Things I've learned recently...

1. It's very hard to get any work done in the month of August in Edinburgh. TOO MANY DISTRACTIONS. Incidentally, I had a grand old time at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. My event with Keren David went swimmingly (even though my dad was in the audience for the first time ever... he didn't even heckle!). I saw some amazing writers do their thing and do it very well indeed. Ali Smith, Joyce Carol Oates and China Mieville all blew me away.

2. It's very hard to go to the Edinburgh Book Festival without spending a whole lot of money on books. The TBR pile is officially scaring me now; I refuse to look directly at it.

3. A tidy desk and organized workspace make me approximately ten times more productive than usual. Huh.

4. A jar of sweets on my desk is a bad/good thing, depending on your point of view.

5. Living with someone who bakes really delicious treats is a bad/good thing, depending on your point of view.

6. Books set in the Deep South are still my favourite. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe was an absolute treat.

7. We live in a stupid-ass world. (Actually, I haven't only just learned this, but it's been reinforced a lot recently. Here's just one example: Kristen Stewart gets hated on by the whole world and fired from her job for doing naughty things with someone who wasn't her boyfriend.

8. Tapas ALWAYS works out more expensive than you were expecting. 

9. The Great British Bake-Off is the best reason for Tuesdays ever invented. (Yes, even better than pancakes.)

10. Hard work is good for the soul. For some reason I keep learning this and promptly forgetting it, but the truth is I feel good about myself when I'm working hard, and feel craptastic and lethargic and blah when I'm not.


That's a whole lot of learnin' I've done this month. If you've learned anything and would like to enlighten me, please do so in the comments below. I'm off to do some work now. Honest.