Recently I drank a strange man's champagne from his fridge, ate his pasta and slept in his bed. And more than this, I've never even met him! Living in furnished rented accomodation is weird - I find I'm making up stories about my landlord from his choice of lamps, curtains, even - especially - pictures. I suppose the moral of this is never to rent your home out to a writer. I was excited though to find here a whole narrative being given to a sofa left in a skip. Makes me think about the stories we're making up everyday without even being aware of it.

I'm tired of shouting at British politicians on the radio who are sounding more and more alike, plus it's raining, so what better time to start my own revolution, to create my own world. I should be writing, but instead I'm going to spend some time planning who I want to run this. Kindness is going to be the most used word in our new language, people will be rewarded for their generosity to everyone, not just for talking louder than anyone else and/or bullying, and we'll all be allowed to progress at our own speed. In fact, we'll gain points for taking things a bit slower, and be rewarded by packs of glitter, coloured pens and sticky things. No, have not gone mad - I do know I'm sounding like I want everything to be a giant Liberty's department store, where my friend swears they put soporophic drugs in the potpourri so no one complains at how long it takes to buy anything (if you can afford it), and that's not reality, but, oh but. Good game here anyway.

The best book I've read on female utopia's is Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman - you can read it on the Project Gutenberg site for free.

And my mission for today is to learn how to do links in these posts, and my writing prompt comes from Carol Ann Duffy's TS Eliot Award Winning collection, Rapture - and is 'the answers I don't know by heart, yet'.

In London's Marylebone Road, there's one of the best chocolate shops in the world. Rococo. It's a tiny little jewel of a shop - almost like a boutique of the senses, and there are chocolates shaped like tiny vegetables, eggs, nipples, lips ... anything you can imagine. It's breath-takingly expensive, but even the packaging is beautiful, picturing blue and white fish, and boxes that you want to keep for special things. Trouble is I've just found out they have a website, and I've just been seduced, no other word for it, into ordering myself a box of their famous venus nipples. I'm going to use them as inspiration, I tell myself, for writing this erotic story I'm determined to finish this year. Wonder if I can write them off against tax! But all is not lost ... I'm going to confess on this great feature on the site, which asks for your chocolate confessions and awards a box of their best chocolates to the best one!
Watch this space...

Nothing better than finding something that makes you laugh AND makes you think, so here's my site of the week. Well, it makes a difference from my constant raving of 43things!

And my writing prompt for today is the first line of Jacqueline Rose's book on psychoanalysis and the modern world, ON NOT BEING ABLE TO SLEEP, and it is ...
Shame requires an audience.

A lovely start to the morning today - and a bit of synchronicity. I'm a great fan of the bookcrossing site where people all over the world are encouraged to swop books - www.bookcrossing.com - and it's been such an ambition to find one of these 'released' books, that I put it as one of my goals on 43things. Anyway, walking my dog in our local park, I noticed a book left lying on a bench and picked it up. There was a letter inside from a woman called Sue who was determined to prove her friend wrong when this friend said that all everyone cared about these days was getting more and more material things. Sue's new years resolution was to be more generous, and leaving the book was part of this! It made me laugh and when the park-keeper came up to chat, I told him about it. He was so pleased that it had happened in 'his' park that I gave the book to him. He texted Sue to say how nice she'd been, and although I only held the book in my hands for just a few minutes, I'm still smiling. It would be fantastic if the park could become an unofficial booksharing site, if people trying books they wouldn't normally pick up.

Another goal that keeps coming up on 43things is having a ride in a hot air balloon, and it makes me feel smug because I've done this! In Shropshire last year, we went out about 6 o'clock in the morning, when the land was just waking up. It was like floating, moving at a completely different pace. I've put some of the photographs up here.

And my writing prompt for today comes from one of the best books on writing I've found - If you Want to Write, by Brenda Ueland, and it's the heading from one of her chapters. 'Art is Infection'.

Live with intention.
Walk to the edge.
Listen hard.
Practice wellness.
Play with abandon.
Laugh.
Choose with no regret.
Continue to learn.
Apperciate your friends.
do what you love.
Live as if this is all there is.
- Mary Ann Radmacher

OK - I'm cheating because I stole that quote from someone's list at the wonderful http://www.43things.com site. I'm addicted to this at the moment - forget about the worthiness of resolutions, these ones make you laugh out loud, and cry, and just want 100 more years to live so you can do all these things!! Although I'm the only one at the moment wanting sto start my own asparagus bed which is a bit worrying. And there are thousands wanting to write a novel, which is possibly even more worrying.

