Random ramblings

Think I might be finally coming down with that flu bug that's flying around though having said that I actually feel better than I did half an hour ago so maybe not - who knows. Maybe I'm just looking to peg the blame for my inactivity on something.
I have a couple of assignments that need to be completed but I just can't seem to put the metaphoric pen to paper. Luckily for me the deadline isn't 'til next week so hopefully I'll have got my head in gear by then. On top of that I really and I mean REALLY want to get back on with BTL and NMBK.
I have a bit of a dilemma with the first one because I have polished it to death but I am wondering if it would be better and more commercial (seamless reference to my last post) if I changed it - pretty much completely. I had some interest from an agent earlier in the year but they wanted the whole thing changing so that I came at it from a different angle so at the moment I am toying with giving myself 3 months to try and change it and see what the outcome is. Do you know what? I wasn't actually toying with that until I wrote it without really thinking about it but now I think that it is something that I will do. The only issue now is finding the time to do it.
So the old year is almost done which I always find very sad but the new one is yet to come and that always gives me a lovely feeling of expectation. Anything is possible just before a new year. having said that "anything" invariably involves some bad stuff too so lets hold off the celebrations just yet.
I thought that I would share the best and the worst of 2010 with you and the owrst came very easily - I lost my mother-in-law very suddenly. She just didn't wake up one morning and that was horrible. At the moment I can't think of anything worse that happened in 2010. The best however is proving a bit more difficult. Oh come on woman - something really good must ahave happened this year. Why is it then that I really can't recall it at the moment? I think that is probably a reflection of the society that we ;ive in. No can't think of the best thing that happened to me in 2010 but if any of you can remember me telling you about something good can you please let me know.
Okay so I am rambling now so I will shut up.
Anyway - here's to a happy New Year everyone.

A little thought

I'm starting this post with a bit of trepidation because I really don't want anyone to get the wrong idea about why I am writing it. The aim of it is to pass a comment, a reflection if you will and is definitly not an attempt to get you kind folks out there to say nice things about BTL. I am not trying to provoke flattery from anyone.
Okay so now we've establishe dthat maybe I should get on with it.
Himself (best husband in the whole world) bought me a book for Christmas that a film I have been known to enjoy on occasions was based on. I will not be naming names here but suffice to say that the film falls into the "romcom" category and the book therefore is "chick-lit." His research had told him that the book was much better than the film and contained "a lot more." Okay then, methinks, I'll give this a go, a little light entertainment over the festive period.
Okay so lets cut to the chase and get to the heart of the matter. As a piece of writing, well how can I say this, its not that good. Mrs Wilkinson my old English teacher would be shivering in a corner if one of us had handed it in. No hang on that's not fair because obviously the writing is grammatically correct etc etc but to me it just doesn't seem to flow. Its all a bit stilted - he said she said but how on earth is anyone feeling sort of thing.
But here is an author who has written and published more than one book and sold the film rights to one of them so she must be doing somthing right. And she is - she is commercial.
Which brings me back to my thoughts on BTL and my writing in general - maybe its just not commercial enough.
Just a thought - and here's another one.
Can we stop eating yet?

