Eight Random Facts.

Anne Sydenham of Cat Politics tagged me while I was away at my retreat.

Here are the rules:

1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
2. Each participant posts eight random facts about themselves.
3. Tagees should write a blogpost of eight random facts about themselves.
4. At the end of the post, eight more bloggers are tagged (named and shamed).
5. Go to their blog, leave a comment telling them they're tagged (cut and run).


Eight Random Facts:

1. This morning I had to send a letter to my agent ending our contract. It is the second time I have had to do this and once again it hurt so much it was like losing a friend. Which is stupid. Agents are not friends they are business acquaintances. I have to remember this.

2. So far I have spent three and a half years writing a novel but it is not finished yet and needs more work. This novel may never be published but I try not to think about this.

3. In order to write this novel I went to Patagonia, caught a bus which took me over the desert and I interviewed about 50 people about their lives and the lives of the ancestors. During this time I was cold, scared, tired and irritable. At the end of this trip I had big arguments with a waiter at a coffee bar, a woman at a till and the man at the airport desk. Thinking back I wonder how I managed to get out of the country - or more likely they couldn't wait to get rid of me.

4. Also for this novel I learnt to become a shaman and made many shamanic journeys while lying on the floor of a flat in west London. In order to make a shamanic journey you generally either need to take drugs, not sleep for several days or listen to a hypnotic drum-beat. I chose the drum-beat. When I reached my underworld (which was in the bole of a tree) I discovered I had a spirit helper which turned out to be a big turtle.

6. I am not religious any more although I used to be. When I was young I used to belong to an evangelical group of Christians because I was lonely and it made me feel part of a community. We used to spend a lot of time trying to convert people until one day I realised that the person I most needed to convert was me. Then I left.

7. Also for the novel (in point 2 above) I tried to learn Welsh which is the most illogical and also the most beautiful language in the world. After a fortnight of immersion in the language I felt so sorry to leave Wales that I experienced hiraeth - which is a special sort of homesickness unique to the Welsh.

7. I am an expert on the folk lore and culture of the nineteenth century Tehuelche Indians (northern tribes).

8. Sometimes my sadness incapacitates me for days at a stretch and all I can do is sit at my desk and write lists like this.

Now I have to tag 8 people so I tag the following people I encountered while on my retreat (I have come back early):

the inebriated member of the cloth who had the room below me and listened to the TV with the volume on max;
the wealthy landowner who told me I had no right to stand where I stood;
the builder who hammered at wood all day and every day;
the man who operated the cement mixer;
the god of rain;
the over-enthusiastic bell-ringer who decided that three hours was insufficient time to practise;
the slight, meek-looking woman who somehow irritated me for no good reason whatsoever;
and the cleaner who came into my room at the unearthly hour of 9.30am this morning and remarked that I was not one of life's early starters (even though I was dressed).

If they had blogs I would tag them, but unfortunately I suspect that they don't - so I won't.

(Additional Note) So instead I tag the following:

Susan of In Over My Head.
Lori of Chatoyance;
Crystallyn of Creator of Circumstance
Susangalique of Shedding the Inner Dialogue
Aydin of Snails Tales;
Jeremy of Peake-o-matic
Gordon of McCabism
Jonathan of Connaissances

Only if you have time and inclination of course!