Blog overload

Not content with this one, the other one and the handful of other blogs I update or guest on here and there, I've only gone and started a new one!

The new one, though, is proper work on a topic that passes for an addiction in the Wordsmith Towers household - soap. No, not the stuff I lather up with in the shower. The other sort. On TV. One of 'em, anyway.

I'm busy pimping it right now on Twitter and Facebook and I'll be updating it at least once a week. That'll keep me off the streets in the evenings. And it's good to be hacking again...

The purpose of Xmas

...is the opportunity to work uninterrupted!

I'm not mad about Xmas at the best of times. I'm not religious and even if I was, Xmas would be from another religion. I do enjoy exchanging gifts with those I care about but I can quite happily ignore the rest. I reserve particular loathing for the rampant commercialism and the fact that shops seem to start the Xmas sales push earlier every year.

This year is the first in a very long time I have not spent the day with others. I was a bit nervous at first that I might wobble and feel a bit lonely, but in fact I have quite enjoyed the day. I slept late (till 8am!) then got up to brew tea and potter. It was warm so I left the back door open for several hours so my boy could play outside. And then, after coffee and phone calls, as the clock struck noon, I settled down to work.

Yes, work.

No, I've not gone mad.

But I do have a looming deadline. You may recall I signed a book contract some months ago. The manuscript is due on New Year's Eve so this week is my last opportunity to finish the writing, read it back, polish where necessary and correct any typos that have crept in.

Once I had the family phone calls out of the way, I was able to relish the bliss of working with no distractions. No clients ringing. No pop-up telling me I have email. No urge to waste time on Facebook or other forums. There's been a limited amount of activity on Twitter. But the net has been very quiet because everyone's doing Xmas with other people. And I've had pure, uninterrupted time to focus. I got a huge amount of work done before knocking at 5 to cook some dinner then veg out on the sofa to watch TV. I actually felt I'd really earned the right to watch telly after writing 4,000 words.

I almost wish it was Xmas every day. I love it when it's so quiet and I can be so productive. Xmas is a great cure for procrastination. And of course, if it was Xmas every day, I'd get a double helping of EastEnders as a reward for getting so much done.

I'l be working like this for the next 6 days. Then, on New Year's Eve I'll be printing my manuscript off, parcelling it up and popping it in the post to my publisher. My reward? A night out to see in 2009.

Media Diet Week 39

Press: I'm quite amazed at the number of physical papers I've purchased this week. Four copies of the Guardian and an Observer, a Sun and a News of the World plus my local paper (for the first time in weeks) and 2 Daily Mirrors. This was largely down to the amount of travelling I've done since 8 days ago. Reading newspapers on trains is practically obligatory and certainly passes the time. One thing I've noticed is I have actually read more. I suppose it's partly because I've paid for the papers and want to get my money's worth but I'm also very aware that when reading the papers online I tend to just skim the headlines and only click on those that entice me. With a print copy, my eye is drawn not just to the headlines but also the opening paragraphs and that determines whether I'll keep reading or not. On the net, papers tend to offer only the headline of a story - the sole determinant of a click-through. Perhaps there is a lesson there for the designers of the online editions...

Blogs: two journalists I admire have started blogs - stand up Kate Bevan and Anne Wollenberg. My current gripe, though, is with Technorati, which seems to be permanently borked. Technorati's admin have admitted to having indexing problems and a backlog to catch up on but weeks later nothing seems to be fixed. Their last site status report, dated 12 September, claims all problems are resolved when they clearly are not - a look at the discussion board reveals endless complaints from fed-up bloggers who are not being automatically pinged. This particular blog went unpinged for a whole month. It took four requests to admin to get them to push a status update through for me (which saw lots of new incoming links and a hefty rise in my ranking) but since then it has languished unpinged again, 12 days and counting. I'm not alone in feeling frustrated by Technorati, which seems to be rapidly losing its reputation among bloggers as the essential indexing site. I'm looking into alternatives myself now that I can longer rely on Technorati for reliability.

TV/radio: apart from EastEnders and Strictly Come Dancing, I'm still watching very little TV. EastEnders is attracting huge controversy just now for running a long-term storyline about paedophilia. It has been really well-scripted so far, with some terrific acting and I think if it helps even one abused child break their silence it will have done good. Looking back over the last few weeks, I seem to have started watching a number of things and abandoned them - Merlin and Mutual Friends to mention just 2. Very few of the new serials seem compelling enough to make me want to tune in again. Usually the autumn season signals a decent run of programmes but I suspect at this rate I may be signing up for adult ed classes to fill my evenings.

