Nanowrimo

I've managed to pick up some bug or other, and have a sore throat and hacking cough.  Undeterred, I have made three pints of lemon barley water to soothe my throat, and having a cough doesn't stop the creative juices from flowing - fortunately.


So, now my fingers are tired.  I've been slaving away over a hot laptop for what seems like hours, and have clocked up just over 8000 words.  Actually, it doesn't seem like hours at all, it never does when you're into a plot, but my back is ready for a different chair, and my characters are very patient, and will wait for me to rejoin them either later this evening, or tomorrow.


Here's a tiny chunk, just to prove I really am writing, not just pretending!

“Nothing new on the menu, is there?  I think I’ll have a burger and some chips.”

“Ashley Brown you’ll look like a burger before you leave this school!  I don’t know how you stay so slim.”  Hannah looked enviously at her friend’s slender figure.

“It’s in the genes, my girl, you know that, we did it in biology.”

“I’m going to have the carrot and coriander soup, and a bread roll.  I like the way they put coriander in the rolls, too.  I wish Mum would bake more bread at home, but she says she doesn’t have time any more.”

“Did your mum get that Christmas job, then?”

Jen nodded, “Yup, Father Christmas will visit the Jennings household this year, after all.  Tom and me, we were getting a bit worried about it – you know, not asking for too much on our Christmas lists, but not making it look as if we were cutting back on what we wanted, so Mum wouldn’t feel bad.”

“Yeh, must have been hard.  I’m glad she’s got a job; I bet she’s happier now, even if she doesn’t have time to bake any more.  Where’s she working?  Does she get a good staff discount?”  Sara liked to save money wherever she could.

“There’s a table over there, I’ll go and bag it for us.”  Hannah left the others chatting, and made her way over to an empty table and put her lunch box down.  The dining hall was very noisy; the clattering of plastic trays, the rattle of cutlery, not to mention the non-stop babble of hundreds of girls who’d had to be relatively quiet for the last hour in their classrooms.

Soon the friends were tucking into their various lunches.  Hannah tasted Jen’s soup, and pronounced it almost as good as her mother’s – praise indeed.  But peanut butter and marmite sandwiches – well, that’s just an unbeatable combination of saltiness and sweetness and savouriness!  She was soon crunching on her Egremont Russet apple to finish off her lunch.

“I’ve got to go to the library – anyone fancy coming with me?”  Jen asked.