MONDAY I've been back from Tokyo for exactly two weeks now and am just about adjusted to being back in London. Just. The first week went by in a daze of getting to grips with the city again and not having to live out of a backpack. It was so nice to have access to all my stuff again. Not that we didn't have an awful lot of crap with us (and we accumulated enough new crap to fill an extra case) but it was a good feeling to pick up my old battered copy of Blood Meridian again and listen to vinyl for the first time in three months. I've only seen one or two friends so far but am now starting to come out of my cocoon. It helps finally having an angle on what to do with my time. I'm resisting the urge to go back to a bookstore and instead I have a small list of projects to get my teeth into. Some of them pay and some of them don't but at least I'm being creative full time for a little while instead of trying to squirrel away an hour here and an hour there. This morning I just finished the second draft of something I'm hoping will go online in the next couple of weeks and will lead to a regular slot. I'm halfway through some new stuff for Bookslut and have some interview ideas I need to throw at Jessa. I'm waiting on some review copies in the post for an author I already have an interview set up with and I'm hoping to talk to some more writers over the next few months. Jess had a great idea to pull a few of our like minded friends together for a magazine project. I worked up some ideas for that while we were in Mexico and this week I'll finally get around to sending the email out. I've seen some intriguing part time jobs advertised that involve film so I'm going to dust off my CV for those but I'm only applying for the interesting stuff from now on. I just started working on some fiction ideas that I've been carrying around in my notebook for the last three months too. The only thing I've got hanging over me at the moment is the same damn trip to the north that I've had on hold for the last 18 months or more. I'm trying to work out a way to hang with friends while I'm up there and also juggle Jess' obligations and the damn cat at the same time. I may have to put out another call for help in looking after the cat when we finally work some dates out. Enough blathering as I have some strict self imposed word counts to hit. Mike is blogging to: Smashing Pumpkins