Books: the other good thing about spending endless hours on trains is the chance to get stuck into a juicy book. Last Sunday's trip back from the capital gave me the opportunity to blitz Piers Morgan's Don't You Know Who I Am? Disappointly, while he mentioned buying Press Gazette and then, a bit later, deciding not to attend its fabled Press Awards, he failed to write about the collapse of PG under his and Matthew Freud's ownership. It would have been interesting to hear his version of events but perhaps poor Piers felt it might be too painful to recall...

Media Diet Week 38

Press: despite my best intentions, it was late Monday by the time I was back in the habit of reading the news again. And Tuesday by the time I was reading my usual daily round of papers online. There's been only one story all week worth paying attention to - the global financial crisis. I've been affected directly by this - I edit for overseas investment banks and my daily workload unexpectedly dried up when trading was suspended on the exchanges in some countries as their listed shares went into freefall. But I digress. What was most interesting was how the financial news seemed to be being driven by one man - Robert Peston, the BBC's business editor. His updates on the HBOS takeover by Lloyds were extraordinary by any standard, with hourly updates of the hottest gen ages before anyone else knew what was going on. It was fascinating and addictive to watch and no other news outlet was so on the ball.

Blogs: undoubtedly, the event of the week for me was tagging onto the back end of the Manchester Evening News' hosting of the Manchester Bloggers meeting. An incomplete round-up of the blog reports has already been posted. I was chuffed to see my pull quote, it certainly put a smile on my face. I still want a MEN coffee mug, though. It's always interesting to meet other bloggers - mostly they are faceless entities who draw you in with their prose and meeting them in the flesh can be a bit of a shock, but you get to see other sides of them than just the one that comes across in their posts. Web 2.0 and social networking are not to be sniffed at but human contact is important too.

TV/radio: another thin week for me given my busyness. I missed most of my regular TV fare and was reduced to catching up with EastEnders on iPlayer, godsend that it is as I refuse to subscribe to SkyPlus. I love the easy availability of online content, especially when it's live - I had an enjoyable afternoon today half-listening to and half-watching the Andy Murray Davis Cup rubber on the internet as I was hacking away with work stuff.

Books: sadly for Creditor, I'm still enjoying Piers Morgan's latest, Don't You Know Who I Am?, which is keeping me entertained on trains right now. Interestingly, at 40 or so pages in, he mentions the decision to buy Press Gazette with Matthew Freud (I wonder, Creditor, are you berating Freud too, or those who blog about him? Just curious...) but haven't got as far as the bit where he fesses up about how it all went to so wrong. No doubt I'll be wiser by the time I get back from my weekend away, which will include long hours passed on trains with books. Only then shall I pass judgement, if I need to pass it at all. The Blair Years is on hold for now. Must be because it's conference season, which is as good a reason as any to ignore politics.

Media Diet Week 37

Warning: this will be a very thin one.

Press: I have not read a paper for a whole week! There, I've said it. I left home last Sunday lunchtime and didn't return till very late on Tuesday night. Normally on a Sunday I'd be stuck into The Observer and the News of the World, but I had no time last week as I was packing to go away. Monday and Tuesday I had limited access to the net so my time online was limited to scanning my email for anything urgent. Wednesday I was back home, looking at a day filled with playing catch-up. I was vaguely aware that it was Big Bang Day but didn't have the energy to pay a lot of attention. Anyway, I don't seem to have been sucked into a black hole yet. Not that sort, anyway. By Thursday I was simply out of the habit of reading the news and although I planned to resume today, it hasn't happened. Living without the news is a bit weird at first, then you sort of stop caring. But no doubt I'll be back to normal tomorrow.

Blogs: likewise, I've been out of touch with the blogosphere. Not much seems to be happening, apart from Sally blocking a troll at Getting Ink, and rightly so. Oh, and the Guardian's blogs all moved house, sort of. Anyway, they're all in one spot now, which is handy.

TV/radio: being away meant missing half of EastEnders. I planned to catch up on the omnibus but life got in the way. The second half got interesting, though, with a couple of very juicy and lengthy storylines in the offing about revenge and paedophilia (not necessarily linked). I was tickled to learn from the BBC's press releases that Tom Archer is to be appointed Controller of Factual Production. Sadly, the real Tom Archer is still raising pigs in Ambridge. I've watched very little else but did tune into Radio 4 for the Torchwood drama on Big Bang Day. Excellent stuff.

Books: I'm still no further forward with Alistair Campbell's Blair Years diaries. I have a long train trip coming up next weekend so I plan to attempt another chunk. At this rate, I might finish them by Xmas. I did take yesterday off to finish Spider, which was quite good on tension but I was able to guess the plot all too easily. I'm now about 3 pages into Piers Morgan's Don't You Know Who I Am?. Review next week.

