Spinning My Wheels

This is so like me. In so many ways.

In 2006 I was reading Louise Doughty's Telegraph column, A Novel in a Year. Each week she was writing a column on some aspect of writing a book. I was using various suggestions to help generate material for The Durand Cousins. But, as so often happens to me, I fell behind in my reading. At the beginning of 2007, I could no longer find the columns at The Telegraph site. I assumed that was because Doughty was turning the columns into a book.

Then this afternoon I found the columns back at The Telegraph site. How marvelous, right? Well, yeah, except now I'd like to find time to finish reading them.

Now I can't find her columns for A Writer's Year, which she wrote in 2007. I hadn't finished reading those, either.

Falling behind, losing things, finding them much later, losing something else... Really, I think I deserve some kind of award for ever getting anything done.

This Explains A Lot

I've whined here before about how last year I was taking part in A Novel in a Year, a column written for The Telegraph by Louise Doughty. Each week she wrote about some aspect of writing and those of us who were working on a book with her used those columns for our own projects. And, of course, I fell way behind, and when I went back to the site in January, everything was gone.

Come on. Stuff stays up on the Internet for eternity, right?

Well, today I discovered that Doughty is writing a book, A Novel in a Year, based on the column. Coming out in June. This may very well be why all her material was removed from the website. She quite logically doesn't want to give away what she will be charging for in a few months.

Say! My next book is coming out in June, too!

Not that the two events are in any way related. But I thought I should mention it. Again.

The column Doughty is writing this year for The Telegraph really isn't doing much for me. It's about a writer's year, and since most writers' years are far more fascinating than mine, it seems rather masochistic to keep reading it.