Off to the shops today - not my favourite way to spend a day but kind of exciting in this instance mainly because I am on a mission. I have things to buy so armed with my comprehensive list and with Himself at my side to lug the heavy bags I'm going in. I hope to survive the day.
More will follow in disaptches.

Sue and other stuff

I was talking to an acquaintance (let's call her Sue - not her real name) the other day who has found herself in a place and a time in her life when she is free to move away from where she lives and go onto another phase. During this conversation a friend of hers who I don't know came along and the three of us got talking. Sue said that she felt like moving away and starting up a new career in another place which I agreed might be a good idea because there is nothing stopping her and she can always keep in touch with friends and family if she wanted to. Her friend also agreed and said why didn't she become a writer because "look how much money she made out of "Fifty Shades of Grey." Sue said that was funny because an ex boyfriend had said that  and this is a direct quote "because I have a talent. I mean I had to write reports for my job."
So Sue is going to be a writer.
On a different note I have started working on Project MGI. I've changed the MC's voice which makes her less submissive and I'm going for short chapters because I find that really easy to read. So far I've worked on 2 chapters and there is no sign of George but don't worry folks he'll be around any time now.
On another different note. I still haven't heard from the editor about the article I wrote but it is just a month so I'm not worrying too much about that. I'd forgotten about it in fcat until just a minute ago. I haven't finished the other article that I started but I'll be working on that later.
Other than that the weather is doing its usual cartwheels. It is a glorious sunny crisp Winter's day today but for a couple of days last week I thought I might need to start building an ark. It took me just shy of 2 hours and 44 miles to do what is usually an 8 mile 15 minutes journey last Monday. Nightmare! But I made it home safely and at least the water was on the outside of the house. The poor people that have been flooded, many not for the first time this year, have my complete sympathy.
Stay warm and dry everyone.

Project MGI

That's the name of my new project, well a continuation of an old project really.
MGI - Make George Interesting.
I decided when we were in Krakow that I'm not ready to give up on BTL yet and as it seems that editors/agents that I have sent it to before are not keen on George saying that he doesn't really bring anything to the story I need to make George interesting (MGI).
I'm going to give myself another year, well 13 months actually (deadline 25/12/2013) to MGI.
That's the plan anyway.

Excuses excuses

Well only one actually - excuse that is.
The article that I am writing isn't finished yet because I've been doing my Christmas shopping - online of course because I can't be doing with those queues in the shops. Actually I don't know if there are queues because I haven't visited a shop for a Christmas gift. Oh I tell a lie, I made a trip into a nearby town to go to M&S to buy some of those non elastic top socks for my dad and the queue wasn't so bad there just 3 people in front of me.
You see, I work full time and my Sunday off is a family time which means a lie in, dog walk, roast lunch and a bubble bath. My day off during the week involves grocery shopping, ironing and usually a bit of baking. So who has time for Christmas shopping? - hence the time spent shopping online instead of finishing my article.
The good news is the shopping is pretty much done so I will have no excuse then.

Granny who?

Well that was very confusing! Let me explain.
I have a copy of my mother's birth certificate and she is listed with the name "Unfrith," however when I received a copy of her (granny's) marriage certificate the other day, her surname is listed as "Humphrey." I asked my mother this morning what her mother's maiden name was and she said "Unfrith" - fair enough, I mean that's what it says on her (my mum's) birth certificate. So I asked her if her mother had lived in a certain street next door to her soon to be husband and my mum got a bit excited because they did. Turns out Granny was a "Humphrey" all the time so goodness only knows who the other person was. Actually although the names are totally different they do sound pretty similar so maybe the registrar misheard. I'm looking forward to showing my mother the copy of the certificate because I think she'll enjoy seeing it.

Update

Happy to report that I have taken my own advice and started the article mentioned in the previous post. However after two paragraphs I have hit a stumbling block but that's good because it requires a bit of research an I love that. It'll have to wait until later though because I'm off to make soup.

I know the answer but...

You know when one project is finished and you've dispatched to whomever you hope will commission it or whatever what do you do next? Do you immediately start your next project? Do you give yourself a couple of days off to recuperate? Or do you do nothing?
I have to be honest I tend to fall into the third category, not all the time, but sometimes and now is one of those times. I have an article with an editor and I have a pitch with another but I have done sod all about the other article that I wanted to write.
So my question is how do you cure post project inertia (PPI if you will)? I know the answer of course it is to just get on and do it but I thought I would ask anyway.
Any excuse not to start the article eh!

Raw deals and other stuff

Okay, I wasn't sure if I was breaching some kind of copywrite if I copied the actual words on here so please bear with me while I try to explain this.
In a nutshell I checked out a website that is running a writing competition in conjunction with a publisher and when reading the T&C's discover that the winner gives over royaties, rights and basically any say, in any language, anywhere in the world. The tag line to the spiel is something along the lines of "Do you want to see your book in print?" and it just seems to me that the website are taking advantage of wannabe writers. If the story is good and presumably the winning one will be then they stand to make a lot of money from it and the only remuneration that the author would get is £500 and seeing their book in print. Seems like a bit of a raw dal if you ask me.
As for me I am still waiting to here back from the editor that I sent my article to but the last time it took a month for one of their colleauges to get back to me so I guess its early days yet. I also pitched another article to a different editor and I'm waiting to hear if they want to see it so fingers crossed. There is also another article that I want to write up this week but I want to iron out a couple of style issues first.

Worth the effort?

Okay, so I'm over last night's spelling mistake induced tantrum and have returned to ask the question that I was going to ask 24 hours ago.
Now you know when you start reading a book and it doesn't grab you and you are struggling with it do you give up on it or are you determined to read it no matter what?
There is only one book that I have started and not been able to finish and I have started it more than once. Its not that I don't want to read it and I'm sure that it is very good but its very complicated and I've never been in the right frame of mind to finish it before but I will one of these days.
So personally I tend to plough through and hope that a book will get better before it ends but I know some people who just give up on a book that they are not enjoying.
What about you?

Morphing - how did that happen?

I had to go to work today and anyone that knows me knows that I hate  doing that but needs must when the devil drives and all that. The usual person wanted a holiday and the usual cover couldn't do it so when all else fails I have to do it. Boo. I got through it though but it did leave me with not as much time as I would like for doing the things that I usually like to do on Sundays.
It aslso meant that I didn't have as long as I would like to polish and article. This would be the article that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, the forst one that I wrote. I typed up what I had written the other day so it wan't the first draft but it was still very rough. I pitched it to an editor not expecting them to get back to me for a while but they came back the next day asking to see it so I wanted to get that to them over the weekend. I've tweaked it within an inch of its life this evening but its gone now so fingers crossed.
AARRGGHHH! I've just looked at it again - God knows why because like I said its gone now and I spotted a spelling mistake The word "from" morphed into "form" and I didn't notice sod sod sod! I had read through it a dozen times so how did I miss it?
I was going to talk about something else but I'm too annoyed with myself now and to be honest I can't remember what it was. Oh yes I can but I'll save that for another day.

