A kitten is asleep on my lap as I type this...

Hi Bloggy friends,

Sorry not to be about for the last couple of days. I've come back to the bookshop, Atlantis, in Greece, where today I spent some time with Nick from Paper Cinema discussing the Odyssey and drinking too much white wine. A kitten is now asleep on my lap as I sit behind the til. It may sound idyllic, though last night this kitten thought that my legs beneath the covers were a toy to be pounced on with claws at regular intervals.

A few things have come up today while discussing beautiful stories with Mr. Beard.

1. a beautiful image to end something. Think Zorba the Greek or the end of the poem "Pomegranate" by DH Lawrence. Kundera does this too at the end of his novels.

2. In a story, every action should be followed by an action of greater quality and magnitude, culminating in an action after which the audience can not imagine anything else. Action has come up a lot lately in my life. Apparently Karma is all about action too - this is what I learned yesterday by looking it up in the excellent "A short introduction to everything."

3. There is a lot of creative room to move in the Odyssey and there always has been. The story itself is really the result of a collective effort of many poets over a long period of time- regardless of the capitalist belief that it had to have been created by an individual named Homer. It's a framework that many artists have moved in creatively for ages, and the more of their own spin they put on it, the better. (Don't worry, I haven't gone to Greece and become a communist.)

4. The kitten jumped from my lap once I started typing.

This is a beautiful place to work.