Reflections

I have half a cup of tea left and am feeling reflective. It must be that time of year again.
Its been a funny old year and not all the ha ha variety.
Writing wise, the ability to write fiction seems to have deserted me but that's okay as I've been trying my hand at more journalistic/feature type stuff which is what I wanted to do for a living when I left school so to a certain extent I'm living the dream.
I only had one short story published this year but all that I have out there are two stories with Jill Finlay and one to an American market that I think may have gone bust. They were all sent in September and while I haven't given up hope on them, they are at the back of my mind and will be a bonus if anything comes of them.
Non fiction wise I had my first ever travel feature commissioned by a magazine this year which was quickly followed by another. Yay (I thought) I'm on a roll - only to be informed by the editor that they are changing style and have enough material in stock to see them through to that change. She said that she would be in touch when they had more work for me but so far I haven't heard anything. I also had several pieces in the local paper mainly around work and what was happening there - sort of promotional stuff - which gave me great satisfaction. Latterly I have been writing for an American outlet and that seems to be going okay but doesn't leave a lot of time for the book that has gone back into the drawer.
However I have to say that I am more than happy with the way that the writing year hss turned out. It didn't take the direction that I hoped it would at the beginning of the year but life has a way of doing that. Maybe I'll look back on what I wrote when I was feeling reflective last year and see just what I did hope the year would turn out like.
I don't know what I want from 2011 other than we get through it in one piece. Writing will be what it is and I'll enjoy the ride most of the time (hopefully). I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing and hopefully make more time to work on the book because I have too much time and effort invested in that to just give up because I haven't found anyone who believes in it as much as I do - yet.
Anyway, the tea is now gone and I have presents to wrap and stuff do do in the kitchen so I will wish you all a very Merry Christmas. I'm hoping to have all my men with me on Saturday and that will make me happy - I hope that something makes you happy too.
One final thing which I wasn't sure I was going to add but once I've typed it its said and it will have to stay said.
Lou, I miss you, we all miss you and you are the one red bauble amongst the silver ones on my Christmas tree.

A bit naughty

I'm not going to apologise for not being around for ages because it sounds insincere when I say it all the time. I am though.
i have been busy writing non fiction with a bit of success which is good for the morale and the pocket. However, do you know what? I have done something very naughty. No - calm down its nothing like that - I've decided to give myself the day off - or at least the morning. Usually on my day off during the past few weeks I have written an article or researched one but today I just can't seem to concentrate so I have decided that I'm taking some time off. I'm not sure if I'll manage a full day because like I said previously this non fiction lark is a bit of an addiction at the moment but I'm definitly having the morning.
I am going to make a cake, some curried parsnip soup (for lunch after I've walked the dog) and try to find a trashy Christmas movie to watch which I may well sleep through.
Sounds like a plan to me.
Oh and while I'm doing it I will be keeping my fingers crossed that these dinner plate sized snow flakes that are falling from the sky don't decide to stick because I was hoping to travel south on Sunday to deliver Christmas presents.
Oh and by the way - I had a rejected story returned through th epost the other day - ya boo hiss!

Apologies from a bad blogger

I feel like I have been a very bad blogger recently and I feel the need to explain myself.
I have developed a bit of addiction. Luckily for me its just to writing. In the hours before bed time when I used to answer emails and blog I now write, in the morning with breakfast when I used to do the same I write. Its good because I enjoy it but it does mean that I have forgotten to do the other things that I enjoy sometimes.
I am concentrating on non fiction these days as some of you may know and I love the discipline of it. I really enjoy the research. I'm not saying that I don't enjoy fiction anymore just that I am concentrating on other stuff at the moment.
Anyway, enough of that.
We're now enduring our 7th day of heavy snow and frankly I am heratily sick of it. I didn't get to work on Monday and had a struggle to get there on Tuesday and Wednesday. Today is a day off but I have just heard that the person covering for me hasn't got in and so the place is closed. I haven't had the nerve to ring my boss and tell him yet. I'm looking forward to walking the dog this afternoon though because it is very pretty and he loves it. It is very funny. Having said that if it could all have disappeared by the morning that would be fab.

I know somebody will know

When I say that I want to know this for a friend - trust me I do. It is not a euphemism for anything.
This morning, unable to get out of the village because of the snow I was talking on the phone to a friend who is also stuck at home about our relative "hobbies." Now she has more success than I do and asked me if I knew how much she was allowed to earn from her "hobby" before she had to declare it to the tax man. Well, never having earned more than a few hundred pounds in any financial year it wasn't a question I could answer but I said that I knew a group of people that would know.
That is your good selves in case you didn;t recognise the description.
Any offers?
Stay safe every one. This afternoon I have to trek through the foot of snow to the nearest shop to get supplies. It's only 4 miles - uphill.