Decisions decisions

Oh well, its decision time again. What do I read next. I finished what I referred to last week as a Kinsey Milhone book and need to choose something else to read. Just to clarify, Kinsey is the character in the Sue Grafton Alphabet series and the book that I have just finished is "I is for Innocent." I do have "J is for Judgement" but I think I'll give Kinsey a rest for the moment. So what to read next.
There are literally hundreds of books in this house that I haven't read but somehow I can't make my mind up about which one to choose. I haven't read a biography for a bit, well for at least two books anyway, somaybe I'll give one of them a go. Himself bought me the biography (or is it "ies" given that they are in the same book?) of Lady Jane Grey's sisters so maybe that'll be the one. No doubt you will all lose hours of sleep until you find out the answer to that one. Just kidding.
On a different note, I finished the rough draft of the article that I was writing last week but I didn't polish it and send it off because I decided to write the second article that I had in  my mind. Actual writing with a pen on paper which was a lot of fun. I plan on polishing this week. I also want to write a letter to a newspaper in response to a letter that I read in there today. Not that productive I know but at least it will let me get something off my chest.
Did you get the snow the other day? Up here we get a lot of snow usually although we only had one real session of it last year but we're not quite Scotland so we don't usually get it in October so I hope it isn't a sign of the things to come. 
Anyway, I'll let you know what book I choose and I'd be interested to know how other people make their choices.

My week in a nutshell

So what can I tell you about what I did this week? Well the pink pen ran out of ink for a start and it wasn't from over work. I noticed that it was empty when I started to work on my first project. Trouble is that I need to go to a shop that isn't local (used to be when I worked there) to get a refill , so that could take a while. Nil desperandum - I found a red pen (outside that is, not the ink) and that is proving to be an adequate substitute.
I know I mentioned my "first" writing project but to be honest its been my only, but it's coming along quite nicely and I hope to have it completed this week. As usual when I made my "to do" list there were too many things on it and I only got to the first one. A few years ago, every Sunday, I used to post "this week I'll..." and I used to give myself too much to do back then too. I mean, five days a week I go to work before 8am and I get back around 6pm. Then I make tea, usually by 7pm. I then have to eat and before you know it, its bed time. I try and fit some writing into t least one of my days off but this week I had a lot of other stuff to see to. Maybe I'll try to concentrate on doing one thing well instead of trying to do lots of things in a mediocre manner.
Remember I was going to sign up to Ancestry.co.uk to search into my past? Well I haven't done that yet, mainly because I didn't want to buy a month and then disappear to Krakow and I know that I'm back now but...well to be honest I've had other more important (more boring) things to do so I just haven't got round to it but I will.
What else happened this week? Well not a lot really. I had 3 books on the go and I finished one of them. One of my regular customers had brought it when he discovered that we both liked Ed McBain. The book was called "Privileged Conversation" by Evan Hunter (Ed's real name) and it was brilliant. The man wrote the best dialogue I have ever read in my life. I'm almost finished the Kinsey Milhone that I took to Krakow and then there's my "breakfast book" which is by Raymond Khourey. I should point out that I am not being anti social by having a breakfast book because I am usually on my own apart from the dog and to be honest he's not much of a conversationalist.
I finally got to see "Warhorse" the other day and I wailed from beginning to end.
The only other thing I did this week was buy a new Winter coat. It was a bargain from a charity shop and I make no apologies for that. I work in a charity shop so I know what kind of bargains you can pick up in them. When I see the prices that regular shops charge for clothes it makes my eyes water. Seriously when I see what we get donated I am amazed. I mean we often don't get as much as we used to but sometimes the quality is phenomenal. I think it has something to do with the "throw away" society that we live in now.
Anyway that was my week in a nutshell. Not a lot of it was to do with writing but it was about me.

Honey I'm home.

Hello everyone, as you can see I am back from my techno-less sabbatical and here is where I spent it.
For anyone that doesn't recognise this place it is the main square in Krakow Old Town and the building is The Cloth Hall. We spent a wonderful 5 days there and I can heartily recommend it as somewhere to visit.
But I'm back now and the reality of normal life is kicking back in. For instance, it is back to work tomorrow so ya boo hiss and all that but as I keep telling Himself if life was spent on holiday all the time then these times would not be special anymore. I really don't want to go back to work tomorrow at the moment but I'm sure that by this afternoon or this evening at the worst my head will have got itself back into the right place.
So I know that you will have spent all week worrying about what decisions I will make regarding the direction my writing will take so I will put you out of your misery. Just kidding BTW.
Well, remember BTL and how several of the agents that I had sent it to said that they did not like G but I love him so I don't want to get rid of him? Well, I have decided that I need to make G more appealing so I am going to revisit that project with that intention in mind. I have also had a couple of ideas for new projects - both of them non fiction. When (many years ago) I realised that I wanted to write I wanted to be a journalist so maybe non fiction has always been my first love so why fight it. Back then I also had a couple of attempts at writing a book so I am pretty much doing now what I started out doing. Anyway, I'm going to start working on the NF ideas later today - getting a plan sketched out at least.

Sabbaticals and lessons learned

I changed the look of my blog  but I'm not sure if I like it or not yet. I'm not going to be around Blogland after today until next weekend so maybe I'll leave it and look at it with new eyes then. They won't literally be "new eyes" obviously. I mean, the reason that I'm not going to be around isn't because I'm having radical eye surgery or anything, no they will be metaphorical "new eyes."
These few days away from Blogland (and all things technological) is something that happens annually and for the last 2 years my witing "life" has changed after it. Two years ago I decided that I would concentrate on writing non fiction and had found a regular outlet and I spent the following year doing just that. After last years sabbatical I switched the computer on to discover an email waiting for me saying that said outlet was no longer in operation and that I had lost my market. If nothing else, that taught me the lesson that you shouldn't put all of your eggs in one basket. I have spent the last year doing nothing in particular writing wise so I can't help wondering what will happen after this years technology-less few days.
So I will see you all next week and I will leave you with this photograph.

 

 

Two slaps in one day

Yep that's right, I've had another one of those slap across the face moments.
This one occurred to me when I was writing inside a birthday card that I will be giving Himself on Tuesday and it is this. I no longer write in long-hand.
Those of you that have been around a while will know that I used to write everything in long-hand with a pink pen - hence the name of the blog. I don't do that any more. These days I put everything straight onto the computer and that doesn't feel the same somehow. I don't know when or why I changed but I did.
Well let me tell you that I'm changing back - and I'm doing it today.

And here's another photo for no other reason than I like it. This is my previous dog Zoe who I still love and think of often despite her being dead for four years. I have other photos that are cuter but this one is more her. She was a bit of a tomboy and by the looks of it she's taking a breather after some blowout or other. She was at least 10 or 11 when she died (rescue dog so its hard to be accurate) and I comforted myself after her sudden demise by imagining her in doggy heaven chasing rabbits like she did when she was young.
Anyway, there you go, this is Zoe.

