Meeting the man with green eyes while waiting for The Sauly Bird'

Paul is out at the pub playing at the folk night while I'm sitting here in the writing chair. I should be doing all sorts of things that need to be done like writing a synopsis for The Sauly Bird, but I'm not. I'm too excited to write a synopsis yet. I'm waiting for the beta readers' feedback so I can finish it off. I'm finding it hard to leave Aulani and Papua New Guinea.

The Sauly Bird is a sort of psycho drama all about relationships, trust, the twists and turns of families, the peering into the darkness to see where the dead go when they leave us. Part of me can't bear to leave that world and the people in it.

While I'm waiting, instead of doing all the things I ought to be doing like reading the novel I'm supposed to be reviewing, practising the music for the session on Thursday night, writing a synopsis for The Sauly Bird or trying to put something together to say for the 15 minute slot I've paid for to Meet the Agent' at the Hastings Literary festival, I've started writing another story.

It's called The Man with Green Eyes but he's not a seaman. Don't think he is. He seems to be a lawyer (but he might once have been a seaman). The story swings between Germany and the UK and might go further afield. It's going to be thriller I think. Have written the first two chapters.

What are you writing? Where are you? I send you lots of very best wishes. Do write and tell me what you're doing and whether you're going through similar things to me. It feels almost as though I'm living in different worlds. My real world. My Aulani world in Papua New Guinea in The Sauly Bird and now this new one where I'm in Germany outside on a summer's evening talking to friends and hearing disturbing news.