Medical errors, Screenplays and Reincarnation

I feel at present a bit like a locked-up princess in a castle, because the pavement in my street has been dug up in order to lay cables. The result is that for two days I've had a very small opening through which to exit, and heaven help me if I'd suddenly put on weight. As for a shopping trolley, forget it. There also does seem to be a serious shortage of local princes on white horses...

My film project has gone quiet at present, partly because I unexpectedly had to undergo surgery due to a medical error. Because of a totally benign mark which might, or might not have been (it wasn't), I was scheduled for a 'needle' biopsy - a very minor procedure, except that in my case I was given, in error, a 'core' biopsy under a local anaesthetic which damaged an existing breast implant, so fairly swift surgery, due to possible infection, was vital, and my implant, which had been in place for almost seventeen years, had to be removed, to be replaced in around three months. Apologies and horror all round except from the female whose error it was - from her department I received a routine repeat appointment. Unsurprisingly, I've filed a serious complaint.

The screen play is growing, changing and developing - we now have horses (well you can't do a period drama without horses, can you?) And a relationship has now flowered, a relationship which was always there but much more in the background. This has become co-writing - something I'd never imagined myself doing as I'm a very private writer - but it's interesting, and I'm not complaining (well, not much). The professional screenwriter's input comes out of all the technical stuff involved in film-making, and some of my opening scenes have been switched around and changed, which does grab the viewer's attention. A 'nightmare' scene has been cut. It was one of my 'darlings' and I will ask for it to be reinstated, but may well be over-ridden (not, I hope, by the horses!)

Persuaded by my daughter, I submitted a curious adult novel to Unbound, and had it accepted for crowd-funding. The deal is that I have to raise £4000 in 'pledges' - this for an eventual ebook plus paperback which in theory I could do myself for nowt. They offer editing, typesetting, marketing and an authors 'den' in which I can interact with readers. Unbound does tick my requirement for a respectable publishing 'umbrella' - one of their books was shortlisted for the Booker, and they have also won production prizes. My agent has a client who's gone that way, seemingly successfully. When I posted this to colleagues on Facebook, there was an instant no-no, but what do you think? Have you looked at their site? Have any of you ever considered going that way?

Fourth Estate has just published a serious book on Time Travel, by James Gleick, and I've been reading its Times review. I didn't know that Stephen King had written a novel: THE DEAD ZONE, based on the concept of someone going back in time and killing Hitler - I must read that. And THE IRON DREAM, by Norman Spinrad, in which Hitler doesn't make it politically in Germany, so emigrates to America where he becomes a third-rate fantasy writer with novels based on the triumph of the Nazi Party.

Time Travel might be loosely related to reincarnation, only in the latter, some kind of god is involved. Me, I've always fantasised about returning as a bird, but I'd still want to retain my human knowledge of the fact that once I'd been earth-bound, and now I could fly - otherwise I'd just be a bird and nothing else. I'd like to reincarnate backwards in time, and have fun with being Cleopatra for a while, but then might her personality be distorted by my interference? Probably yes, and I'd certainly avoid the asp, thus almost certainly changing the course of history.