Apropos of nothing.

I've added this for no other reason that I've just found it and I quite like it.
I haven't used my camera for a long time but was checking it out because I will want to use it soon and I found this picture, along with some of the Zachary (the dog) playing in the snow and a few other random things. Its not a recent photograph but I like it and I thought I'd share it with you all.
Anyway, have you ever had one of those moments when you want to give yourself a slapa round the head and call yourself stupid? Well I had another one of those moments this week.
It was part of my quest to "find the love" of writing again.
Back in the days when I enjoyed the actual writing process more than I have recently and I enjoyed a modicum of success I did it in a certain way or rather at a certain time. Not an exact time of course but you know, in the mornings for arguments sake. However since my job, his job, our lives have changed I have been trying to work at a different time which thinking about it logically is a time of the day that I am definitely not fond of. I think that one of the resaons I fell out of love with the writing process is that I have been trying to work at the wrong time of day.
Having said that the window of opportunity for writing at the right time of day is very small but twas ever thus and I used to manage it - and enjoy it.
I am enjoying the writing process more now which is a relief to you all I have no doubt. Instead of writing because I knew it was something that I had enjoyed in the past, I am actually enjoying it in the present. Does that make sense? It sounded better in my head than it does on paper.
BTW - did I get rid of that word verification thing on comments made? I hope I did.

A bit of a ramble.

Okay okay, so I know that I said that I was giving up writing  with a view to publication but you know what a person is allowed to change their mind.
I have spent the last few weeks just writing for fun and falling in love with it again and now I think that I am ready (mentally at least) to send stuff out into the big wide world again. I have a couple of non fiction projects swirling around my head as we speak but nothing on paper (or screen) yet. However that is for another day, or maybe even later today of I can get a minute.
Anyway, I have a question, a thought, a rambling call it what you will that I thought I would share with you and invite comment on.
My novel "BTL" is finished and frankly getting a bit dusty in its cyber folder. Personally I love it but I would wouldn't I so my opinion counts for nothing here butI have let other people, both close friends and critics alike, read it and as yet I have not had a negative comment about it from a reader. Well my dear friend Jan who is a commissioning director (whatever that is but it always impresses me when I see it on an email) for an art publisher, did say that she didn't like the names of 2 of the characters. I think I called them Dave and Steve but she thought they should have been called something else. She's American so probably wanted them called Dwight and Marshall (both very good names on the right person) or something but as these charcters were in the book for about a page and a half I didn't bother changing them. Anyway that is what the people I know have said about it. All of these people (including Jan) are writers in their own right.
I have also sent it to a few agents who again have not really had anything mega bad to say about it just that they aren't "in love" with it which I suppose is pretty vital if you're going to represent a book and a writer. One agent, bless her heart, even said it was beautifully written.
I am getting to the point of this ramble (yes it is a ramble but with a question coming up now) and I am thinking of self publishing - what do you think? Is it a lazy way out? Is it a sign of failure? I mean, I remember years ago when I first started writing, the plan was to get other people to pay me to write.
Just a thought.

Q. Who do I think I am?

A. I am Colette, born in Yorkshire a number (which I won't reveal) of years ago and what I would call an average person.
However I have decided to dig a little into my past and find out who I really am - as it were.
I only ever knew one grandparent, the rest having died before I was born so I know very little about my ancesters but I want to find out more. The trouble is that I'm not that sure about the best way to go about it so I wondered if any of you had any advice that you could give me.
So far I kn0w the names of my parent's parents and, although there is a bit of confusion about whether one of them was called Charlie or Tom. Also my mother had an Aunt Suranne (my Great Aunt I guess) which is a very cool name given that if she was around the same age as my grandfather she was born before 1900. I always assumed that was a modern name.
Anyway, all advice and tips will be greatfully received.

Random thought.

On my wish list for Santa last year I said I wanted a copy of Janr Eyre and a copy of Wuthering Heights. I'd never read either of them but the urge to do so had finally come over me.
Luckily for me, Santa waslistening and left them both under the Christmas tree.
I read Jane Eyre pretty quickly after Christmas and loved loved loved it. I am currently about 100 pages away from the end of Wuthering Heights and while I am enjoying it very much it just didn't pull me in in the same way as Jane Eyre. This is perfectly understandable of course because they are not the same book and are not written by the same author but in a random thought before I go and make lemon curd I just wondered what anyone else thought.

Today

This is a funny time of year for me and not funny ha ha. I tend to do a lot of reflecting because this is the the time of year when the darkness was hanging over me. It os so hard to believe that that was five years ago. Where does the time go? Anyway as part of the reflecting I thought that it would be interesting to see if I blogged anything on this day five years ago when it was still very dark and apparently I did and this is what I wrote. I wonder of I ever found a home for that story that I "loved." I wonder which story it was.
Anyway that darkness lifted and life is good these days.
Anyway I'm getting to the point of this posting and it is this. Have you ever woken up and thought that and I don't know how to put this but have you ever woken up and thought that today was special? Like it was the start of something good but you're not quite sure what it is? Well that was how I felt this morning. Today almost feels like the day that the darkness lifted but in miniature because anything that I have been feeling recently is nothing compared to the darkness.
Those of you that were around back then will know that I never spoke of what happened then and I don't intend to do it now. I only mention it as reference as to why this time of year is a time of reflection for me.
Anyway, I digress (for a change) what I wanted to announce is that today feels like a good day.

Anniversaries

We all know what today is the anniversary of. It was a terrible event and one that will never be forgotten by those that lived through it. But it is also the anniversary of something else, something far more personal to me. Well two things actually.
The first thing is that it is my Number 1 son's birthday, so happy birthday to him. He was 18 that day. And that day was also the day that I came up with the idea for my first attempt at a book.
Eleven years ago this very day when I was walking my darling Zoe along "the lines" (as they are known locally) I started thinking about a dear friend and that ignited an idea in my head that became something called DC that still sits in a folder on this computer. It never made it to full fruition and ran out of steam at about 45,000 words but it was only ever written in a first draft so it wasn't developed properly. The lovely Catrin Collier read it and said lovely things about how it was written but also pointed out that she wasn't sure where it would fit into the market. She was right of course and I knew that so I didn't waste any more energy on it. I forget about it most of the time but now and again it comes to mind - usually on this day.
Maybe one of these days I'll open the folder and read it again - just for old times sake.

Rhyme and reason.

