I sit here and realise I have no witty, amusing opening sentence so I shall just plunge straight in.
First thing I need to tell you is that my official microsite - there's a link to it on the left hand side of the page - is not working. It's reverted to a much earlier version with an old design and all the fantastic extra content (an interview with Molly from Guitar Girl, Edie from Diary Of A Crush's Guide to crushes etc.) is missing. I'm hoping it will be back up for the release of the first Fashionista's Book, Laura, on July 19th. Talking of which, I'm extremely happy to announce that Fashionistas will be the first of my books to be translated into German. The series will also be coming out en francais and I will let you know of more foreign deals as and when and if they happen.
I've just finished a second draft of the third Fashionista's book, Irina, about a mondo-stroppy Russian model and realise that it's not a final draft as I expected. So I'm about to go back and sprinkle magic dust all over it. But mostly I'm panicking because I'm heading to the States next week for British ELLE in a whirwind visit and I one of my friends is away for the weekend and has my US adaptor plugs. You know, when I was wide-eyed and younger, I always hoped that I'd get to write sentences like "I'm heading for the States next week" and imagined it was all wildly glamorous. Actually the reality is a mound of laundry and piles of work to get through before I head off to the airport and not being able to find the little thingy that turns my iPod into a voice recorder. Still, I can't complain too much.
But it does get me thinking about what a time-waster I am, even with deadlines looming. So here's a list of all the stuff I get up to instead of working...
SARRA MANNING'S AMAZING, DEADLINE-DEFYING LIST OF PROCRASTINATION
* Writing blog posts. This is just one of my many blogs.
* Spending way too much money on eBay - currently buying Marc Jacobs' flip-flops and vintage Miriam Haskell costume jewellery
* Repeated applications of hand lotion
* Adding movies to my Lovefilm DVD queue
* Googling myself in all possible permutations and combinations
* See also looking up all my books on Amazon.
* Constantly clicking 'refresh' on the Friends page of my blog.
* Playing the awful, time-sucking Snood game which I should really remove from my computer.
* Eating - favourite mid-chapter snacks include cheese and crackers, handfuls of oat flakes, blueberry yoghurt and peanut butter eaten straight from te jar. (Not altogether I hasten to add.)
* Buying songs on iTunes. The last song I bought was Hello Saferide's I Was Definitely Made For These Times, though I was devastated to discover that she played two London shows last week and I missed them. By the way, I definitely wasn't made for these times just so we're clear on that.
* Annoying my friends with pointless emails.
* Analysing my playlists on lastfm.com
* Doing the MySpace thing even though all the cool kids are on Facebook.
* Going to the gym - I actually like going to the gym but I can't help but wonder if that's because it means I'm not staring at my computer screen
* Drinking coffee and smoking fags - God, never start smoking. More than that, never learn to inhale
* Gazing aimlessly at The Great Bear by Simon Patterson, which is the picture on the wall above my desk, when I need to come up with a new character name
* Obsessing over my word count
* Making lists and not knowing when to stop
OK, I now have coffee to make, laundry to do and a chapter to go and revise, but what do you get up to when you're meant to beworking?
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