Media Diet Week 15

Press: it's been a busy week, meaning I've had little time to do more than just skim my papers online over the last 7 days. I've not even opened a magazine, apart from Press Gazette, which arrived late as usual.

Blogs: Roy Greenslade pointed me in the direction of Kristine Lowe, who has an intelligent and thoughtful take on hacking and blogging. Meanwhile, those delightful Churners managed to churn themselves. Foot, mouth, etc... never mind, lads - keep up the good work!

TV/radio: so, farewell Hotel Babylon for another year. You kept me mindlessly entertained for 2 whole months and I shall miss you. And with Torchwood gone for more than a whole week already, my evenings are infinitely duller. Compensation arrived in the form of a new series of Doctor Who, although after a better-than-expected start last week in episode 1, the very annoying Catherine Tate reverted to being Shouty Chav Donna (as in the Xmas special in 2006) in episode 2. Tut. How depressing. If she carries on like this and Tennant goes too, I may skip season 5 altogether. At least the recreation of Pompeii was good and the script was fabulous - I lost track of the number of in-jokes and witty references to other classic TV series. The only redhead more irritating than Tate is, of course, Bianca in EastEnders. My eardrums are still ringing from Friday's slanging match with Riiiiickaaaaaay!

Books: I'm close to finishing Martin Edwards' The Cipher Garden and (for once) I think have worked out whodunnit well ahead of the ending. I will definitely be seeking out the next in the series and also looking out for his Liverpool series of crime fic. I also have the new Val McDermid on my stack to be read. I always love a good rummage in the huge number of charity shops in my vicinity. They are a great place for finding out-of-print titles - this week, I picked up a copy of Gerard Depardieu's cookery book, as well as Claudia Roden's Mediterranean Food. Yes, apart from the ridiculous number of dictionaries and crime novels at Wordsmith Towers, there is a vast collection of cook books....

Media Diet Week 14

Press: once again I found myself buying the Guardian and the Sun to read on a train. I'm so used to reading online editions now that hard copies just feel, well, odd. The main plus is that I get to do the sudoku and crossword. I'm starting to like Look. I mean, what's not to like? It's a quid. It rounds up the best high street fashion each week. And it has short and snappy sleb features such as "Amy Winehouse: why I can't give up drugs". I bought another issue this week and feel drawn in. I tell ya, it'll be downhill from here on in.

Blogs: the hot tip right now is The Churner Prize. Sheer brilliance. As a hack who deplores churnalism, this blog really nails the culprits. Name and shame is my motto (well, one of them, anyway) and this does it admirably.

TV/radio: I've had a crazy busy week, leaving little time for much viewing and listening, but it has to be said, dahlinks, that this week when it came to TV, the star of the show was me. I got to sit in Jeremy Paxman's chair and be quizzed by the inestimable Race Noddy and, and, AND win the debate on points. What could be better? And thank gawd yet again for iPlayer, which will allow me to catch up on the Apprentice, EastEnders and owt else I've missed due to illness and propping up Aunty single-handedly. I did catch the finale of Torchwood - suffice to say I was shocked that Owen and Tosh got killed off. I guess they had better offers before season 3.

Books: I've started The Cipher Garden. So far so good, despite being only 100 pages in. I trust Martin Edwards not to let me down. I like the Daniel Kind and Hannah Scarlett characters, both of whom are developing admirably. Other crime-fic writers should take note. This is an easy, undemanding read yet with a very decent layer of complexity that requires close attention.

Media Diet Week 13

Press: it's been a dull week news-wise, apart from the fiasco at T5, and I've been too busy over the last week to do more than skim headlines, anyway. But, seeing as it's Sunday, perhaps it's time to fess up that my Sunday papers of choice are the Observer and the News of the World. As with my choice of dailies, I like the contrast between serious broadsheet and saucy red-top. If a really major story breaks over a weekend, I might dip into a couple of other papers too. Gone are the days when I'd wander to the corner shop mid-morning to buy the Sundays plus the necessaries for a leisurely breakfast and then return to bed with food and papers. As with the dailies, I read online mostly. My only other excursion this week was a copy of Look, as the fashion cover lines drew my attention just as I needed to go outfit-hunting (read on...).

Blogs: the find of the week was undoubtedly The Apprent-Bitch, a suitable companion to You're Fired (see below). So good, I felt compelled to chip in.

