PUBLICATION - YEAH !!!

Okay, so it's not my novel or another short story, but publication of a Letter to the Editor in a national newspaper (The Guardian) is pretty darn good.

Before my sixtieth birthday in March, I half joked about doing something outrageous like liposuction on my wine and chocolate bulge, plus a tasteful little tattoo on my arm or the base of my spine.

Both John and Lou were horrified by these suggestions, though, and in truth, I had decided that I couldn't be bothered doing either. However, an article in last Saturday's Guardian Week-end colour magazine re-enforced the surgery decision most conclusively.

Because there was a long section in the magazine, entitled 'The Price of Beauty,' about plastic surgery, which was accompanied by the most gruesome photographs of the realities of plastic surgery, particularly the one showing an operation for a tummy tuck, which looked like a cow being hacked into pieces.

So, I wrote a brief letter to The Guardian about this. And okay, I had been thinking of having liposuction rather than a tummy tuck and I've already started losing weight by eating less fat, but the opportunity was too good to miss.

So, you can imagine my delight when I saw, this morning, that my letter had been printed on the letters to the editor page of today's Guardian colour mag.

So, I can now say that I've already been published in 2009!

Well, you have to grasp at straws in the publishing industry.

Lou has been telling her friends about the letter under the general heading of: "My mum's so middle class!"

By the way, I've had another rejection from an agent, this time from Creative Authors, and yes, they kept the paper clip.