Sorry

...for not being around lately but I just wanted to pop over tonight and tell you what I've been up to.
I have been writing every day with the exception of Saturday's which are a working day for me (day job) and I don't write on a Saturday evening because that's an evening to spend with Himself, Strictly and X Factor. I've been writing a lot of non fiction and through research for said writing I have learned a lot of stuff that I didn't know before.
Sadly I haven't found a lot of time for writing on the book and I need to work out a way of fitting that in. Maybe I need to do what my friend jan does with excercise and schedule it into my diary.
So things are looking good writing wise for me at the moment. I know that it's not very interesting (what I've been up to) but its just the way it is.
The best thing that I have learned this month is discipline and finally I have some as far as writing is concerned.
That makes me happy.

Still here

Its been a while since I was here but I just wanted to reassure you all that I am still alive and kicking.
I had a bit of a trauma on Saturday involving losing power, electricians and a "redundant circuit" but luckily for me I went to work after I called the electrician and it was fixed by the time I got home.
On the writing front I have found that since I changed direction away from the short story I have become more focused and I have found a writing discipline that I haven't had before. I am writing every day and that is something that I haven't done before. I fond that I am in a routine now. I find that I'm barely surfing the internet either these days unless it is for research. I couldn't tell you the last time that I went on facebook. Also I am really sorry that I haven't checked out other blogs recently. I'm going to try and get on top of that tomorrow. I would do it today but its almost midnight and I'm thinking that I should go to bed.
Okay so that's it really. Just wanted you to know that I am well and I am really happy with the way things are going at the moment. I could do with more hours in the day though if anyone knows where I could find some.

Another rule

I added another rule to the rules of engagement and that is to be honest with yourself about why you write.
I write to be published - and I want to be paid for it.
I know a lot of people that say that they just write for themselves and that is absoloutly fine. Every now and then I write poetry for myself. But when it comes to prose be it fact or fiction I do it to be published. Its not a grand scheme to get rich because God knows I'd be wasting my time there but more far a personal satisfaction that someone has chosen to publish what I have written and validates that by paying me for it.
As a teenager I had two carrer aspirations. One was to be a journalist and the second was to write a book or maybe even two or three or four - you get the idea. Maybe this is just my way of living the dream.
So rule number 2 - be honest with yourself.

Decision day

This lunchtime at work I was sitting by a window just watching the world go by and with my mind wandering something blindingly obvious came to me. As regular visitors may remember I have mentioned more than once that I never feel like I have enough time for writing all of the things that I have on the go. Well nothing has changed in that direction and to cut short a very long thought process I have decided to give the short stories a rest at least for a while. I haven't had a lot of success with them this year which in itself can be very disheartening but I have had more non fiction published than ever before. So that is what I am going to concentrate on for the next few months. Well that and my book which is my real baby.

Again and again

So I managed to underwhelm Norah again - twice - in one day. I only sent one of them on the 15th of this month. That being the case, I'm hanging onto the fact that she has had one of my stories since mid-August.

Found it

I won't bore you with every one of these that I write but as it's my first here is my article on ehow.

another update

Just popped over to let you know that there was an email waiting for me this morning to say that my article has been accepted. Yay!!!
I have another one to do and as I have a few days to get that in I think I'm going to do it at the weekend and probably time myself to see how long it takes.
I'm not sure where the article will appear just that it's somewhere out there in the black hole called the internet - probably the How To website but I'm not sure.

e-article update etc.

