Strange things

Strange things go on at a Grand Prix!

This huge crane is tucked into the tiny hilly streets of Monaco and stands ready to scoop up any car that crashes.

Here it is swinging the car onto a loader which will drive it off to the garage once the race is over. This was one of the early saloon car races - fortunately the Formula 1 cars stayed safe - though I did see the cloud of dust fly up as Hamilton clouted the wall inside the tunnel.

I think I have finally caught up on all the backlog waiting for me. Now I'm about ready to start writing again, and perhaps I shall tune into all the e-groups and see what I've missed.

The trouble is e-groups are so damned addictive that they eat into writing time if I let them. Whole mornings can slide by and I suddenly realise I have not started to write and it is already lunch time!

The rejection letter I received a couple of days ago has been milling around in my head and I can see now that I had slipped away from HMB's required story form. Ideally the hero and heroine meet on page one or two, but I'd given the heroine almost a whole chapter to herself. I thought I was setting up her character prior to her first meeting with the hero, which came towards the latter part of the chapter. Now I see I should have worked that into and around the first meeting, which could and should have happened much nearer the front end of the chapter.

Worst of all, I know I've done almost exactly the same thing with my last submission. Groan! I guess I may as well print off another three chapters and send it off to another publisher because I know what HM&B are going to say...