A poem over on Frances Garrood 's blog inspired this post. Take a look at it and you'll know what I mean.
What on earth is that piece of art all about? When it comes to art I like a piece to look like what it's supposed to be. If it's meant to be a face, I want it to look like a face with everything where it should be. It's a personal thing but that's what I like. One of my very good friends is an artist, she earns her living from it, it is her job but sometimes, when she sends me a copy or a link to something that she's produced I think "What the hell....?" She knows that's just the way I am and she respects that it is my opinion and I am entitled it. She earns a very decent living from art so maybe I am in the minority. hey ho, won't be the first time, sure it won't be the last.
So that gets me onto poetry. For me a poem should rhyme. The poem on Frances' blog rhymes and maybe that's why I like it so much. For me, and this is only my opinion, a poem that doesn't rhyme is just prose wrutten in disjointed lines

Fat fingers or something

Well somehow I managed to delete the comments that were made about my last couple of posts. I thought that I'd published them but they're not there so I guess I didn't. maybe its fat finger syndrome or whatever its called because I have been known to press the wrong buttons before. However I did read them so:
Captain - Thanks for the help and I'll give that a try.
Abigail and Theresa - Interesting comments about the Kindle. I guess you are both right that it helsp if there is something on there that you re enjoying to help you get used to the no pages to turn thing.
Jenifer - Thank you for your kind words.
That's it for now because the coffee pot has finished gurgling but I'll be back later. That is a promise BTW not a threat.

Help please.

I'm doing a bit of tidying and am in need of some help. I've removed (hopefully) the word verification from the comments section of my blog because I think its unneccasary. That may of course change if I suddenly get robots commenting though I suppose that would depend on whether they were interesting or not. However I want to stop following some of the blogs that I have on my list. You know the ones, places that I haven't visited for ages or the ones that aren't active anymore. Trouble is, I don't know how to do that so can anyone help?

What does it feel like?

I'm sure that I'm not alone in loving a good book but I don't just mean the story that I'm reading. I love a book, the feel of it in my hands and the turn of the page. There is something very satisfying about seeing my book mark move further and further back as I work my way through the book. I haven't got a kindle and to be honest I don't have the inclination to get one at the moment but I'm curious to know how it feels in your hands and what the experience of reading from one is like. I'm sure that the written word is just as good because it is just the same afterall but is it as satisfying?

In perspective.

I received an email yesterday telling me that I am due a royalty payment for a story that I wrote a couple of years ago. It's not a big payment infact the word miniscule comes to mind but its a payment when all said and done it is financial remuneration for doing something that gives me pleasure so the cash is a bonus.
By the way, before I go any further, I will point out that I am typing as I think (speak) - remember a conversation between friends - so sorry of I don't make a whole lot of sense.
Anyway, this week I have written for pleasure and enjoyed it. I haven't written with a particular magazine in mind or anything like that I have just written and I am finding the love for it again as it were. I am now writing like (and for teh same reasons) that I used to when I was younger and that's fine by me. I will still submit, of course I will, if only for the pleasure that getting an acceptance brings but I am not going to put the pressure on myself that I have been. After enjoying moderate success in recent years I had hoped that it would increse and pushed myself to do it and got frustrated when more success did not follow. It became like a job and I already have one of those. Writing is supposed to be how I relax after a hard (and they always are) day at work and I remember that now.
Maybe I'll write a poem later, I used to enjoy writing the odd ode.

The last time I cried

A couple of friends and I were having a conversation this afternoon about what makes us cry. There were some things that we had in common but some others were individual to say the least. I thought I'd share my answers with you.
The last film that made me cry - Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Seriously that is true, and I didn't just cry a bit, I howled like a banshee.
The last book to make me cry - Schindler's Ark - need I say more?
The last time I cried in real life - My dad had heart trouble earlier in the year and when I came off the phone with my mum one night I burst into tears and announced that he was dieing. Thankfully he didn't and in fact seems better than he has been for a couple of years but after that phone call I thought I was going to lose him.
That particular outburst was so out of character for me. I don't often cry in real life but when I do, I do. I cry at books and films all the time though - especially films. I once broke my heart when Jean Simmons' cow died an don't even get me started about ET.

Still doing it

Just so you all know, I am still writing its just that for now I am doing it for fun, for relaxation and for me.
I may as well be honest and say that I am sure that I will still submit, course I will,its just that for the purposes of blogging I probably won't talk about it so much.

Keep your 50 shades.

I've apparently lost a follower since I decided to stop writing about my attempts to be a writer and write about myself. that's me off to a good start but hey who can blame them? I did warn that my life was dull.
I was talking to a couple of colleagues yesterday about the latest literary phenomenom that is E L James' "50 shades" trilogy. They have both read them - I haven't.One said that it was all about sex and the other said that there was a subliminal plot and if you could see past the sex then it was a "good story." Like I said, I haven't read them so I don't know which one is correct. The one who said they were just about sex said that she would lend me her copies but I told her she was alright because I had no intention of reading them. "Why not?" she asked. "You a prude?"
Now, given that I have had about half a dozen pieces of erotic fiction which I wrote under a pseudonym in a previous life I am not a prude. The truth is that I just have no interest whatsoever in reading these books. I have no interest in reading Lorna Doone or The Canterbury Tales either but no-one complains about that. I've never read a Harry Potter book and cannot envisage me ever doing so, which is not to say that they are not excellent books in their own right but just of no interest to me personally.
I have just read an article on yahoo (which I would link to if I only had the knowledge of how to do so) about E L James and how she makes almost £1m a week from her books thanks to the fact that they started life as self published e-booksso she gets whopping royalties from these and good luck to her.
It still doesn't make me want to read them.

Don't tell mother.

Laying in a bath full of bubbles this afternoon I was thinking about the post I wrote this morning and to be honest it felt a bit self indulgent. Now there's nothing wrong with indulging yourself now and again but I would prefer it to involve chocolate than whatever that was that was going on this morning. I almost deleted the post but like I have said many times, I regard this blog as a conversation between friends and as we have all probably learned to our cost once something has been said it can't be unsaid.
Frances said something in a comment she made that just confirmed what I had concluded. Frances said that writing is something that you should do because you love it and that is so true. I do love writing and I will continue to do it. However for now at least it will be just for me, myself and I. Its not the disappointment that I can't stand because it really doesn't bother me. I get over it very quickly and move on. I think that for now I need to write for enjoyment and while I am being truthful when I say the disappointment doean't bother me I can't pretend that I enjoy it.
So sorry and all that but I guess the blog is about me then and I thought that I would tell you some things that my mother doesn't know about me.
1. I enjoy listening to Andrea Bocelli and Il Divo even though I have no idea what they are singing about most of the time.
2. I have had articles and stories published in national and international magazines.
3. That I enjoy baking and bake a cake almost every week. I made a carrot cake this morning.
4. That I have 5 clocks in my living room for no other reason than I like them all.
5. That I don't take milk in tea or coffee - actually she might know that but just choose to ignore it because she is the only person who ever puts it in.
That's enough for now. Don't want to overload you with information.