My writing prompt for today is ... All the lights in the house are off except one.

Have been so involved with editing firstly Tell Me Everything, and more recently my PhD thesis, that I'm in danger of getting tired of words. It was good then to discover Martin Waugh's beautiful photographs of liquid sculpture - these include raindrops, drops in your cup of tea, dew ... anything. I've been looking at them for hours - just love the way they form perfect cups in themselves. Think it's probably against copyright to post one here, but the site is on http://www2.liquidsculpture.com - and is well worth a visit.
And another site a friend passed on to me is http://mydrobe.com. Never again can you say you have nothing to wear ... just post up the options and the events, and the public will choose the best option for you. So many possible stories here, and it reminds me of those little paper dolls we used to play with, which came with a selection of paper outfits that you just fitted on with tabs that never quite worked. Oh, but times were good then ...

And my writing prompt for today is ... 'The Pillow Book of ....'

Oops. The other blog I wanted to mention is Keris's on http://www.keris-stainton.com. Not only does this woman like handbags and Seth Cohen, she's very funny and a great writer.

The one advantage of the tension I feel between writing and teaching is that when the teaching is temporarily over - for holidays - I feel a burst of creativity and manage to get into the flow of writing. This Christmas holidays I've been hard at work finishing my phd thesis, which, I'm SO proud to say, I've just printed off for final reading. I've also been searching on the internet, and found other writing blogs, which have led to more websites, and more, and more. It's so inspiring to see how creative people are, but more than that, their generosity in sharing. I've followed leads to some fantastic stories, beautiful pictures, and fun. After this, I wasn't surprised to see a report in the paper that women are using the internet more than men. When I tracked back on what sites had impressed me, I was amazed to see most were created by women. I wonder why this is?

So here are some of the sites I've been loving ...

Ros Barber is a brilliant poet, author of the collection How Things Are on Thursday. She's currently writing a novel and keeps progress on http://shallowlands.blogspot.com

Clare Dudman is a funny and clever novelist, author of 99 Reasons and Wegener's Jigsaw. Her blog contains her writing progress and also interviews with other writers. http://keeperofthesnails.blogspot.com

I'm a bit worried I'm stalking Myfanwy, but I came across her work from the website Smokelong after I received a rejection email for one of my stories from the editor and forwarded it to a friend with the mature comment: 'Bum'. Yes, you've guessed, I in fact pressed reply and swore at the editor instead! She was surprised but gracious, and when I searched shamefaced through archives, I came across Myfanwy's work and looked at her website. It's brilliant and interesting, and I've spent far too long there following up Myfanwy's links. http://myfanwy.blogspot.com

Kay has been my friend since we were 11 and we've seen eachother through good times and bad. Less recently though, as she moved to Germany some time ago with her family. She'd be the last person to admit it, but she's one of the bravest and most accomplished people I know and I admire her so much for starting again in a new country, learning the language and becoming such a valuable part of the community. Her blogspot is on www.diaryofahousefrau.blogspot.com

And my writing prompt for yesterday was secrets. Today is the title of Paul Durcan's poetry collection: The Art of Life.

A lovely day yesterday with my brother and his family. We went for a walk across the fields and saw in the distance the windmill where Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was filmed, and drove through a nearby village which was where Cruella De Ville lived in 101 dalmations. Almost as exciting, we learnt the rules for Congestion Scrabble where you try and use as few letters as possible in as least space as possible. Can't wait to try that one out. The people in the village my brother lives in are so polite that when I saw some people standing on the doorstep of a house called 'Sarah's Cottage' I went up to them and said over-excitedly that my name was Sarah. 'How nice', they said a bit bemused until they realised I was linking it to the name of their house. They'd thought I'd just been introducing myself.

Today I was sitting in front of the fire today feeling so lethargic I could hardly move when I suddenly thought I didn't want to spend my New Year like this, so I went off to the allotment instead to sort out my raspberry canes. I've entered the heaviest marrow and pumpkin competition in the annual show so I also cleared some ground and spread good thoughts. Whether that's enough, time will tell.

