No Spitting

I'm going to start this post with something that will probably single me out as the most obsessive person in the entire world, but writers notice these things. Hopefully at least one other person will comment and say yeah, that really bugs me too. Then I won't feel quite so odd.

So...it's carrier bags. Yes, I know we shouldn't be using them and I'm very responsible and have a large assortment of reusable flowery shopping bags. (Tasteful ones.) And the reason I began using my own? Not entirely to save the planet single-handedly, no - although that is very important. Someone needs to keep the reusable bag factories belching out CO2, don't they? No, the main reason for taking my own bright pink bags to the shops is so that I don't get someone else's spit on me. What's with all the cashiers at the checkout slobbering on their hand before they pluck a plastic bag off the rack? Didn't come off first time? Hey, let's spit on our fingers again and smear some more of my bodily fluids on this obsessive writer's shopping.

I'm sorry. I don't like it. And I told a rather spotty youth who was full of cold (he had the nerve to add snot to the carrier-bag-opening mix) that I didn't want him leaving traces of himself on something I was going to put my food in. Anyway, I held up my own bag proudly while he stared at me, unable to comprehend that I'd even commented on such a thing. And if anyone works on a supermarket checkout, I know it's hard to open the darn things if people insist on using them. But perhaps a little dish of water, one of those spongey things like they used to have in the Post Office, might be more hygienic?

So, let's rise up against spitting on bags. I would start a Facebook group if I knew how (I've been trying to get to grips with it). SASOB - Shoppers Against Spitting on Bags. I mean, it's wet when you pick it up. Please tell me it's not just me that thinks this.

On a far less OCD note, (really, I'm not OCD. Not that there's anything wrong with being OCD of course. I'm just not. I was discussing similar things with a friend recently - you'll know who you are if you're reading this - and I just want to let you know that the towel thing is fine. Quite refreshing for a man to think that way. You keep right on arranging them) Anyway...as I was going to say...I'm still answering lots of brilliant questions over at the Book Club Forum. Every month, they invite an author to come and chat with their members, talk about their writing, how they got started, what they like reading, what inspires them etc etc... and so it's me this time hopefully sounding all authorly and like I know what I'm talking about. And they're a jolly nice bunch of people too. I will certainly be visiting the forum once September is over. And they're going to be running a competition with my books as prizes - so go and join in :-)

School's finally back and the house is oddly quiet during the day. Things stay where I left them; food sits in the fridge uneaten; there's no thud-thud of the kids' music shaking the floors. No one asking me for a lift to the cinema. No one asking for money. So it's full steam ahead and then some on the novel. I so desperately want to let on what it's about, but I won't for now. I had a lightbulb moment about the title recently and my agent liked it too. Fingers crossed that my ed will go for it. She has a knack of knowing what's just right, and she's always honest. Always spot on with these things. I would imagine there'll be a teaser in the back of the Unspoken paperback when it's out...maybe the first chapter or so...more will be revealed in the next few months.

Finally, a bit of clever fun from the blog of Caroline Smailes, author of recently published Black Boxes. Click the thingy below - it takes you to other places. Guaranteed no spit.

STOP PRESS NEWS: I've just seen that the new cover for UNSPOKEN is up on Amazon. Take a look and let me know what you think.