TV/radio: for someone who doesn't watch much telly, I seem to be watching an awful lot right now. It's TV heaven for me, what with Torchwood (sadly finishing in a few days' time), The Apprentice, I'd Do Anything, Hotel Babylon plus EastEnders. And Dr Who will soon be back. Unusually for me, I seem to be turning on the box every night of the week. The Apprentice got off to a cracking start although no one yet stands out as a real contender for the job. We shall see... The only other TV news I have to report is that I spent most of today trailing round shops getting more and more depressed as I struggled to buy something to wear on the TV. I'm filming for the BBC later this week and the list of Things You Can't Wear is horribly long - no red (it bleeds), no pinstripes on shirts (they strobe), no white (it dazzles), etc. Eventually, just as I was about to bury myself behind the bus station and weep, I found a sweater dress that had a decent neckline and a wearable colour. I'm now over £110 poorer - just for 10 minutes on a channel few watch and a programme even fewer tune into...

Books: I finally finished the lame Water Like a Stone. Naturally, the killer turned out to be someone you could never have worked out for yourself, seeing as the author kindly forgot to leave any clues whatsoever until about 10 pages from the end. I won't be buying any of hers again. At least I have a new Martin Edwards to open tonight. I loved the first of his Daniel Kind whodunnits - I'm sure The Cipher Garden will be as good.

Media Diet Week 12

Press: Tuesday saw me not only battling a deadline, but also procrastinating like crazy (it's a freelance affliction, that). Which is no doubt why I spent almost all of Tuesday reading firstly the Macca/Mucca divorce judgment in full (because who can resist the lure of such a document once it's in the public domain?) and secondly, every single daily newspaper online, bar the Daily Star and the Morning Star, so I could savour every juicy morsel of the immediate reaction in the hackosphere. It's not often I trawl the Telegraph, Mirror, Mail and Express for any reason at all. But it served as a useful reminder as to why I don't normally bother with them. I was also quite tickled over the climbdown by the Express and its stablemates regarding their coverage of Madeleine McCann. As Roy Greenslade said, so eloquently, it was unprecedented. It still leaves a nasty taste in the mouth, though. Journalists have a piss-poor image among the public at the best of times. The Express débâcle will only serve to reinforce that view.

Blogs: I was entertained earlier in the week when stumbling across the Proof Prof. It's only 2 entries old, but serves to highlight all the reasons why it's a good idea to hire someone who is fully qualified and charges more. From the nonsensical hyphen in "non-sensical" to the absurd view that the "rule of thumb is a maximum two commas per sentence" (wherever did he get that from? It's not in any of the proofreader's standard reference works such as Hart's), why would anyone give work to someone who has yet to grasp basic punctuation and grammar ("These charges are apply until 30th September 2008", anyone)? Talking of the latter, £3 per 1,000 words is snatching the bread from the mouths of fully qualified and highly experienced proofreaders who actually know what they are doing. Copy-editors and proofreaders have seen far too much work vanish abroad to places such as India where it's done for less money and comes back in a state still unfit for publication. It's hard enough keeping rates at a sensible level that reflect the skill required - my colleagues can well do without trainees undercutting them. In a month where Archant can announce their proposal to dispense with sub-editors, it seems even more vital to maintain standards everywhere else. I sincerely hope Proof Prof is an early April Fool...

TV/radio: I hate it when the Beeb mucks around with the schedules. It was with something approaching close to panic that I discovered Torchwood appeared to have been axed for Wednesday next week and it was only by chance I learned that the episode had been shifted to Friday (and the subsequent one). As Friday was earmarked for a night out socialising in Manchester with other freelance hacks, once again, iPlayer proved its worth - I was able to watch Tanya bury Max alive in EastEnders at a convenient moment yesterday afternoon. And I saw the trailer for the new Doctor Who series, which arrives very soon. Hurrah! And Catherine Tate's in it. Not hurrah. Quite the opposite. She was bloody dreadful in the 2006 Xmas special. I suppose I should be grateful James Nesbitt has announced he's not interested in taking over from David Tennant.

Books: I'm close to finishing the quite dreadful and ridiculously slow Water Like a Stone. Thank gawd. And only because I spent several hours on trains in and out of Manchester on Friday, which requires a book in one's handbag. I've been reading crime novels since I was 7 years old and my mother gave me my first Agatha Christie. Water Like a Stone was one of the dullest I have ever opened. I have two more whodunnits awaiting my attention - I look forward to having my faith restored.

Apologies for the lateness of the media diet this week. Friday's boozing and my having to work almost all of yesterday (first at a press junket that was less interesting than expected, then blogging the evening away for a TV collective) meant it got pushed back. But I still love my new monitor. And who knows - I might find time to start Tabloid Tycoon proper this week, now that I've done the tutorial...

