Budget analysis-free zone

Today was the British Chancellor’s final pre-election budget, which I watched on the Internet whilst not really doing much writing at all. And wouldn’t you know it, Darling has not done a single thing specifically to help writers of archaeological thriller novels. Typical. We’re always last in the queue. But that’s enough politics for the moment.

After the budget was finished I was disturbed by a scuffle outside my garden office. I opened the door and discovered a blackbird pecking aggressively at a young pigeon. I shooed away the blackbird and waited to see where the pigeon went to: it limped to the edge of the garden and tried to hide, not very well. I fed it some seeds I found in the kitchen cupboard, but I don’t hold out much hope for it. It’s lost a lot of its feathers and it can’t seem to fly. My little dog sometimes takes a passing interest in it, although he’s too much of a wimp to attack it.

So from the action in my garden to the action in the novel. The chapters I edited today required very few changes because they had already been radically edited in the past. The only major thing still to do is to weave in more subplot sections to keep the parallel plot lines running. This will be done in the next editing sweep. Right now Matt and Charlie are in Belize having just been told that it’s no longer a tax haven… no, wait a minute, that was the budget again. They’re in Belize having just hidden their kombi in the edge of the jungle and are currently floating down a primeval river on what until very recently was the camper van’s fibreglass pop-up roof. All goes well until they hit some rapids, and suddenly the two are sucked under the water where they must wait until a later chapter before they discover what happens to them.

I would imagine that a river in the Belizean jungle is the perfect place to avoid all the media tittle-tattle about today’s budget. Wish I was there enjoying the dense, humid air so that I could avoid the news about cider costing a bit more than it used to and all the interviews with the Chancellor. I’ll finish my writing early today because I’m concerned about what’s going to happen to that lame bird. But it’s all part of the natural cycle of things, and what will be will be, I suppose. In any case, he’ll just get a consultancy job if he loses his seat at the next election.