The way I'm feeling

Well I know that I would have been quick enough to tell you good news so its only right that I tell you that bad. Well not bad really because its just par for the course but disappointing to say the least.
There was a huge thud on the mat the other day when the two stories that I sent to PF landed there. Who knew that 10 sheets of paper (approximate because I didn't count them) could make such a noise? Or was that the sound of my hopes crashing.
Anyway there you go, it happened they came back but if its any consolation they had been there for a couple of weeks instead of the couple of days and the pages were crumpled so I can be sure that they were read.
As you have probably realised, this blog os about writing but I'm thinking that I might have to start sharing a bit more of me and my life because to be honest I am thinking of giving up on this writing lark or at least on the trying to get it published. I will probably still do it for pleasure. So its either give a bit about myself or not blog
Please be assured that this is not an attempt to get anyone to say that I should keep at it and I'm really good etc etc etc its just me telling you how I feel today. I can take the disappointment and to be honest I got over the disappointment the other day very quickly and on reflection even though the stories IMO were good (in fact I think one of them is very good) maybe they are not right for the short story market (well obviously not because they were rejcted.) So its not this weeks disappointment it is just me being realistic.
Anyway, I'll have a cup of tea and have a think about it and I may be back with really inetersting facts about me (yaaaawwwwnnn)

Feeling good

This morning I have written the first draft of my first new short story in almost two years and it feels fab. At the moment its 2000 words long which took me a couple of hours to get down and I don't know where the time went. I noticed there were a lot of red and green squiggly lines throughout the text so lots of typos due to the fingers and the brain not working at the same speed but that can be sorted later. I'm now going to ignore the newly stored story for a few days and then go back and edit it and correct all of the mistakes but for now, I feel good.

Finding positives.

Well, there's still no sign of the two stories that I sent to PF over a week ago which is definite progress given my track record with them so thats good. Also on a positive note I filed my tax return for the writing I did last year and paid the bill and while the extra tax revenue won't have had George Osborne doing cartwheels I feel better that it is filed and paid. If I ever meet Sir Philip Green (highly unlikely I grant you) I will take great pleasure in telling him that me and the tax man are square and then ask him if he can say the same. Also (also) on a positive note I started a new short story. "So what's the big deal about that?" you may ask especially those of you that do that on a weekly if not almost daily basis. Well the big deal my friends is that it is the first new short story that I have started/worked on in almost two years. I have finally climbed back in the saddle so I fully expect a little soreness later on.

Desperately Awaiting Postman

I'll be desperately waiting for the postman tomorrow - not that I'm expecting anything good but to see if my PF submissions come back.
My current record for the longest time they have taken to return them is 4 days (shortest 2 days) so given that I posted them on Wednesday and today is a Sunday so no post if they don't slap down on the doormat tomorrow I will consider it a bit of a result. Not much of a result I grant you but when you are trying to crack a new publication you have to grab any ray of sunshine you can.

A dilemma

I'm sitting on the horns of a dilemma which, thankfully for me is not as painful as it sounds.
Picture the scene if you will, one of your main characters is dealing with a problem and they have to deal with said problem in a certain way for the story to progress in the way you anticipated it going. However, after getting into the characters head and writing they have behaved in a different way meaning that things may not turn out they way you thought they would. Actually they probably will but the character of teh character(J)has changed. Maybe they were misunderstood all the time. There's a thought. I'd never planned on people sympathising with her. My book may have just taken on a whole new direction. Not in the outcome of the story but in terms of the journey. Maybe I don't have a dilemma at all.
Thanks for listening.
On a different note I sent off the two stories that I was planning to submit so fingers crossed that I don't get them back in today's post.
And on a totally different note as you can see, I have paragraphs. Thanks dark Skipper for solving the problem.

A question

Okay so this may be a bit of an odd question but all I can say is remember that I am going back to basics. I have 2 stories that I want to send to the same editor and oddly enough this is a "problem" that I haven't had before, so what I would like to know is, is it okay to send them together or should the be sent seperately? Also is Shirley Blair still the Fiction Editor of People's Friend? All guidleines I read for PF say that I should address the submission to "The Fiction Editor" which I will do if that's what they prefer but in my head I would like to know the name of the person that I am writing to.

Lesson learned

With reference to my last post which told you all of my latest rejection I wanted to share the lesson that I learned from the process of writing it. I won't keep you waiting because I'm sure that the suspense is killing you so here it is. The lesson is that, and I say this with no offence to anyone who writes for them, but writing for M & B is not something that I would like to do on a regular basis. They have moved on and you are allowed a bit more realism but keeping within their framework makes the stories, how can I put this, unrealistic. That is only my opinion of course but I'm entitled to it so I'm giving it. So, I'm glad I gave it a try but I won't be trying it again in a hurry. This morning I'm going back to basics as it were and preparing a couple of short stories to be sent out into the world. Last year was my most successful (although still very modest) year as a writer but the wheels seem to have come off my wagon so to speak so its time to back-track a bit I think. Just out of interest, can anyone please tell me how to get paragraphs on here? I'm still not a fan of the neww format and since it changed I have never had paragraphs. I could live with it at first but now it is irritating me.

Not such a Nice project

I got the response on my "Nice" project today and sadly for me it was not the one I wanted. It was my first ever attempt at a "romance" for Mills and Boon so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that I didn't get it right first time. It hasn't been a total waste because I learned a lot whilst writing it and I do think that the basic premise is okay. Maybe I'll stick it in a drawer (so to speak) for a while and then look at it again. I'm not sure what prompted me to write it other than it seemed like a good idea at the time. I hope I'm not coming across as despondent because that's not how I feel. At the end of the day it's just part of life's rich tapestry.

Letter writing and not much else.

I haven't done a lot of writing this week. Well, for that you could read almost non which would be more accurate. I did write a letter to The Guardian though which is something I suppose. It was part of my "experiment" and also something that I have never done before. I don't usually have time to read a newspaper but I flicked through the magazine part last week and found something that actually caught my interest so I gave them my opinion on it. We'll see if they take note of it but I'm not holding my breath. I have also read a couple of issues of WN like I said I would but I don't think I have anything in my current works in progress that fits the bill so I will have to come up with a new idea. I have however had a very relaxing week. I've had a potter or two in tha garden, the odd sweep of a paint brush (on walls not canvas) and finished the biography of Mary Tudor that my youngest son bought me for Mother's Day. Today (Friday, Himself and I are off to Northallerton for the day. It's a bit of a trek but it will be worth it. I was offerred a job there lat year and we went to see if I could manage the commute but I decided that I couldn't. The driving didn't bother me it was the thought of sitting in the car for an hour and a bit after work each day. The ten minutes that it takes me now is much more to my liking. Anyway, I digress a little but that is what we will be doing today and then the weekend is for relaxation before going back to the day job on Monday. One last thing. Bit of a random question I know but can anyone come up with what to buy a man (Himself) as a pearl wedding anniversary present? Ta x