Media diet week 7

Press: no Press Gazette this week, grrr! It's supposed to plop through my letterbox on Thursday. Occasionally it arrives on a Friday instead. So I was not pleased when the postie didn't bring it this morning (although I did get another, tiny, win on my premium bonds so I don't totally hate Royal Mail). PG had better arrive tomorrow. Or else. I'll catch up on the internet otherwise. But it won't be the same. I picked up a copy of Dare last Sunday while in Superdrug - it's their freebie mag. Have only had a brief flick through but it looks ok. Not sure I'd read it regularly though, it seems aimed at people at least 20 years younger than me. Surely not all Superdrug's customers are fashion victim 20-somethings?

Blogs: Sally at Getting Ink launched Getting Ink Requests, which I mentioned earlier in the week. But I'm happy to plug it again because it deserves it. And has already spawned an imitator over at Journalism.co.uk. Dave Lee, the nation's most famous student blogger, also blogged about Sally's experiment and caused a small furore.

TV/radio: I still miss Pandora. I'm struggling with Last.FM. Inputting favourite artists was so easy on Pandora but seems really difficult on Last.FM, which is neither intuitive nor user-friendly for the over 25s. And it keeps banging on about scrobbling, which sounds extremely painful but is apparently something to do with selecting music based on what you play on your PC. I hate the assumption that you have an MP3 player of some sort. I don't and am unlikely to ever get one, so scrobbling is lost on me. Sanity was restored with TV - EastEnders has been reasonably good this week, Torchwood is at last really developing the characters (especially Ianto), Mistresses had a rubbish ending but satisfied my need for some trash telly and, er, that's it. I don't watch a lot.

Books: I've read very little this week. I'm about 30 pages into Playing Away by Adele Parks, a ghastly chick-lit novel that came as a free cover mount on January's Eve and has failed to engage me so far. I'd throw it in the bin but I was brought up to revere books, so I'll give it to the charity shop instead. John Barrowman was on Front Row on Radio 4 this week, talking about his autobiography - normally, I'm too tight to shell out for hardbacks and am happy to wait for the paperback, but after listening to him talk about the writing of Anything Goes, I decided I couldn't wait. I ordered it from Amazon and it arrives Monday. So that's next week's book sorted.

Media Diet Week 6

Press: shock waves went through the industry yesterday when Bauer (a large German publishing conglomerate) announced it was closing a number of prominent UK magazines. The magazines were previously owned by EMAP, which was broken up some weeks ago and sold off in chunks to various buyers. The Bauer casualties were First and New Woman, the former a title I was in last autumn (not as a writer but as a case study for colleague) and the latter on my monthly mag buy-list, for no other reason than I like the fashion coverage. Now we're all wondering what'll close next next. There's no doubt freelances are facing a tough year ahead, which will be exacerbated by further titles being axed.

Blogs: has everyone stopped blogging? Things are awfully quiet in the blogsphere this week. Few of my favourite reads have been updated and I've not stumbled across any new and interesting blogs either. Let's hope things pick up again soon.

TV/radio: thank heavens for BBC iPlayer! On Tuesday, I did something unheard of - I thought EastEnders was starting at 8pm, when we all know the Tuesday episode starts at 7.30. I was gutted when I wandered through just before 8pm to see the closing scene before the duh-duh-duh... Never mind, I'd catch it on the 10pm repeat on BBC3. And so it was that just before 10pm, I strolled back into the Wordsmith Towers living room, where I'd conveniently left the telly on, on BBC1, to discover I'd also managed to forget to watch Mistresses! I watched the 'Stenders repeat then dashed back to my PC, installed iPlayer and caught up with the missed episode. I was impressed by iPlayer - with a decent-sized flat screen (which I have), the quality is pretty good, the buffering was smooth (although I may have just been lucky) and although it had a digitised look, it was almost as good as watching the telly. I can see me catching up on lots of things now.

Books: my time in the company of Rupert Everett is almost at an end, with just a few pages to go. Back when I was at university on a career break, I would read a minimum of 5 books a week. Not just course books, but fiction and other things for the pleasure of it. Where does the time go. These days, it takes me a fortnight to read one autobiography. What's next? I don't know, but I could do with a suitably gory serial killer whodunnit.

Media diet week 5

Press: another week of illness has kept me confined to the house for all but the briefest forays into the wider world. As usual, I've been reading the papers online. The only new publication I've glanced at is The Journalist, in-house publication of the NUJ.*

Blogs: no new discoveries this week. Intriguingly, the TV Controller is back and blogging again, and it looks as though he's backing down in the face of possible libel suits...

