Guilty Pleasures

Michelle tagged me to name five guilty pleasures

Well, I'm with Julie Cohen on this. I have difficulty in finding the 'guilty' pleasures. Lots of pleasures - not a lot of guilt. In fact the guilt bit was the hardest to find - so what is there that has that element of 'guilt' in it??

1 . Has to be Amazon – or any bookshop real, internet, any town, any time. I Just have to go into a bookshop to feel intense pleasure – all those wonderful books, just waiting to be browsed, bought, read . . . Ah, and there is the guilty part – books are mean to be read. That’s their purpose. The reason they were created. (Though I do know of some people who are guilty of buying books for the way they will look on their shelves – as an interior design statement.) And I do buy books meaning to read them. But I buy too many – which means that my TBR pile (okay – my TBR shelves) are stashed full of books I want to read, mean to read, but never get around to reading. And I have this nasty, uncomfortable feeling that if I was to impose and embargo on buying books until I had read at least half of them, then I could keep reading for a very long time . . .But still I end up inside those bookshops and I come out with those wonderful carrier bags full of slim paperback, bulky blockbusters serious tomes, all of which I promise myself I will read . . .one day.

2 . Telephone calls – long – l-o-n-g telephone calls. Okay, not the first five- ten? Minutes of those phone calls. Because the people I call are usually other authors – particularly Michelle Reid and Anne McAllister. And so these can be called ‘work’. At first. But then they ramble here there and everywhere, and I look at the clock and realise I should have been writing . . .

3. Buying shoes – I’m with Julie on this too – shoes I do not need, shoes that are not on sale, shoes that are bought simply because I love them. But then if I love them it’s very difficult to feel guilty about it.

4. ‘London clothes’. As a writer my life is mostly spent at my desk – time at my desk requires comfortable, easy wearing clothes. I suspect there is a writerly uniform of tee/sweatshirt tracksuit/sweat pants. Certainly for me. But I love clothes. I love dressing up – and sometimes I get the chance to do that when I go to meet my editor or to any of the RNA events in London. And I buy lovely clothes for those occasions. But the times I go to London and the time I spend in London is very much less than the time I spend at home at my desk. So the proportion of ‘London clothes’ in my wardrobe is far too much for the work they have to do.

5 . Magazines – see Number 1 – ‘nuff said! Or perhaps it could be checking emails when I checked them six minutes ago – or going on eHarlequin and chatting when I should be working - or watching Coronation Street - or eating Doritos or Bombay Mix that I’ve bought for ‘nibbles’ at a party so that I have to go out and buy some more . . .

And yes, Anne McAllister - I can get past five without mentioning chocolate. The Doritos/Bombay Mix reference is my chocolate!