Foiled

I love having writer friends.

Ring, ring, goes my cell phone. This so seldom happens it took me a moment to realise it was mine. My bag is a cavernous affair full of junk, so it took a while to find it.

"Hi, Vanda. I'm sorry to disturb you, but I've got a quick question for you."

"That's OK, I'm in the supermarket with the kids."

"Cool. You're a fencer. What do you call it when you swing your sword down at someone when you're fighting them, is there a proper name?"

"Well, that depends." I am putting capsicum and carrots on the checkout conveyor. "If you are attacking, you could be lunging, which is an aggressive forwards movement to stab your opponent, or are we talking about broad swords here, and you're going at them with an edge, not a point." The check out guy is giving me a very strange look. I put the mince meat on the conveyor.

You can imagine the rest of the conversation.

The friend in question is Tania Roxborogh, aka TK Roxborogh who is in the final throes of writing a sequel to MacBeth called Banquo's Son. Check out her blog here where Tania lays down the trials and tribulations of frantically writing a novel in a very short period of time. Her work rate has been astonishing! It sounds like there's a bit of blood and guts and a few battle scenes for good measure. Excellent.

Usually these kinds of conversations take place in more appropriate places, like around the dinner table, so it was quite a novelty to be discussing the cut and thrust of sword play at the check out. It certainly spiced up the grocery shopping.