TV/radio: last night's episode of EastEnders was a cracker. June Brown held the entire episode as Dot Cotton in a ground-breaking one-hander. The half-hour flew past and I almost shed a tear or two several times. Very emotional and draining stuff.

Books: I'm well into Rupert Everett's autobiography now, at least halfway through. Which means it's unputdownable and has been a welcome companion as I settle for sleep at night. The only other books I've picked up this week have been finance dictionaries and other reference works.


* Confession time - I bit the bullet and rejoined after a very long absence.

Desk, housekeeping and Dot

I've just been catching up with Dougalfish's blog - she's written about her work space. I seem to be alone among freelances in having a tidy desk. Back in the dark days of being an employee, colleagues would accuse me of slacking because my desk was always spotless and scrupulously tidy. Apparently, if you don't have teetering stacks of files surrounding you you aren't working!

To me a tidy desk means a tidy mind. I cannot work in a cluttered environment. I find it off-putting. I'm fortunate to have a dedicated office space in which to work at Wordsmith Towers. I have a large curved desk and have maximised the available space by putting my PC tower in a sling under the desk frame and having a flat-screen monitor. A stack of in-trays sits in one corner, a lamp occupies another. And that's about it, apart from the phones, tin of pens and my Rolodex. I file everything ruthlessly. Besides, I need space for the cat, who insists on napping next to me while I work.

Talking of clutter, I spent a chunk of today doing some PC housekeeping. Once a year, I clear out email by exporting it to another drive on the computer. So today, every client I worked for last year has had all the 2007 correspondence shifted elsewhere to free up space in Thunderbird. I also took time to back everything up on my other drive as well. Better safe than sorry.

When I was finished, I sat down with a glass of something chilled and put the Archers on. I got up to switch the radio off at the end but Front Row came on and I stayed to listen to the very wonderful June Brown talking about being Dot Cotton (now Branning) in EastEnders. Tomorrow she will make soap history by having an entire episode to herself. Solo. On her tod. With a 30-minute monologue. Dot has always been my favourite character in Walford, she's well written, well played and well rounded. It's hard to believe I've been watching her for the best part of 22 years. She's done some cracking two-handers over the years so tomorrow will be a treat.

Media diet week 4

Press: not much to report this week, my diet's been pretty much the same as usual. Being ill and thus confined to the 4 walls of Wordsmith Towers has prevented me from picking up new reading material from my nearest corner shop or newsagent. The postie brought me a supermarket mag this morning - not one I'd written for but one I'd been a case study for, for another journalist. I'd forgotten all about it I did the interview so long ago. so its arrival was a nice surprise and I spent a good 30 minutes admiring the very fab photo of me taken by the snapper.

Blogs: journalist Linda Jones has resumed blogging on her Freelance Writing Tips site. A welcome return after the extended break as it's one of the top blogs around for plain-speaking advice. I also discovered Dougalfish, a new blog by another freelance editor, which offers some interesting perspectives on working from home and dealing with clients. I also tripped over another blog by an author, which I've decided shall remain nameless on here - suffice to say that for a published author, while she has a lively writing style, is passionate and has plenty to say, her punctuation and grammar are atrocious. So I was pretty shocked when said blogger blogged that she'd bagged a new job as a writing tutor. Enough said.

TV/radio: I'm seriously missing Pandora since it stopped streaming to the UK. I used to listen when I was pottering - invoicing, emailing, hanging out on Journobiz - but now it's silent. A year or so ago, I'd tried Last.FM and hated it but with the lack of any competition, I'm giving it another chance. It's going to be a pain inputting all my favourite artists again. On the small screen, it's been my usual diet of EastEnders, Torchwood and Mistresses, which by episode 3 has become ridiculously predictable, but I need a dose of trash TV.

Books: I finally finished Attention All Shipping and jolly good it was too. I've now started Rupert Everett's autobiography, Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins. So far it's been unputdownable and he's still only 18 and at drama school. Everett writes incredibly well - he is both literate and entertaining and I suspect I'll finish this one very quickly. Too soon, certainly. Expect different books in this slot next week...

Media diet week 1

I've been perusing a few newish blogs (newish to me, that is) and one had a weekly round-up of that blogger's media (sorry, I forgot who it was!). Last year, I did a general media round-up, but this is going to be a regular entry this year and I'm going to log everything.

So, here we go. Since New Year's Day, this has been my media diet.

