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.