Watch out you gremlins!!!

Himself had finally bitten the bullet, got his wallet out and ordered a new laptop. Hoorah! It's going to be a few days before it gets here but hopefully when it does all of my blogging gremlins will be gone.

Possibly on the wrong road

I'm wondering if the fiction road is the right one for me. I mean, I have had another hit and once again it is non fiction. This year there has been the article in the local paper that was for the day job, a piece that will be in My Weekly in the summer and there is a memoir type piece in the March edition of Prima. All non fiction - all since Christmas. Maybe I should concentrate on that.
The piece in this months Prima is the competition entry that I had forgotten about that I mentioned a few months ago. I didn't win but as a runner up I get a years subscription to the magazine which is not to be sniffed at.
I'm talking nonsense of course because I love writing fiction but I'm enjoying getting non fiction published too.

Another problem

Okay so now I can't comment on my own blog which means that I can't reply to comments left. Be assured though that I do read them all and as soon as this laptop issue is resolved I will reply to them all. Or maybe it will sort itself out tomorrow - who knows?

Busy doing lots of things.

Flushed with the success of selling my first non fiction piece (for real money) last week I have spent this week mainly on other non fiction projects. I have another article that I have to write but the dealine for that is three weeks away and that is still in the research stage. I have to say that I am finding it very intersting though. More so than I would have imagined. That might have something to do with the fact that I have actually been asked to do it which means that I spend my time actually doing the research rather than faffing around surfing the web and doing nothing in particular. After that, I want to work on an article that I had the idea for yesterday that will include research and talking to someone. I'll need to set my own deadline on that one.
I'm also spending time working on some short stories and I want to find time this week to pitch my novel at an editor. The only thing that seems to be suffering is the second novel which has come to a standstill at the moment.
Oh well must press on. Lots to do.

Green around the gills

Why is it that I can never open an email from an editor without feeling sick - even when I know that it's good news.
PS Has the way that you insert links changed or is it just mine that's not working. Prtobably the latter but thought I'd ask.

Goodbye old friend

It is with regret that I tell the world that my faithful old laptop has gone to that great laptop hill in the sky. I'm gonna miss that gaffer tape that held the screen together and the fact that it had to be propped up inside another older laptop. Hopefully it will be replaced later this week. In the meantime I'm working on the "emergency" laptop which can only do one thing at a time.
Having said that there aren't the little icons here that would allow me to insert photographs or links so maybe it can't cope with that.
Never mind - at least it works - sort of.

Good news

I am happy to tell the world that I have just heard from Galdys Sturrock at My Weekly to say that they want to buy an article I wrote. This is very good news as you will appreciate especially as I haven't sold a non fiction piece before.
Can't get the smile off my face.

waffle

I had to go on a long train journey yesterday so I thought I would take my notebook with me so that I could start work on a longer piece that I have in mind. I almost sent the premise off the other day and then thought "hang on, what if they want to read it and its not even started." So that was the plan but sadly I only managed that foe the first 40 minutes or so. After that the various trains were all too busy and I was stood up for part of the time so not condusive to writing. I made a start though and that's the main thing. I had to content myself the rest of the time or at least the time that I was sitting down in reading a book. Well that and listening to a never ending phone conversation between a woman and what was (I think) her young daughter about what they were going to do about 2 girls at school.
I write this only by way of a waffle because I don't really have any news but as I've been without the internet for a few days I just needed to blog even if it was for the sake of it.
My laptop has undergone surgery this morning and is currently in ICU. There are a couple more procedures it needs tomorrow and I fear it may be terminal. In the meantime I am set up on an old one which isn't quite up to the task (I'm told) but it seems to be doing okay. At least this one lets you log on.
I had a bit of a sweat on until I got everything off the old one. All the Woed documents were saved but there were some photos etc that hadn't been backed up. I managed to get those after this mornings operation.
Hope to start the planning stage of my next W2W story later. I see that someone has already posted do I need to get a wriggle on. There's a lot going on in the day job as well so I guess I'm going to be a busy girl.
Anyway enough waffle. Well done to those of you that stayed with me to the end.

Repetitive name syndrome

I've been editing a couple of short stories this morning and will hopefully submit them no definately will submit them tomorrow. Anyway, I noticed something as I was doing it and that was how often I use the same name for the characters. I don't know how many times I've called a bloke Tom. I choose to think that this is a subconcious tribute to my grandfathers who were both called that but God only knows who Molly is.

Sort of a hit

The article for the local papers that I tweaked the other day was in at least two papers that are part of the group so that's almost a hit - isn't it. Better than that though, it has resulted in two phone calls from the public about it which makes it a hit for the day job. Yay!

A little tweak here and there.

We were given a sample press release for something that is happening at work and (sorry to whoever wrote it) but I thought it was a bit wet. Well no that's unfair - it was a one size fits all, generic type thing. So I've just spent an hour or so tweaking it to be more specific to us and our needs and now that I'm happy with it I've emailed it to my contacts with the local papers. I hope it works.