Press: Online, I took my news, as usual, from The Guardian, The Sun and BBC News Online. I only look at other newspapers online if someone draws my attention to a particular article or if there is such a massive breaking story that reading full coverage is essential. There's no time to read more widely and I only buy print if I've had something published. Apart from that I got my bimonthly copy of Editing Matters, my regular monthly batch of glossy mags (BBC Good Food, In Style, Eve and New Woman), the Radio Times and the Chester Chronicle. There was no Press Gazette this week due to the Xmas break.

Blogs: I had a bunch of blogs aggregated on a feed reader that turned out to be a turkey last week (pun intended). What with the extended break, when things went wrong with the technology, I was cut off from my usual blogs (as I hadn't bookmarked them elsewhere). Then I discovered Bloglines. I don't know why I never came across this before, but it's fantastic. I've moved all my blogs there, plus added some new ones - you can see them all if you wish. Future media diet posts will only include new ones.

TV/ Radio: as usual, EastEnders and The Archers loomed large. I don't watch a lot of TV. I had a Xmas binge but now it's back to TV Desert, meaning I watched nothing else last week. Roll on Torchwood... I am going through a phase of listening to Pandora again. I can go for months without it then I have to have it on while I'm working.

Books: I'm currently reading Attention All Shipping, which is very entertaining as well as fascinating. Apart from that, I'm ploughing through a pile of fetish porn, for work purposes. No time to read anything else.

Must dash. I have just been offered a gobsmacking wonder of a writing assignment - more soon...

On blogging

Having been chest-deep in articles on the Indian stock markets all week - editing, chasing, getting frustrated and coping with a 6-hour time difference - I've not had a lot of spare time.

What I've had has been spent reading the press, squeezing in the odd episode of EastEnders when on, and spending time with my beloved P. I was aware I hadn't blogged for nearly a week, but I couldn't think of much to write about. The whole world is talking about the McCanns and their missing daughter and while I have my views on this, the hack in me is disinclined to comment while events are still sub judice.

Then out of the blue I was commissioned to write an article on blogging. Incredibly, it's to be aimed at beginners, people who genuinely do not know what blogging is, yet these are people who, like me, are wordsmiths. I'm going to have my work cut out trying to give a comprehensive picture of the blogosphere in 1,200 words to a bunch of colleagues who really ought to know better. Or at least more.

Editors really ought to be very aware of many things - having a good general knowledge being the basis for any editing work, with specialist knowledge a bonus. Mind you, my readership for this same article will be the same crowd who can't see the point of Facebook and think Word 97 is a perfectly adequate word-processing platform (but then ask colleagues to resave a Word 2007 file for them in the 97 format).

The fact is, the technology is here to stay - Web 2.0 platforms are the future whether people like them or not, and if you're working with words you really have no choice but to get to grips with them at the very least.

Right, now I've got that off my chest, I'm off to ponder the whys and wherefores of blogging before I put it all into words.

The slog and the telly

It's been a long week...

I've been under the weather, unmotivated and feel like I've failed to hit my targets. That said, I did manage to tick off everything on this week's "to do" list. I finished editing a private memoir, worked on some web copy for my lovely graphic designer and spent hours on the phone. I also tackled the first of two journalism commissions - 500 words on, well, it doesn't really matter... I did the first 480 in less than an hour as I was on a roll, then I spent the next two hours staring at the screen and struggling to find 20 words to complete the feature. I hate days like that. Now I just have another 1,500 to do Monday. Plus 300 for another mag.

Most annoyingly, I discovered I was locked out of one of my favourite hacks' forums. I'd popped in and out several times during the day to keep tabs on all the gossip and professional discussions. This evening the site decided I was persona non grata and has barred entry by telling me I am not authorised to enter a restricted area. I deleted cookies, rebooted the PC and tried a few other tricks, but no. I'm still locked out. Grah! I fired off an emergency email to one of the site owners to se if they can solve what is clearly a technical problem. Fingers crossed I'll be back in tomorrow.

In the meantime, I've watched EastEnders (which is pretty damn perfect right now), opened a bottle of Italian red and am about to indulge myself with the first episode of a new series of Balderdash and Piffle.

Withdrawal symptoms

After a week away from the keyboard, I have itchy fingers. And so, after the very serious nature of my earlier post, it's time for some trivia.

I enjoyed my holiday. The weather was glorious (I've even gone brown, which is unheard of for this cave-dwelling wordsmith, who prides herself on her porcelain skin) and I had some much-needed RnR. My first full day away, I had to do battle with the temptation to nip into an internet cafe. It was bloody difficult, given that there was one on practically every corner I rounded. I succumbed after 5 days, as I was footsore after trampling over Rome's 7 hills and its ancient ruins. The luxury of an hour in front of a screen and keyboard cannot be overestimated. And it cost me just €3 for the pleasure. Truth be told, I missed writing. Hence today's double blog. I just need to put finger to keypad.