Update

I have to be honest and say that my experiment has stalled somewhat due to circumstances that were mainly beyond my control but it is sitting on the back burner and I will get back to it in due course. I have bought the last few issues of WN though in an attempt to see where I'm going wrong there. I have enjoyed some success with them before but nothing for ages so I'm trying to work out what it is that Jill is looking for these days. They were the first magazine to publish me in this country so I have a soft spot for them. The stories that I had published with them were a while ago though, before I spent time writing just non fiction so I need to get in tune with them again I think. Other than that I have a week off work this week which I am looking forward to. I don't expect to get a lot of writing done because Himself is also off work and while we haven't "booked" anywhere I'm sure well be out a lot. NRIMH is surrently sitting at a little over 26,000 words. It is the first draft and is basically just the skeleton of the story which I am probably about half way through telling. Okay, so time to read this weeks stories in WN and I'll keep you up to date with my retuning efforts. Oh and by the way - Go Wiggo, go Wiggo!!! (reference to Bradley Wiggins for those of you that don't follow the Tour de France)

Magazine experiments and other stuff

So in the last 10 days or so since I last checked in I've added about 3,000 words to NRIMH although 1,000 of those were written this morning. I have to say that I am very happy with that because I don't thnk I have ever had such a productive morning in terms of written words. However I have decided to give the magazine experiment that I have seen a few people do before a try. You know the one, it's where you target a magazine every week or every fortnight and try to get something published in it. Hopefully it will focus my mind. The magazin de jour as it were is Take a Break and given that I have never had a sniff of an acceptance from Norah I think I'd better try the letter page.

Getting to know them again.

I've spent the last hour reading through the 19k words that I already have down on NRIMH, reacquainting myself with all of the subsiduary characters and who is connected to whom. I discovered that I'm rooting for S, that I actually feel sorry for J and that H's son started of being called James but became Peter a bit later. I settled on James. Let the new words roll.

Coping with the disappointment

So I heard back about three of the short stories I'd submitted. That would be "no, no and no again." Luckily for me they were all in the same email so at least I didn't have to read three seperate ones and when you're looking for silver linings in clouds then that's the best that I can do. Also I'd submitted BTL to an agent and they decided this week that they weren't in love with that either. Luckily for me I have a part of my brain that I can stick all the things that I don't want to dwell on in and I close the door and forget about them. This is an actual fact, well its not an actual room with a door obviously, but I am able to forget about things that I don't want to remember and this allows me to get over disappointment very quickly. I think it may be the silver lining attached to the cloud that was a road accident, partial paralysis and a stroke when I was 6 years old. Oh and please don't feel sorry for me because I don't remember any of that at all - seriously can't recall it. However getting back to my disappointing week, that's all the bad news. The good news (putting positive head on) is that I still have the Nice project, a couple (might be one) of short stories and a non fiction piece out there. Also I am very excited about my next big project "NRIMH." Some of you may remember those letters as it is a project that I started a couple of years ago but for reasons that I won't go into I decided that it would be best to stop. Well the time seems right now to carry on so that's what I am going to do.

Waiting game

Still no news about any of the things that I have out there. Don't you just hate the waiting? I do but what can you do - it's all part of the game. I'm at a bit of a loose end on the big project front. My "Nice" project is finished and out there so what do I do next? Well there are a couple of large bits in the WIP folder but I'm not sure which of those grabs me so to speak so maybe I'll have to come up with a new one. NO NO NO!!! For God's sake stop procrastinating woman and get on with it. They are all perfectly decent ideas that just need developing which they won't do on their own. Okay,that's the personal pep talk, rant, call it what you will over. I also have a short story that I have just finished which needs polishing and sending off and then I guess the waiting game will begin with that one too. This is an extra day off work for me and I have been forbidden from ironing, window cleaning etc so maybe its time to get my head down and do something creative.

This week

I haven't done a lot of writing if I'm honest this week mainly due to the fact that a) my mind has been on other things and b) due to "a)" I haven't got a lot of sleep and after going to work and all the other stuff that I have to do there's been no energy left for anything else. To cut a long story short my dad has been ill on and off for a few weeks but seemed to be getting better then on Tuesday he took a turn for the worse and ended up in hospital. It doesn't help when you live a hundred and odd miles away so you do your fretting from a distance. Anyway, crossing fingers and touching wood, it looks like he is on the mend and hopefully will be home in the next day or two. Another hopefully is that I will be able to see him this week as long as Mum thinks he is up to it. I don't want a random visit from me making him think that he is worse than he is. Anyway that's the reason behind the lack of writing but it has got me thinking about if there is something that you want to do you should do your darndest to do it because life is fragile and you don't know how long it will last. So with that in mind I am going to try and focus on attaining at least a modicum of success from this writing game. I know that I may never achieve the level of success that I aspired to when I was a chit of a girl who knew nothing about life but I don't want to die thinking that I didn't give it a try. So with that in mind I submitted an article today. Yeah I did say article not story but its a piece of writing at the end of the day. I had a bit of disappointing writing news the other day when I heard back from Jill at WN with a "thanks but no thanks" response to a story that I submitted in October but I took it on the chin becasue it goes with the territory. I have six more things out there at the moment so maybe I'll have better luck with one of them.

What I have done so far.

In my bid to get the ball rolling on the enthusiasm front I queried an editor about something I found in the bag only to get a reply saying that they were no longer in business so that was a none starter though I did appreciate them letting me know. Also I pitched an idea to an editor but I haven't heard back from them yet. I've also started editing some of the old stuff and one of them (maybe 2) are going to be winging there way into the world shortly. On a totally different note maybe someone can inspire me in my real life. I'll let you into a secret, I am not a huge fan of breakfast because cereal, toast etc are as dull as dishwater and if I'm honest a sandwich at lunchtime doesn't do it for me either. I mean I have had some lovely breakfasts sandwiches but generally they bore me. So what I would like to know is any ideas that anyone might have to tempt my taste buds. Okay so that was a bit random but hey ho.

What I found in the bag.

Oh I REALLY don't like this new blogger. Anyway, I have spent the last hour or so going through the said "bag" and put things into piles, some for now and some for later. I made a list of wesites etc that I had noted and I am going to look them up and work out what I was hoping to get from them. Then there is a pile of some other things that I want to start working on asap and lastly there are the things that have gone back into the bag for future reference. Things that I found that I feel are worth a mention are 1. A character that I would love to develop into a series of stories. She is too big for just one but I'm not sure what sort of outlet there would be for such a series. I'll try to get one story written and worry about the rest later. 2. Something that I wrote the day after my last dog died which made me cry. 3. An outline for a screenplay that when I started to read I could see playing out in pictures infront of me. 4. An idea that I wrote down that if developed properly would make a great tear jerker. 5. A few non fiction ideas that might be worth exploring. And this just came from that one bag. What about my drawers? What about the notebooks that are dotted around all over the house? I used to be so inspired. I used to be so enthusiastic. I wish that I could get some of that enthusiasm back because if I'm being honest I probably have been going through the motions recently.