Pleasures in life

The cold is feeling a bit better today so I actually managed to get my head around some writing. Writing for pleasure that is. I wrote quite a bit on Wednesday but none of it was for pleasure so that doesn't really count. That was just another case of life getting in the way of fun. I've even managed to submit a couple of things today - nothing major but just something that would keep the wolves form the door for another day if it came off.
I'm now off to the kitchen to enjoy one of the other pleasures in life for me and that is cooking. It is that time of the week again. The Sunday roast. Yum.

Christmas again

This time yesterday I was so cheesed off. I'd had a rotten day and felt like the dogs doodahs. Happy to report that I'm feeling better today. I'll be even happier tomorrow when I'm off work. I get tomorrow off in lieu for working Christmas Eve and I'm hoping to get to grips with my latest Womag2Weekly story.
Hey just had a thought - hope that doesn't mean Thursday is Christmas Day. I've not got a turkey. There's probably still a pudding at the back of the cupboard though.

I had a dream...

and it was WEIRD.
Picture the scene. I am sitting at the front of a plane and in the seat behind me is Prince Harry with a toddler on his knee, Apparently William was there too but I didn't see him. Then I was in a place with really big buildings. I don't know where it was but it did look familiar in places. Then I had to cross a bridge that was really a river and I had to step on stones to get across. Then I was back on the plane and I had to fly it even though I wasn't in the cock pit. I pulled the nose up a bit quickly which was a bit scary but managed to flatten out and we were okay. Then I was sitting down again and there was a woman sitting beside me. She turned to me and I saw her very clearly. She was probably in her 60's with a friendly face and long grey hair. I think she was wearing pink. I couldn't hear what she was saying to me but she was smiling so I hope it was something nice.
Then I woke up.
Maybe I shouldn't have had that cheese before bed.

Cold comfort

I got my first rejection today - well yesterday really but I didn't open the email until today. The editor said "Very well written but not what I'm looking for at the moment."
Somehow that doesn't make me feel better.
No, having written that has made me think about it, they said it was "very well written" (direct quote) so I know that the writing is okay I just have to find he right market.
Maybe that is some comfort after all.
I'd rather they'd accepted it though.

Passing on the award

Jarmara Falconer has been kind enough to give me this award. Cheers Jarmara.
And in keeping with the spirit of the award I must pass it on in recognition of some of the wonderful places I visit in blogland. So in no particular order (as the wonderful Mr O'Leary would say) the award goes to:

Sue who has a blog I have only recently discovered but like a lot.

Karen who is soon to be best selling author.

Olivia who already is a best selling author.

Suzanne who is a kindred spirit.


Lily because she makes me smile.

Womag because her blog is just jam packed with good advice.

Amanda who has worked so hard on Woamg2Weekly and has a great blog too.

Helen who talks a lot of sense.

Debs because her shed is fab.

and last but by no means least,

Christina because she has been so helpful.

The way I understand it you guys now give this award to places that you like to visit.

Even madder! - or is that more mad?

Here is the same part of the river (taken yesterday) but now it has snow on the ice too!

And here's Zac taken abour half an hour ago not quite up to his neck in it.



He is having a wild old time in the snow - he loves it. Personally I'm not a big fan of being up to my knees in the stuff when I'm walking him.
I had to get a push (the car not me as a person) off the end of our street onto the main road out of the village yesterday morning so that I could get to work.
I'm sure we'll all laugh about this one day. To be honest though it ave me an idea for a short story which I'm going to work on this week.
Keep safe everyone - and warm.

Madness

This is the River Wear and it's frozen. How mad is that?

Spooky or what? - What I suspect.

NMBK was to be my second "real" attempt at a book. The first draft of BTL was finished and while I was giving myself a break from it before I started rewriting and editing I started my next epic. However, NMBK was set aside in favour of what I thought was a better idea (the one I've recently mothballed) and trying to get some publishing credits under my belt.
That was the past.
The present is that BTL is now rewritten and edited to death and ready to go out to agents and I've had a few things published so I recently decided to pick up NMBK again. I've been going to do it for a while and it was in my diary to have reviewed what was already written by the 18th of this month but as I'm off work today (planned not snowbound even though we are) I thought I'd review what I've already written this morning with a pot of tea and a cookie or two.
So I opened up the book that what I've written so far is in and was surprised to find that I started it on 7th January 2007. I always date when I start something. I know its weird but there you go. That means that its 3 years old today.
So my question is: Do we need a cake? I think we do.
Happy Birthday NMBK and I promise that by the time you're 4 I'll have the first draft (at least) finished.
Gotta go - need to bake.

Silver lining from snowy clouds

I couldn't get to work today because the roads were just too bad. There was a nasty rumour doing the rounds last night that the county has run out of grit and judging by the roads this morning they might be right. I rang the boss and told her and she asked if I'd be making another attempt later on which I sad that I would. However as it started to snow again almost as soon as I'd put the phone down and has on and off all morning I don't see that happening. So I decided to give in to the elements and put today down as one of the lieu days that I'm owed from over Christmas and put the day to good use.
I've been working on something for a competition and had set myself the deadline of haveing the final edit done by Sunday so that it could go off in plenty of time. Well that's one deadline I've met this year. So I think I'll just ring the boss again (who incidentally is at home) and say that I won't be risking life and limb to get to work for less than half a day and then I'll check what's next in my diary. No need! I've just remembered that it is to review the project that will be taking over from the recently mothballed NRIMH.