it off some time after midnight. That's just not on - I'll have to get some practice in while she's out swimming tomorrow night.