Sometimes, on the nights when Mr Frog would come home late from work, I would pounce, ravenous for conversation after several hours of pacing the apartment alone like a caged animal while baby Tadpole slept. I would talk and talk and talk until he protested, hands on ears, saying “my head is fool”.
(He meant full. Distinguishing between certain English vowels can be very tough for a French person).
Right now my head is so full with book that I’m having a tough time freeing it up to blog. I’m working on draft two, and there are days when I’m intimidated by how much more there is write/tweak/fiddle with before July. I’ve imposed an early May deadline on myself for delivery of the next draft, but have had a steady stream of lovely visitors lately, with more to come. The good news about the tribunal also brought lots of French journalists out of the woodwork, another distraction which I need to ruthlessly nip in the bud if I’m to concentrate on what is most important to me.
So this week I intend to keep my head down and stay very, very focused. I hope you will excuse me if that means things are a little quiet around here.
about
books
press
fbk
petite anglaise 
Along with the many distractions you mention, you also have the lovely tadpole vying for your attentions. I have no idea how you do it, I find it difficult enough to write on my own. Good luck, the sacrifices are sure to be worth it!
Comment by hellojed — April 10, 2007 @ 9:56 am
I could not help laughing about the fool thing. I know I shouldn’t :)
Comment by Invader_Stu — April 10, 2007 @ 10:38 am
We won’t be greedy. I assume the Glamour piece is France only. Very much looking forward to the book though.
Comment by Pierre L — April 10, 2007 @ 10:45 am
Petite
Don’t blame you, the internet must be in the top three when it comes to aids to procrastination!
Enjoyed the ‘Twunt’ article in the NS by the way.
All the best with the draft.
K
Comment by Kane — April 10, 2007 @ 11:29 am
I feel very lucky because sometimes I talk and talk and talk and my husband never seems to tire of it, in fact he says “tell me some more, I love it when you talk.” this is despite boring myself at times because I could talk the hind leg off a donkey (as my mother would say).
It’s strange because when I was younger I was very quiet and people kept saying “You’re so quite” in an accusatory way and so I made a conscious effort to talk more and the older I get the more I seem to want to talk, I think I’m making up for lost time. Blogging seems to fulfill this need too, somehow. Sorry, rambling again. Good luck with the book.
Comment by Sue — April 10, 2007 @ 12:45 pm
Best of luck with that, Petite.
Writing takes it out of you, and editing and revising even more. But a text improves, every single time, so just go with it.
Comment by Roads — April 10, 2007 @ 1:11 pm
congratulations! best of luck. optical teeth. ire
Comment by blog your memory — April 10, 2007 @ 1:22 pm
Don’t give up. It will be worth it. Don’t forget that the people in Dixons are still legal clerks, not going to the places and achieving the recognition that you are.
Comment by PeterG — April 10, 2007 @ 1:30 pm
apparently, my mate j says that if you move to france, you can have a great new job.
think i might ‘ave ta bust out my new sergio’s
any musings on that?
Comment by belch — April 10, 2007 @ 1:31 pm
hurrah to you too.
more poignantly, is that my life you’ve stood on by mistake? this is so exciting. perhaps you’ll get a book deal. you’re twistin’ ’em man…
Comment by you're standing on my toe — April 10, 2007 @ 1:39 pm
At least the attention now is good! Bon chance with all that novelling. You’ll pull through.
Comment by reavolution — April 10, 2007 @ 2:02 pm
eyes on the prize, petite!
Comment by franko — April 10, 2007 @ 2:29 pm
Head down and bum up, my dear. Carry on.
Comment by BundyGil — April 10, 2007 @ 3:17 pm
Yes, please do concentrate and hurry, we all want to read it! Good luck petite!
Comment by Jules — April 10, 2007 @ 3:46 pm
WHAT? I thought you were full of words, enough to share. (but don’t worry, we’ll pay when it comes out)
Comment by joeinvegas — April 10, 2007 @ 4:06 pm
Totally understandable. You gotta do what you gotta do! Good luck with it all.
Comment by Ariel — April 10, 2007 @ 4:43 pm
Good luck… Is there a way where we could get a feed instead of checking 50 times a day if you blogged or not?
We stand behind you… Keep the focus where it is needed. Enjoy Tadpole in all this…
Comment by photocat — April 10, 2007 @ 5:02 pm
How much butchery did your editor commit on the first draft? I have an editor that I have worked with in the past that I referred to as “The Chainsaw.”
Comment by Dave of the Lake — April 10, 2007 @ 5:26 pm
I guess you do not want us to distract you with comments then.
I got to know about your blog through newspaper reports of your court case. Congratulations on standing up to corporate fascism.
Comment by Ian Thorpe — April 10, 2007 @ 6:04 pm
Hope you find time in the solitude to blog occasionally otherwise you will have a lot of disappointed blog groupies!
Comment by tillylil — April 10, 2007 @ 6:40 pm
It seems mean to add a comment which you then have to vet. (that’s moderate for american readers).
Good luck… the end result will be worth the sweet and tears now!