What to do today

Something totally unrelated to writing caused me to rummage through my "wip" drawers a moment or two ago and while I was doing that I spied my "wip" bag. This is an old briefcase jam packed full of bits of paper and books etc that have ideas and partial stories etc written on them - you know that type of stuff because you may have one of your own. Anyway in a bid to get my short story juices flowing my "to do today" list consists of going through that bag. Could be a long day so I'd better get a cuppa before I start. Watch this space/

There was the sun.

Since I was last here, I am happy to report that the rain has abated and there is a strange golden orb in the sky which, if memory serves me correctly we call the sun. Oh hang on a minute - it's gone again - maybe I imagined it. On a different note I am still waiting for a reply to any of the sumissions that I sent out recently and some of them date back to last October so I would have hoped to have heard about them before now. Maybe no news is good news though so I will just hang on and hope for the best. I need to write some short fiction. It is a very long time since I wrote anything new in that respect and I'm feeling the need to do it but lacking the inspiration at the moment. I've spent the last few months on a longer project so the short stuff has been neglected and to be honest I am feeling nervous at the prospect of trying to do it again. If I am being honest it has to be soemthing like 18 months maybe even a bit longer since I wrote any new short fiction so I hope I haven't forgotten how to do it. I'll let you know how I get on.

Not a lot

I am such a bad blogger - but I don't need to tell you that because most of you know that alreday. It's not that I've deliberately not posted,it's just that I haven't really had anything to say. What have I been up to? Well I sent off the first three chapters of my Nice project one day last week so the long wait for a reply has started. They say not to expect anything for six months so it could be a long wait. I've given up on the stories that I sent to TLFF because the six months are up but I am still hanging onto the theory that no news is good news from WN. Other than that, not a lot, well nothing has happened. I had a week off work last week and spent the time enjoying morning lay ins, afternoon walks with the dog and nothing very strenuous in between. I went back to work on Monday with batteries fully recharged but it has been non stop catching up and H&S courses since then so I have had no time to write until now - and I'm blogging so maybe I'm a bad writer too. Don't know about the rest of you but this rain is getting on my wick. Three days solid now and still it shows no sign of letting up. Maybe I should switch the computer off and try to round up some wood incase I need to start building an ark.

Preparing for the "big" day

So here we are in another financial year and I think that it is safe to say that the exchequor will not be overflowing from the tax they get from what I earned in the last one. Having said that, anything that I owe I will pay which gives me the moral high ground over some of the better paid in our society who weasle out of paying what they should. Having said that they may well take pity on me and tell me not to bother. Okay so they won't - but they should. The few people that know that I write are amazed that I declare it and pay tax on it but as I tell them it is all in preparation for the day that I make it big.

Nice Project update and other stuff

I have finally accepted that the Nice project is highly unlikely to be finished by the deadline that I set myself which was the best part of four months longer than the original one.
The first draft is finished, in as much as the basic story is told but I needed to add around 19,000 words to get it to the length that it needs to be. You may remember that I intended to find those by developing characters and adding a couple of situations and while that is still the case, progress is proving to be slower than I anticipated. I have just taken a current word count and I still need to find just shy of 16,000 words for it to reach the publishers required length.
I'm not giving up on it though because I think that it has potential and is not that bad for a first attempt at a new genre.
On a different note I am still waiting to hear back about any of the short stories that I have submitted recently and yes I know it goes with the territory but it is a little disheartening all the same. I did however sell a short non fiction piece this week - well more of a filler really - just 250 words but at the end of the day a sale is a sale.

Progress or lack thereof

Well the Nice project is not coming along as quickly as I had hoped that it would mainly due to life getting in the way of dreams as it does on a regular basis. However I did have a pleasantly productive morning this morning which moved it on 600 words or so in the hour that I could give over to it. I think that it may move along quicker the further that I get into it because at the moment I am at the scene setting stage and that was pretty much done anyway so didn't need much tweaking but when we get to the nitty gritty as it were it will be a different kettle of fish entirely (hopefully.) Anyway an hour was all that I could give it at the moment so I'll have to be happy with that. As often happens on a day off the kitchen is calling me and I can feel quiche and a lemon drizzl cake coming on. Maybe even some cookies or shortbreads too.
On a different note, I still haven't heard back about any of the stories that I have sent out and as some of you know they were the first that I had sent out in a while so I just wondered what waiting times were like for various magazines these days. I've had several out since October and while 6 months used to be pretty standard some were sent to magazines that always replied quicker than that.
Anyway better go because I've just remembered the pile of ironing that needs to be fitted in.

Nothing SMART yet

No abjectives set yet but I am settling back into the real world. The day job was okay while I was away from it but there were a couple of, how shall I put this, slight hiccoughs bordering on monumental disasters that I had to take care of when I got back. But disaster was averted and all is well with the world now. I haven't felt the need to tell my boss what happened - working on the assumption that what he doesn't know won't hurt him, it seemed like the best course to take.
Then yesterday I attended the final day of a course that was assessing my management style. Apparently I my personality is an emotional introvert and my management style is ISNF or some such combination. Basically I care about people and think about how my decisions will impact on them. Also I like to think about a problem and make a plan of how to tackle it. The world will be a better place for knowing that I am sure.
I started what is essentially the second draft of my Nice project on Monday and so far have tackled a measly nine and a bit pages which have increased about 450 words to the wordcount but have added information about the MC, who, now I come to think about it is probably a bit of an emotional introvert herself.
Must get on with those objectives though because at the minute I am putting all of my eggs in one basket and that has come back to bite me on the backside before.

Transition to the real world

Well its back to the day job tomorrow after what my friend David refers to as "that bowl of cherries called paid liesure time," i.e. a week off work. I have to be honest and say that right at this moment the prospect is not filling me with glee but then I remind myself that there are millions of people out there who would like to be in my shoes so I've told myself to "shut up whinging and get on with it."
I will also take up the pink pen again tomorrow. I have had a week of rest from that too and if I'm still on that honesty thing, I haven't missed that too much either. I have just reeeaallly enjoyed a week off.
Tomorrow though, it will be back to the real world with a vengeance.
The day job will take care of itself and will depend a lot on what has happenend during the last week when I haven't been there. The transition back will be good or bad depending on what I find in the morning and as I won't know that 'til then there's not a lot of point worrying about it. As for writing, I will take a new look through rested eyes at my Nice project with the intention of developing some of the characters and ironing out some creases. At some point today I also want to come up with a list of SMART abjectives for my writing so there will/may be more on that later.
In the meantime there are 30 pages of "Jane Ryre" left to read.

