BarryHutchison.com

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t work Sundays, although I’ve had to do some stuff today which was vaguely work-like.  I’ll explain in more detail tomorrow.

I intended this to be a big let’s-look-back-at-November type post, reliving the highs and lows of 30 days of steady posting, but:  1)  This is post 99.  I’ll do a 100th post spectacular type thing tomorrow instead of a big one today, and 2) Louis Theroux is on in a minute, and I’ve been looking forward to it all week.  I’m going to watch it in bed with a cuppa – something I rarely get the chance to do these days.

So come back tomorrow for the 100th BLOG POST SPECTACULAR!  It’ll be GREAT!

Probably.

Today I:

1. Wrote a prologue
2. Met Santa
3. Fell asleep
4. Deleted the prologue
5. Wrote another one
6. Watched the X-Factor
7. Watched the X-Factor results
8. Realised I hadn’t eaten in 11 hours
9. Ate
10. Panicked that I hadn’t saved the second prologue
11. Realised I had
12. Wrote this blog

And that’s it.  On paper it almost looks like a busy day.  Almost.  Of course in reality it wasn’t.  I class Saturdays as working days, but spent perhaps one hour in total doing any actual writing.

That’s the great thing about being a writer, though.  You can spend a couple of hours actually putting words on a page, then spend the rest of the day thinking about some words you might eventually put on a page, and it counts as a full day’s work.

No other job on Earth allows such a slack work ethic, surely?  I mean, brain surgeons don’t spend an hour or so doing an operation, then waste the next five thinking about brains they might one day like to cut into, do they?  It’s a writer only thing, I think, and rightfully so.

I’m trying to resist commenting on X-Factor, but it’s proving difficult.  I won’t say anything about who should have gone out and who shouldn’t, but did you see Britney’s performance?!  It wasn’t just that she was miming, I’m not even sure she was miming to the right song.  I half expected her to stop in the second verse and say “Oh, we’re doing this one?”.  T’was terrible.

We’ve a lot to get through in the blog tonight, so if everyone could please shut up for five minutes, we can get started …

First up, Happy Birthday to me old mucker, Tommy Donbavand, who turns ancient today.  I think he’s like eight-six or eighty-seven or something.  I forget.  He looks good for it, though.

Well, quite good.

Actually, he’s nowhere near that age.  He’s still just a young ‘un, relatively speaking.  Barely older than me, in fact.  Just ten and a bit years, is all.  Ten long, withering years.

I first encountered Tommy a decade ago, meaning when we met he was the age I am now, and I was the age he was when I … I was the age he’ll … his age was the age I’ll be when he … when I … he’ll …

…

Ah, forget it.

In other news, today I received a MASSIVE stack of books, courtesy of Egmont UK.  The writing I’ve done for them entitled me to some freebies, and because I’m a lazy oik, I hadn’t placed an order in ages.  Last week or so I finally got round to putting an order in, and today the FedEx man came staggering up the path, bow-legged with the weight of the box.

I have now – finally – completely my Mr Men collection, and am the proud owner of over a dozen of Egmont’s other fine publications.  I’ll list some of them soon, if I have the time.

Why wouldn’t I have the time?  Because I got my editorial notes on the latest draft of book one of my horror series today.  The final draft is due by January, so I’m going to be a busy bee over the next few weeks, hammering the current version into shape.

Finally, last night I had the greatest dream I have ever had in my life.  It had everything – giants, robots, rockets, a small family-owned supermarket, and a ninja on a bike.  Bliss.

As a long-time fan of monsters-which-really-shouldn’t-be-frightening (e.g. slow moving fog, killer rabbits, and people pointing a bit and going “waaaaah”) I was delighted to discover that the BBC is doing an adaptation of John Wyndham’s Day of the Triffids, to be screened in 2009.

I for one can’t get enough of the whole walking killer plant concept, so I’m already eagerly awaiting the two feature length episodes.  Like virtually everything noteworthy at the BBC at present, it’s being shot in Wales, so expect her from Torchwood to show up somewhere.  And Tom Jones.

And that one with the xylophone in Hi-De-Hi.  Or was it a Glockenspiel?  I forget.

For full details of the show (Triffids, I mean – not Hi-De-Hi) point your dirty little browsers here.

I’ve just finished reading Batman #681, which – I’m sure you’re all only too aware – was the conclusion to the Batman R.I.P. storyline.

Written by my fellow Scot, Grant Morrison, Batman R.I.P. has been hyped up to insane levels in the comic book community over the past few months.  Morrison promised a saga with shocking twists, and what he called “the end of Bruce Wayne as Batman”.

What was delivered was – to my mind – something of a confusing mess.  There were so many characters in the storyline I lost track of who was who and why any of them were doing the things they were doing.  The storyine jumped about from place to place, while also flicking forwards and backwards in time.  Cliffhangers from issue 680 seem to have been forgotten about for the concluding issue (Commissioner Gordon in the booby-trapped Wayne Manor, anyone?) and generally the whole thing felt a bit sloppy.

I won’t give details about the ending in case I spoil it for anyone, although it’s so bland there’s not a lot to be spoiled.  It was all very disappointing, although nowhere near the awfulness of Jeph Loeb’s recent run on HULK.  If ever someone deserved to be whipped across the legs with reeds, it’s him.

It’s hard to believe that it’s nearly December.  Well, not that hard.  I mean the calendar speaks for itself.  But you know what I mean.

I started this blog in February of this year.  The very first post was made while I was on a train to Glasgow, to meet up with my (then prospective) agent, Kathryn Ross.  That meeting went well, and things have continued to go well writing-wise ever since.  I’ll do a recap of the year’s events in the last week of December, by which point I should be allowed to fill you in on the details of my book deal.

The fact it’s almost the end of November means it’s almost the end of my Post-a-Day™ experiment.  In some ways it has been fun.  In others it has been a binding chore.  Mostly fun, though.

I’m not going to continue writing a new post every day in December, but I think I’ll post more regularly than I have done in the past.  Plus I have something EXTRA special lined up for the run up to Christmas itself.  More will be revealed in the next couple of weeks.

On another note, tomorrow Fiona returns from the UK.  I can hardly wait.  It’s amazing how much you can miss someone, even if they’re only away a few days.  Plus there’s a stack of ironing needing doing …

Sorry the last few posts have all been painfully short.  This whole being-left-in-sole-charge-of-everything lark is proving to be trickier and more time consuming than I expected.

So before I go iron school clothes, prepare school packed lunch, wrap shoebox for school shoebox appeal, tidy away dinner dishes, load the washing machine, load the tumble drier, and ultimately collapse exhausted into bed, here’s a link to the new trailer for the upcoming Star Trek reboot.  It looks excellent, and you even get to hear a bit of Simon Pegg’s Scotty accent.

Click here to go take a look.

Cutting it fine for today’s post, but … er … here it is.

Tomorrow, my other half returns to the UK for a few days, leaving me in sole charge of our six-year-old son.

God help us both.

As a long time user of Google Mail, I was surprised to log on today and find a new announcement waiting for me.  As I read it, I felt a big bubble of excitement well up inside me like … er … a big bubble (I’m the similie king – fact).

Google has today launched a range of themes for GMail.  Rather than having just the plain old blue and white interface, I can now customise it in a number of ways.  Mine now looks like a messy desk – not unlike this website.  Or, indeed, my desk.

It’s a great day for Google Mail users and the easily distracted alike.  Hooray for Google!  Hooray for Google Mail Themes!  Hooray for me!

Just slipped that last one in there.  My ego needed fed.