The Holidays

Oh, what does a writer do over the summer holidays?

I am dancing off for a month in July, driving down to Nice, then the Basque Country, then along the Portuguese coast. Don't worry, my car has air conditioning and a CD player - as if you really were concerned for me! The problem though is the writing. Words will have to be bashed out. Something will have to be created. There is no question that during the four and a half weeks away I will need to get some writing done, and of course I don't want to leave this blog to dry up and die! My plants will probably suffer that fate.

Now, normally I take my laptop along with me on such trips. Last year I dragged it through California, to the Grand Canyon, across desperate deserts, and then all the way to New Zealand. It was even in my daypack when I visited Universal Studios - stupid, I know - because the motel we stayed in didn't have good enough locks on the windows. They didn't even bother to check that it wasn't something nasty!

Well, yes, you guessed it, the bump and whistle of American life was too harsh on the laptop's floppy and hard parts and she kicked a wobbly. That's probably why she ended up blowing a fuse not long ago.

So, for the Portugal escapade, the laptop - now repaired - is staying home with Muffin, the cat (that's another long story that will hopefully work out!). Cats and laptops have no place in a hot car that'll be parked up in camping grounds, outside hotels, etc. I have French number plates and I don't fancy giving away my goods! I bought the darn laptop for such trips, but now realise that the road is no joy for such fragile things.

Well, I hear you screaming, there's always pen and paper, even though my hand has forgotten what that feels like. When did I last actually write something out by hand? I will take loads of books with me as well, all those novels that are piled up on the bookshelves waiting to dazzle me - I'm currently having a Colm Toibin moment, by the way, and thoroughly enjoying it. I will read read read until that word loses its meaning, while progress on my second novel will come over the summer with a good old fashioned biro. How romantic.

The only question now is what to do with the blog while I'm away. Do I leave it in the hands of people like Minx, Skint Writer or The Wandering Scribe? Can you imagine the fun, trying to keep the post in the same Shameless spirit! Or do I try to find Internet cafés and keep you all posted on my trip? It's true that this writing blog is now like a morning shower: it's essential and I just feel more alive and fresher afterwards. I think I will probably try to keep it going while I'm away, though there won't be the possibility of putting up photos and the like.

Roll on July the 11th! This scribe has got everything sorted!