Comment by grayarea — April 10, 2007 @ 7:30 pm
Oh to be too busy with book to blog. Those of us that are too busy being working drones in our downtown offices envy you writing in your garret. Keep at it, we are living through you vicariously!
V.
Comment by Voyager — April 10, 2007 @ 7:54 pm
Look forward to when all the dust settles down again.
Comment by Jean-Luc Picard — April 10, 2007 @ 8:27 pm
One has to prioritise.
Comment by clarissa — April 10, 2007 @ 9:05 pm
Good luck Petite! Can’t wait for the book!
GV
Comment by Giving Voice — April 10, 2007 @ 9:21 pm
Self improsed pressure – nothing like it huh? Have fun?!?!?!
Comment by Andy (who loves child bearing hips) — April 10, 2007 @ 10:15 pm
ok that was supposed to read “self imposed” … my typing aint what it used to be …
Comment by Andy (who loves child bearing hips) — April 10, 2007 @ 10:16 pm
“Self-improsed” – now that’s not bad typing – it’s actually a fresh and amazingly inventive description of the whole literary memoir genre, Andy …
Comment by Roads — April 11, 2007 @ 12:58 am
You get ’em (do Brits say this as well?)…this is so exciting to see your life evolve like this. I’m looking forward to that book. :0)
Comment by Mlle Smith — April 11, 2007 @ 3:49 am
You people are all lovely. I really only meant a very short break, so don’t worry, but if you do want to add the site to your RSS feed reader, there is a feedburner link under the “eye” picture and typing the URL of this site into any aggregator also works…
Comment by petite — April 11, 2007 @ 8:43 am
Petite,
Terribley selfish thing to ask as you are so busy – but maybe one of the bloggers can help me. How do I make a link within a blog? You know when you are reading a book or something and you may not say what it actually is, but it is italicised then, when clicked on it takes you to Amamzon or wherever. Are you with me? Well I want to be able to do it on my blog so that the friends I stayed with get their B&B advertised. Like I said selfish and boring but someone out there may be doing naff all!!!! and be ready to lend a techie hand xxx Try and enjoy the sunshine.
Comment by Welsh Cake — April 11, 2007 @ 9:00 am
I do know how to spell terribly – I just can’t type!
Comment by Welsh Cake — April 11, 2007 @ 9:01 am
Petite, I must say I admire your dedication. On a gorgeous sunny Parisian day like this one I’d be sitting at a table in front of a café somewhere, maybe with my laptop in front of me , maybe not. And justify it by calling it ‘looking for inspiration’…
That is obviously why I don’t have a megabucks book deal and you do. Chapeau.
(Welsh Cake, you need to learn HTML.)
Comment by suziboo — April 11, 2007 @ 11:33 am
Looking forward to the book but don’t work too hard. Give yourself plenty of time to relax and enjoy life as well.
Comment by sablonneuse — April 11, 2007 @ 11:37 am
after careful consideration, i decided to appoint myself to the drawing board. whilst there, i worked upon the notion of metamorphosis. i have never flown solo to france, the air fare is out of sync with my envelope. perhaps my fortune will change.
Comment by a quiet word on the dance floor. — April 11, 2007 @ 12:55 pm
It’s sad that so many women feel the need to abandon relationships these days because of minor problems that could be worked out with a little effort.
Comment by David — April 11, 2007 @ 1:16 pm
Hello you. We battle on :-)
Lovely faux ami. x
Comment by fjl — April 11, 2007 @ 1:21 pm
Petite,
Did I miss something recently? You started this blog with “When Mr. Frog comes home…” Are the two of you together now? Congrats girl!
Your recent trip out of the country had inspired me to schedule my own get-away adventure. I am leaving this weekend to the US Virgin Islands for a ten day get away. I am so excited to get some alone time to relax with my own “Mr. WOW”.
Comment by Leslie — April 11, 2007 @ 2:54 pm
Try this approach, Welsh Cake…
… I’m using square brackets here or else this site will reformat everything into a hyperlink, but you need to use the angular ones, and then remove all of the spaces which I’ve left here for exactly the same reason. Then you can format the [ link text ] as you would any other words on your site.
Hope it works for you.
[ a href = ” http://www.webaddress ” ] link text [ /a ]
Comment by Roads — April 11, 2007 @ 3:03 pm
It’s not just the French though; I’m sure I couldn’t count the number of times I must have talked about taking chickens off or eating arseholes.
Yeah, that didn’t sound so rude in my head.
Comment by Tom — April 11, 2007 @ 6:27 pm
My head is often fool – full even – with things. I understand completely!
Comment by Sally Lomax — April 11, 2007 @ 7:21 pm
“on the nights when Mr Frog would come home late from work” is past tense, obviously.
We are not back together. Although there is clearly ongoing speculation…
Comment by petite — April 11, 2007 @ 8:29 pm
I’m afraid you have to get back together, as your readers demand it. Otherwise there will be a situation like in the film ‘Misery’ and nobody really wants that.
