Today has been quite possibly one of the nicest days of the year so far. To start with, I woke up to the postman delivering a big box of free bath products; always a good start to the day (except that I'm so inept at mornings that opening a parcel which has been taped up with what - always - seems to be the world's sellotape mountain is way beyond my normal functions and I usually have to go back to sleep in disgust at my own ineptitude for at least an hour before I can once again approach the 'horribly complicated to open' parcel. And only then after a stiff coffee.)
I then got a text from Mil - a simple challenge. 'Want to race me to finish your book?' Now this is not entirely fair. He had 1,000 words left to write of his (bound to be fabulous and coming out next October) book. I had 12,000 words of my (not going to be anywhere near as good as his but it's about seduction so hopefully people will buy it for the smut and sex advice) book to write. Now he *is* a careful and considered writer who will agonise over every word that he writes, whereas I'm a 'Press the 'on' switch and start writing' kind of bird. He's also the world's most secretive man when it comes to his books, so despite the fact that I'm a massive fan of his books and despite the fact that he's a top mate of mine, he point blank refuses to show me the book until it's practically hit the shelves.
So I replied 'OK. If I beat you, do I get to see your book?'
He clearly knew that he was on to a winner as he texted back 'Yes'. Cue a day of the most intensive writing I've done in a while. I didn't manage to beat him to it. But I did manage to write nearly 7,000 words in a day, which I'm pretty happy with as it means I've only got just over 4,000 words to write by the end of the month.
Though I do think that he had an unfair advantage, because also spent about three hours on the phone sorting out stuff for Scarlet magazine, and at least two more writing and emailing people on the team.
(I'm particularly relieved that I've got the bulk of it written because I'm now at - wait for the fanfare - number 164,459 in the Amazon chart, through pre-orders (thanks so much if you're one of the people who's pre-ordered). Obviously, being so high up the charts has gone straight to my head, and when the book reviews section of magazines runs to 450 pages, then I'll be there on page 450, towards the bottom of the page. JK Rowling's already been on the phone begging me not to write a kids' book...)
But anyway, writing shed-loads of words is nice thing number one that happened. Nice thing number two is something that just had to happen at some stage.
I'm making a porn film.
Now before you leap to any assumptions, that doesn't mean I'm performing in it (some things are best reserved for the under thirties). I'm writing and directing one. Well, kind of...
The fab people at Xplicit TV are starting a Porn Masterclass, in which people pay £1,500 per couple (or about £75 each for hen parties/stag nights if there's a large group) to learn how to make an adult film; it starts with a champagne reception (as all porn shoots obviously do) and a brief history of porn, and then goes into a day of learning how to make and edit a porn vid, culminating in an afternoon of actually making a film (that gets screened on Xplicit). As it's a new launch, they're having a press day, so on Monday, I'm going along with the Scarlet photographer to take part and do a feature about it. I'm already trying to figure out exactly what kind of thing I'm going to make (other than 'female-friendly' of course) and am really looking forward to it. Obviously, I'll report back on the results here.
I then got a mail that made me utterly bouncy in a way I haven't bounced in a while. My editor for the first book (the one about casual sex) came back to me and said that they love it and don't need any rewrites. It's being published on February 10th next year - I'll post a link as soon as it's on Amazon - and I'm really excited about it because it's the first book I've written that's my idea, rather than a publisher's.
Other than that, it's been a quiet day. I think it's time for bed.
Posted by emilyd at August 11, 2004 01:25 AM