And my writing prompt for today comes from Virginia Woolf's diaries and is a line from her entry of January 3rd, 1933 'This is a little out of place, but then so am I'.

I'm taking comfort from another entry of hers for Tuesday May 11th, 1920. She writes: 'It is worth mentioning, for future reference, that the creative power which bubbles so pleasantly in beginning a new book quiets down after a time, and one goes on more steadily. Doubts creep in. Then one becomes resigned. Determination not to give in, and the sense of an impending shape keep one at it more than anything. I'm a little anxious. How am I to bring off this conception. Directly one gets to work one is like a perosn walking, who has seen the country stretching out before. i want to write nothing in this book that I don't enjoy writing. And yet writing is always difficult.'

A site that makes me laugh every time I use it is http://www.thesurrealist.co.uk/sheep - the sheep shift around to make a different poem every time. Do give it a go.

A very happy new year..

and my writing prompt for the first day of 2006 comes from Razorlight: 'Looking for you in the city tonight'.

For the last day of the year...

.. what I'm looking forward to - the book I've written with the poet Lynne Rees (www.lynnerees.com)coming out in March from Bluechrome (www.bluechrome.co.uk). It's called Messages, and is 300 pieces of 300 words which we exchanged by email over a frenetic six month period. More about this later, but found a wonderful website Muse to Muse (www.musetomuse.com) about two women who also found their creativity in partnership.

... what I'm watching - Hoop Dreams, a dvd my son got for Christmas. I keep having to leave the room because I'm crying.

... what I'm reading - Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking, published by 4th estate.

... what I'm eating - everything in sight. Diet starts tomorrow.

My resolutions...

a) To write something every day
b) To canoe with my friend Sue
c) To make myself take a risk every week.
d) To learn how to do links on this.

My writing prompt - at the swimming pool today, there was a man dancing in the water with his little daughter. I thought how sweet until I saw the almost jealous expression on the face of his wife who was also watching, and I caught myself wondering what would happen if he asked her to dance like that tonight at a new years eve party.

Someone emailed me with these words they saw on a memorial bench overlooking the sea at West Wittering - 'Sit awhile, gaze at the sunset, listen to the sea, smile and remember me.' I love the direction to 'smile'; there's something so loving about a bench too.

And to celebrate being half-way through editing the page proofs of novel 2, Tell Me Everything, I've been thinking about the joys of doing things with my hands, not just my mind - so was very happy to come across this website about 52 (and more) creative projects you can carry out here which is full of inspiration. The Four Hundred word project mentioned in the blog can be found here and looks well worth reading.

It's been interesting coming back to Tell Me Everything. I finished writing it over six months ago now and because I'm absorbed in thinking about novel 3, the relationship with TME is more distanced and I can actually read it as a finished product rather than want to change it all the time. Not that I haven't been changing it. I think it will have to be dragged off me by the publishers because I just can't see how you can ever totally say you've done all you can on a creative piece of work. I read somewhere that we keep writing because we never quite manage to write the book we set out to originally. I think that's right.

And my prompt for the day is .... The sound of snow.

There's a new memorial bench in our local park that made me cry this afternoon. Don't know if it was the inscription 'Aright bubby it's all good', or the position over-looking the basketball court where my son and his friends play, or the age (21) of the boy, but I thought it should be recorded anyway.

A disadvantage of being a writer is how everyone always expects you to win word games or write witty comments in visitors books etc etc, and as I rarely can do either - going blank with the best of them - this is just to commemorate a famous Scrabble victory over my husband yesterday. Let me just repeat that score again - Sarah: 359, Francis: 223, cough, cough. I even managed a seven letter word - ok, ok, first one ever but still...

One of my resolutions for 2006 is to take a writing prompt for each day and write something, anything, from it. Today I'm starting early by working from a comment which comes from Toni Morrison's Beloved and is discussed in the book, Memory, Narrative, Identity by Nicola King - it's when Sethe warns her daughter Denver never to go back to where the tramatic event happened, because 'it's going to be always there waiting for you.' I find that idea of a place holding memories incredibly chilling and today's a good day to write a ghost story, or even a ghost poem.