Reminicences and other random thoughts

I've just read through the very first short story that I ever received payment for. Don't know what made me do it because I haven't looked at it since it was accepted back in 2006. That one was published in TLFF and not long after I had another two accepted by different magazines in quick succession I thought I'd made it. I wasn't a best selling novelist but I was onto something. Oh poor dillusional me. If only it were that easy.
I had 7 stories accepted in 2007, but only 3 in 2008. The following year was a bit better at 6 and then in 2010 I concentrated on non fiction though I did have a couple of stories accepted early in the year. And of course between these modest acceptances there were a mountain of rejections. There wasn't a single fiction acceptance in 2011 but there wasn't a submisson either until October and as you are probably aware, I am still waiting to hear back about those.
Don't know what made me look back at the first but I am feeling a nit nostalgic. I remember how happy I was when it was a) accepted, b) I received the payment and c) I saw it in print. I may even look for the magazine later because it is sure to be somewhere. The copy of MW containing the first travel article I was commissioned to write is still sitting on a chair in the kitchen - I was so proud of that one.
But 2012 has to be a year for looking forward. As Himself happened to say the other day apropo of nothing here,"It's never too late until they're nailing down the coffin." so there's still time for me to achieve whatever it is that I am trying to achieve from this writing lark.
I submitted a short story today - the first of 2012.

Early morning reflections

I woke up early and decided to come downstairs and have some quiet time reflecting on stuff. Well no, I intended answering a couple of emails but somehow ended up reflecting.
Its now 4 months since I started to submit fiction again and to be honest I haven't done much of it. I sent off 6 things back in the middle of October and nothing since. I haven't heard back about any of the pieces that I sent off but they do say that no news is good news. Not so in this case though methinks.
So not a very auspicious restart to my fiction "career."
Must try harder.
Must also try and go back to sleep for an hour or so or I'll be no use to anyone later.

Not much

I haven't written for a week and don't plan on much for another 10 days or so which is when I will revisit the Nice project and start the second draft. Himself has been off work for the past week which has eaten into the time that I would normally write (not that I'm complaining) and we are both off next week so I can't see myself doing much. Anyway that will have given me enough time away from the Nice thing so that I come at it with a fresh approach and as it is my work of choice at the moment, that is the one that I want to concentrate on.
Number One Son is coming for a visit tonight which will be good. We don't see him a lot so I am very much looking forward to that.
Other than that, not a lot happening here. It's been bloomin' cold but at least it seems a bit warmer today but wetter. Can't have everything eh?

This and that

So the first draft of the Nice project is finished. Its still very raw and needs a lot more work before I even contemplate doing anything with it but as first drafts go its okay I suppose. There is planty of room for growth in some departments though so something to work on.
On a different note, something has been niggling away at me for months. Its to do with a situation at my last job that I thought I had got over but clearly not as it still niggles so I have sent an email to someone in authority and right or wrong its done so maybe I can put it behind me now.
I have absoloutly no idea where this morning has gone. I sat at the laptop at 10.10 am and planned on getting the last bit of the Nice project down and I've done that, I also finished the "email" that has now been sent, I've looked at a few blogs that i follow and now I'm here and the morning has just about gone. Yet I have so much more to do before 2pm when its time to walk the dog. They all revolve around the kitchen and the cooker so maybe I should turn this thing off and get on with it.

Well I never

I just googled the old parentheical statement and I realise I've been doing it for years without realising it. That's probably because they weren't called that when I was taught English or maybe they were and Mrs Wilkinson forgot to mention it. Either way, I'm still not keen on breaking up the sentence up with dashes. And while I'm on the subject and my high horse I think that "breaking up the sentence" is better than the "setting off the sentence" that the editor chose to use.
Okay, best get down before I get saddle sore.
BTW since the last time I was here Nice has moved on by a mere 200 words or so (who am I kidding? Its more like 100) and I've spent the rest of the time looking into getting a better quote for my car insurance.

I didn't know I could....

...write one that is.
Let me explain.
I received an email yesterday which I have just opened from an editor saying that in a recently submitted article, I had written " a parenthetical statement." Really? Can anybody tell me what one of those is because I have absolutely no idea and certainly didn't know that I could do one. Way to go me! I have a new skill. Apparently I could have set it off with dashes rather than commas but I'd rather not of they don't mind because I'm not really fond of a dash in a sentence but I do quite like a comma.
On a different note I have a Sunday morning to myself so that involves a bit of writing (should be a lot but I'm making no promises) with a (now) nearly empty cup of Earl Grey by my side while the lovely Roger Federer plays tennis in the background (on the television that is, not actually in my living room.)
The writing that I should be doing is my Nice project which is currently around 28,000 words long and we are just getting to the crux of the matter as it were so it is an interesting time. I suppose I should sort out my "parenthetical statement" issue too at some point.
Maybe I'll put the kettle on again first.

The One Show

Did anyone see Richad and Judy on the One Show last night? Well without meaning for this to sound like sour grapes I did want to throw something at the television when Richard called his wife a "full time writer." Okay he is right because that is her job now, she is writing a book but who amongst you out there has received a two book deal without the first book even being finished? Not many I'm willing to bet.
What hope have the rest of us got when celebrities are given book deals on the back of their names?
Okay so I know it does sound like sour grapes but its too late now because I've said it.

Decision made

Okey dokey, whether she likes it or not I have decided the route that MC will take so onwards and upwards with that one.
Update on the fence. Himself has effected a repaur that means that we can at least unbar the dog flap allowing said dog to be able to go into his own (and only his own) garden and do whatever it is he does out there.
Okay, time to go and make burgers. Yes, you heard me right, I make my own burgers. Tonights version will be seasoned with tomatoes and oregano and served with mushroom and cheese on a poppy seed bun. They will be accompanied by sweet potato wedges and a side salad. Hows that for domesticity. So there you have another little known fact about me. I love cooking.

Writing +

The problem with writing a blog just about writing is that sometimes there's not a lot to write about and that makes for a very dull blog.
So what else is happening? well one of our fence panels is or rather was in the neighbours garden. Its now propped up half in the cupboard under the stairs and half in the kitchen. I should point out that the said cupboard is in the kitchen, the panel is not in two pieces, it is however I fear beyond repair. Not a lot we can do until the wind drops apart from keep the dog out of the garden. My neighbours fence is still intact as far as I can see so he couldn't go far, but best he doesn't go exploring someone else's garden without their permission. However because if the positioning of the now defunct fence panel in/out of the cupboard under the stairs it does mean that I can't get to the basket of ironing so it will have to remain not ironed at least for now. Every cloud eh.
On a writing note I have reached an impasse in my Nice project. What? Again? I hear you cry. Yes I have. 24,000 words in, my MC has a decision to make and depending on that decision, the story will move on in one of two ways. At the momnet, after this mornings efforts I'm not sure what she will decide. I think I need a piece of paper and a pros and cons list for each choice and go from there.
Yetserday was the first anniversary of the day that I was told I was being made redundant. It was horrible at the time but lookig at it now I think that it was for the best. Some things are worse like my salary and my team but as a former colleague told me a few weeks ago it took me ten years in my previous post to build those up so I need to give myself a break.

New Years resolutions

Don't worry - I'm not going to bore you with a long list because I'm not going to bother with the long list of stuff that I don't stick to.
No I have only one and that is to shift the unhealthy amount of excess weight that I have carried around for too long.
There I've said it now.
As far as writing goes - I'm going to try and do it to the best of my ability.
Here's to 2012.