It's been a tough couple of months - I apologise in advance for even more misery but let's get it over with quickly like ripping off a plaster. After all the illness 'fun' and subsequent post-op complications, there's been a close family bereavement which wasn't unexpected but it's still shocking when it happens, and a disappointment regarding a long-term project. However I can't wait for June to start, and turn the corner. I'm well aware that everything has peaks and troughs, and I know this coming month has a few sparkly little diamonds already promised thank goodness. It brings the Edinburgh International Film Festival which I'm attending as a delegate thanks to the Network development scheme, and we have our final event there with mentoring sessions. I've also been lucky enough to be given a ticket to the opening film Killer Joe (looks verrrry interesting), and the chi-chi gala party. Also at the festival is a presentation event for a feature screenplay I'm working on, on another development scheme - more to come on that, but some very prestigious names have been rumoured as actors and directors to help stage the featured excerpts.

I've taken the giant hints the Universe has been sending me since February, so I've booked a week's holiday (my first in years) later in the summer and am going to take the whole month of July off from creative writing - you heard me right! A whole month! I will allow myself to scribble down one-line ideas, but no more. It's an enforced break, and I suspect it will be inspiring.

When your goals change, and the things you thought you were writing change, it's odd. But already I have a few things happening including a new idea for a Western which I've sketched out, and a short idea thrown up by a previous writing project.

And in July and August, I'm going to take my foot off the writing pedal for the first time in a very long while, and have a (non-writing) life. You see if I don't.