But I digress. Having picked up my mails in the Eternal City, I got back to my beloved P and the hotel room only to discover that my cat had gone AWOL. Once I'd got over the shock, there was only one course of action possible. We got on the phone, changed flights and came home 2 days early. I was dreading returning, in case I never found ma boy, but I found him within 5 minutes, trapped in a neighbour's back yard, a bit thinner and slightly traumatised but otherwise intact. After hauling him back to Wordsmith Towers, there was only one thing to do. Boot up the PC.

I'm still officially on holiday so I'm not contacting clients and all work remains on hold until Monday. I had the added bonus of catching up with EastEnders tonight and an Archers omnibus then I got down to the important business of surfing the web. I had a quick flick through the forums I regularly frequent then discovered I'd been quoted on here. Having moments earlier been looking at my stat counters, I had wondered why this blog's statistics had gone stratospheric, so now I knew.

I'm quite flattered. Ok, very flattered.

That aside, it feels good to be writing again. I'd really missed it, despite the delightful distractions of Italy. I'll be back. I did, after all, chuck €0.10 in the Trevi fountain. And I went to see the Pope (ok, not strictly true - I whizzed through the Vatican museums then took perverse pleasure in sending a postcard of Rome's synagogue through the Vatican post office with a stamp of JP2 on it to my frum sister who lives in a converted church). And sourced a possible story while away.

I'm totally knackered, but happy to be home and welded to my computer again, with ma boy sleeping on my desk as per usual, my beloved P nearby and still 3 free days before the sordid business of earning money beckons once more...

And now - it's time for bed.

10 things about clients

5 clients I love:

1. Clients who pay me on time. Yes, I know talking about money is supposed to be impolite. But a wordsmith can't survive on fresh air alone. If my terms says 30 days, that means I expect you to pay me within 30 days. Clients who settle immediately get gold stars.

2. Clients who give me a clear brief. I'm not psychic and I don't have a crystal ball. Clients who tell me exactly what they want get the job done faster and better.

3. Clients who are interesting to chat to. I like getting to know my clients better as it gives me more insight into what makes them tick. It's one of those things that helps me do a better job.

4. Clients who give me free rein within the brief. Because it means they trust me to do a great job.

5. Clients who give me feedback. Praise is good for stroking my ego, but constructive feedback is even better.

5 clients I loathe:

1. Clients who pay late. Pretty obvious, this one. And clients who don't stump up until I start having to threaten legal measures (mercifully, this has only happened once so far) are welcome to find another chump. Because I won't be doing any more work for them.

2. Clients who are vague. If a client is unsure what they want, I'm happy to talk things over. But if I ask specific questions and don't get clear answers, it's unlikely I'll be doing much work for them again.

3. Clients who are not honest. If a client tells me they have a 50,000-word manuscript that needs editing and I price the job on that basis, sending me a MS that is twice as long (and no doubt thinking I'll do the job for the price first quoted) is only going to irritate me. It's a waste of both our time and I have to recalculate the cost, await approval and somehow squeeze extra time for the additional work into an already overflowing schedule.

4. Clients who dither about budgets. If a client commissions me for a piece of journalism, I expect them to tell me their rate per 1,000 words rather than be asked what I charge. Frankly, if I then pick a figure and the client says "I'll get back to you", that sets my alarm bells off. It's your publication and if you don't know much you can afford to pay, perhaps you should be looking for another career...

5. Clients who think I'm available 24/7, even on public holidays. Since Good Friday, I've received 3 editing jobs (all on hold), 7 emails (ditto) and 2 Skype calls. Clients who think it's ok to call in the evenings when I'm watching EastEnders are liable to head the top of my death list.

If only it were true...

According to this morning's news, today is supposed to be the happiest day of the year.

I suppose it would be if you didn't need to work (or had booked the day off), that your friends and family were equally time-rich and keen to go picnicking with you.

I expect that most people, like me, are just going to laugh when they read the news.

Let's see - it's grey outside with a top temperature forecast of 19C, with possible showers. I'm so up to my neck in work, I'll probably not have time for lunch (but I will try and grab a coffee break with the cleaner when she's here). I have back pain today ( a recurrent problem), and I only had 6 hours' sleep last night, so I'm feeling a tad grouchy. I'm unlikely to see any friends before tomorrow. And there's no EastEnders on tonight because of the sodding football.

Happiest day of the year? Don't make me laugh...