Comment by JonnyB — April 11, 2007 @ 10:59 pm
Petite, really, really pleased your case worked out for you. Two years on from my own tussle with Waterstone’s when they fired me for blogging it is hard to believe companies are still being this stupid, especially as it often results in a lot of damage to their public reputation. Ironically my current job involves running a blog for work, which is doing very well – this still makes me giggle. Good luck with the book.
Comment by Joe — April 11, 2007 @ 11:00 pm
I feel like I have related this quote on your site before but…I love it and will repeat it nonetheless! I am a writer, too, and really loved something I read once like…”Sure writing is easy. You just hold your forehead in your hands and stay that way til blood starts to drip down your fingers.” Hmmm. That doesn’t sound very funny – I think I got a part of it wrong!! Still, here’s hoping it’s going better for you. You will be missed while you’re gone!
Comment by Straight Poop Tamara — April 11, 2007 @ 11:03 pm
Two thankyou’s, one to Petite for letting me borrow her bloggers to help my ineptitude thus, the second thankyou to Roads for helping me. As to Suziboo – learn HTML? What a patient, generous soul you are.
Comment by Welsh Cake — April 12, 2007 @ 8:34 am
if it will help get your book out! i’m all for it. hope you meet your deadline. kisses. Rachel.
Comment by Rachel — April 12, 2007 @ 11:46 am
Thankyous, in plural should obviously not have an apostrophe.
Comment by Welsh Cake — April 12, 2007 @ 1:37 pm
Saw an nice blonde in a little article on the french Nouvel Observateur Newspaper…
It was our petite anglaise hehe
Nice photo by SIPA BTW
Keep focused and let me know if you need a scan of it…
Only 1/8 A4 on page 89..
Comment by Thierry_J — April 12, 2007 @ 5:11 pm
Hello quiet one. Just wanted to tell you that I have nominated you at the Blogger’s Choice Awards. You can get a brag badge from the site so that people can vote for you. Good luck!
Its American, so the applicable cheesy categories are…
Hottest Mommy Blogger (sorry!), Best Blog of All Time, Best Blog About Blogging
http://www.bloggerschoiceawards.com
Comment by Jemjoop — April 12, 2007 @ 5:49 pm
Oops missed a category! Also nominated you for best “Blogitzer” which is…
“This award will be presented to the blogger who demonstrates the best writing ability on his or her blog.”
Comment by Jemjoop — April 12, 2007 @ 5:58 pm
Good luck, Petite. Having just completed a Ph.D., I certainly understand the need to be quiet and to focus on the task at hand. Keep up the good work!
Comment by Kat — April 12, 2007 @ 11:46 pm
If your head’s full with the book that has to be a good thing. Keep it down and keep going, I say. I also say well done on choosing to write a memoir, rather than have your blog typeset and published as is. You are a very wise ‘little’ lady.
Comment by Niki — April 13, 2007 @ 2:02 am
So, still no postcard, and I suppose it’s not going to happen now? One from sunny Paris would suffice.
Looking forward to the book. Enjoy the adulation.
Comment by Jez — April 13, 2007 @ 8:32 am
Here is the link to an article about you in the Greek newspaper “TA NEA” http://ta-nea.dolnet.gr/print_article.php?e=A&f=18779&m=N62&aa=2
Comment by Stavroulix — April 13, 2007 @ 8:34 am
I think “my head is fool” sounds better…
Comment by Hywel Mallett — April 13, 2007 @ 10:40 am
Listen Jolly Hockey Sticks, either you play hardball or you play softball, one or the other. You chose to play in the big league, so let’s see what you’ve got.
Don’t take it personally Kiddo, but what you write is crap, sheer and utter crap! But people like it, that’s what counts! these pages are full of them.
So keep an even keel and come up with the goods Honey, or else!
Comment by Trevor — April 14, 2007 @ 2:39 pm
Un peu tard ms félicitation pour le procès !
J’ai lu l’article ds Glamour aujourd hui, je suis tombée sur le c*l !
Je connaissais un peu ton blog, j’y viens de tps à autre.
Bisous !
Comment by Roodkapje — April 14, 2007 @ 6:22 pm
wht do i do..??i wanna sign up n visit uer blog often…how can i do tht?????
Comment by nik — April 14, 2007 @ 8:32 pm
ok i get it now…!!!i gotto jus bookmark the address~
!!!
:)
Comment by nik — April 14, 2007 @ 8:35 pm
I have nothing new to say. Just I wish you good luck not only from me, but from the newspaper I work in.
I live in Russia. And unfortunately I knew not long ago about your victory. I believe that it isn’t late to congratulate you. =)
Comment by Sasha — April 15, 2007 @ 2:11 pm
Your blog is the only one I have found to be worth reading! I enjoy it sooooooo much.
Best wishes with the fiddling and tweeking of your script.
Comment by Ellen — April 15, 2007 @ 5:25 pm
So according to the Humanite Eolas is your defender ? Is that right ?
Comment by Yogi — April 15, 2007 @ 9:33 pm
No. Factually incorrect. He has written about my case, but was not my lawyer. There are a lot of errors in the press articles, no-one seems to check facts or listen properly any more!
Comment by petite — April 15, 2007 @ 9:37 pm