I'm suffering from a terrible cold but what better time to be ill than this, with a fire going, films on the TV - hopefully there will be a St Trinians later, haven't looked yet - and new Christmas books to read. I got a good selection this year including On Beauty by Zadie Smith and a New Scientist book, Does Anything Eat Wasps? which consists of questions and answers from their Last Word Column. The latter is the sort of book you dip into, and find you're still reading an hour later. For instance, to the question 'Does your bum look smaller in black' - one of the answers given is that when female cast members of Star Trek use padding to 'increase their female allure', they always have to put on more padding when they're wearing darker clothes. So now you know.... If this cold continues, I will be the most knowledgeable person at any New Years Eve party, and the one you hope you won't be sitting next to!

Good story to read here on one of my favourite sites: - http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/MaggMiso.shtml

I'm very excited - have been asked to guest-edit an issue of the excellent pulp.net magazine around the issue of clothes. If anyone wants to submit anything, don't do it through me but here are the details...

3 Feb: the Clothes issue - Pulp Net, guest editor Sarah Salway
How people dress can be seen as a defence or an attack; a chance to show off or to blend in; to be colourful or neutral; to say who they are or to pretend to be someone different; for comfort or appearance; personal fashion or in-crowd identity.Stories wanted on all aspects of clothes and style to editor@pulp.net by February 3rd. Please send your story as an attachment to editor at pulp.net., with ‘FAO Sarah’ in subject header. Please provide your address & phone number in your email but NOT in the attachment, to facilitate contact if your story is selected. Submissions close 10am London time on 3 Feb. The fee is £100.

Or you can look up here for the guidelines etc.

Meanwhile, Christmas moves apace. My daughter has a new green and red brace, and I've got a new name. Trumpy naughty-elf. I wonder if I could be one of the elves on Scott Mills's excellent Radio 1 show. He's been phoning naughty children pretending to be Santa and telling them to behave if they want presents. Today's child had eaten all the chocolates on THREE advent calendars and closed all the doors so no-one could tell. You go girl. Anyway, if the mood takes you, you can find your own Christmas name on here

A poet is for life, not just for Christmas. Came across this 'adopt-a-poet' site on the internet - http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/204 - at last a present for that person who has everything!

Suddenly novel 2 is gearing up for action. I'm editing page proofs at the moment, and have just got a fab cover design from Bloomsbury. Very dark and will probably make small children cry, but I love it. I remember from Something Beginning With that this is a strange limbo time, when everything is gearing up for publication but nothing is actually happening (or on the outside anyway) - and because it all takes so long, I suspect some friends think the book is all a figment of my imagination anyway. What I have learnt from last time though is that life goes on just the same. There's a fantasy around becoming a published writer that is just that - a fantasy. I spent the launch day of SBW digging in chicken shit on my allotment and not one silver carriage turned up to take me anywhere. Will have to plan something equally practical for August 7th.

Meanwhile a celebrity has moved in to the house on the other side of the park from us. Even I have heard of him, so we're all very excited. Well, all the other middle-aged women around here are, anyway. I came back to tell the kids that he'd painted the walls of his sitting room magnolia. How do you know that? my son reasonably asked and I had to admit that a friend of mine had looked through the windows.

Had a Christmas shopping day in Harrods last week with my sister. It's a tradition which my mother started, so the first few years we met after her death felt forced and a bit sad, but now we both look forward to it. Neither of us are good shoppers so we're perfect company - we look a bit and then go and have a cup of tea, look a bit more and hey presto it's lunch time, a few more glances and time for another cup of tea. This year we met in the book dept which was a disaster as we both got heaps of books which we then had to lug round with us for the rest of the day. Still all the cups of tea were lovely. And Harrods is - even more than usual at Christmas time - a different world. In what other shop would you get an announcement telling you that the in-store ice rink was now open and in ten minutes there was going to be a demonstration by the English ice skating team? It was all a bit surreal. Have been put in charge of family cocktails and poker this Christmas. Not sure if this is a sign of great responsibility, or everyone has just given up on me, but managed to get some good cocktail sticks and lots of chocolate coins for the stakes.

Am starting to keep a record of inscriptions on park benches. There was one I saw this morning dedicated just to 'A special person'.