On mania and creativity.

I have some new glasses. I ask W what he thinks.

Are they upside-down? he says.

They are round, I say.

A young man comes out of the house opposite, pulls the door shut behind him so it bangs as he walks down the street. How do people do that?

Leaving the house for me involves a complex series of checks. Door. Electric devices. Paintwork and so on.

Yesterday I was all ready, cycle helmet on, coat on, gloves in pocket etc etc when I noticed some damp under the front bedroom window. I wiped it. Paint came off. Retrieved can of paint from under stairs. Started painting.

Are you ok? someone asks at work. I’m manic, I say.

I think you need medication, W says.

But with mania comes creativity. I’ve written seven stories this year. And that’s a good thing about social media. Every day I see online mags calling out for stories. Or planned books. Competitions. I work well with a theme and a word count. It’s that oulipian constraint thing again. CD Rose said in a book event I went to last week that people attracted to oulipo are often the neurodiverse. Whether I am or not, who knows? Or cares.

A neighbour comes down the stairs onto the street. He is carrying a bicycle. Behind him is a woman carrying his UberEats box. He gets it on the bike. She fixes on the box. He cycles off. Lovely.

I wrote Seven Nights at the Flamingo Hotel and Saltburn back to back. 2019 through to 2020. That was a manic period.

In the last week a group of millionaire public schoolboys who apparently are the voice of the angry white working class lost an election in a white working class area to a female plumber. They must be thrilled. Exactly the kind of person they represent had won. Except they are not happy. They are full of hate and accuse smiling plumber of hate.

I have booked a weekend away in Scarborough. I plan to walk along the coastal path to Filey, eat fish and chips, get the train back. Back in the 70s my parents ran a Bernie Inn in Scarborough. Some of the stories in Seven Nights at the Flamingo Hotel come from things I was told back then. Someone having a shit in the sink for example.

It is my last day at work today and then I have 4 days off. A number of films by Jafar Panahi, an Iranian director, have just landed on Mubi. Also Thelma and Louise. On Thursday I am going to see Gene at Rock City.

As my short story collection Saltburn reaches its first birthday I have bought myself this print. One of the stories is about a French deep sea diver obsessed with a mythical sea beast. So there you go.