Just thought I'd pop over and update you on my foray into the magical world of the e-article. I now have a follower on Helium even though I have only wrote 2 articles which is a bit weird but I am embracing the experience and on Sunday my bio was approved by Demand Studios meaning that I could claim my first assignment which I duly did. I submitted that article (about Kalo card readings) on Tuesday and had it returned for some rewriting. According to my friend who writes for them regularly this is standard practice and I shouldn't worry about it. Anyway I made the changes and resubmitted last night. When I first submitted it I did so about 11.30pm on Tuesday night and the re-write request was waiting for me by the time I got up. There was no such email this morning so I don't know if that is a good think or not.
Should they accept this article I will be paid $15 for it which is a below minimum wage return for the amount of time it took me (probably about 2 hours) but I do hope yo get quicker if I continue on this road. Finding an assignment that I can write about is very time consuming but having said that I have claimed another assignment this morning and it was much quicker.
On the fiction front, I am re-engaging with NMBK and have polished a couple of short stories one of which I subbed the other day. I haven't started any new short fiction for a couple of weeks. I have however come up with a couple of ideas for articles so I need to buy a 2011 diary and pop a couple of deadlines in there.
It's all go.

Not a page turner.

Well I've been accepted by Helium and Demand Studios and have written a couple of articles for Helium and tried to write one for DS but apparently the review I made to my bio hasn't been cleared yet so I can't write anything yet. So allow me to tell you what I've found.
Helium seems easy to write for, both of the articles that I wrote have been accepted but then I don't see how the aren't. It was like you write, you post and it's there. As yet I haven't been able to work out how you get paid. My friend who does this type of writing to pay the bills since she lost her job said the same thing so she doesn't write for them much so I might follow her lead on that one for now.
As for Demand Studios they pay regularly and quickly but I have been struggling with the articles that they want. One of the gems yesterday was Beer Faucet and Shank Assembly. What????
Needless to say I feel like I hven't got very far on the sites themselves but things that I have read on there have started trains of thought for other things.
This internet writing lark may be the future but give me a page you can turn any day of the week.

Rule number 1

I have come to appreciate that the markets available to us (or is that we) writers is a small one. Okay, so I'm a bit slow on the up-take what can I say?
I read an article the other day about someone who writes for websites and said that these were the future. A friend of mine has written articles for websites since they were made redundant a year and a half ago and seems to be quite successful. They're on holiday at the moment so I can't pick her brains but I just wondered if any of you had any experience of this outlet.
Rule number one of my "Let's do this thing" philosophy is Always be on the look out for a market.- that number is subject is subject to change as and when I come up with more rules.

An anniversary

Today is a special day for Himself and I. At 3pm, 28 years ago this very day, he and I tied the knot in St Marie's Cathedral in Sheffield. How can that be? 28 years is a ridiculous amount of time. Having said that my parents were also married in that building though it didn't have the exalted title of "cathedral" then and in February they will have been married 60 years - now that is ridiculous. However what my own anniversary means is that this place here, this county, this village will have been my home 28 years tomorrow. We spent our honeymoon here at home so I left my parents home spent one night in a hotel and then took up residence here in the North East. And to think I can remember telling Mary Elliott (girl who was in my class) that I couldn't imagine living anywhere other than Sheffield. Funny how life turns out isn't it?

I'm back from .....

...the beautiful city of York and I am happy to report that I had a wonderful time. Being a Yorkshire girl born and bred it is a kind of spiritual home and I feel so much better for bathing in it's glory for a couple of days.

P.S.

As regular visitors may know it is a rule of this blog that once it has been written it has to stay so I just want to add something to my last posting. To any editors or any one else that may be reading this with a view to commissioning my words of wisdom - I am not messing about at this - I take what I write very seriously - it's just that I am lacking a bit of direction at the moment. I need to get my mojo back.

Honesty needed but not just yet.

October is a time of relection for me. For those of you that were around when the "ugliness" was hanging over me you may remember that it happened in October so I do spend a lot of time "thinking" aound this time of year. So that is what I've been doing for most of the hour and a bit sice I woke up. To be honest there's not a lot else to do at 5.30 on a Sunday morning.
I thought that I would look back at what I was writing on here last year. After I'd done that I went a year further back and so on until I got to 2007 when I first started the blog. I maybe should point out that I only looked at the month of October and not everything that I ever wrote.
It was interesting that in 2007 and 2008 I used to write a list of what I had done the week before and then one of what I was going to do the week after. It was all pretty mundane stuff to be honest. I'd given up making the lists by last year. What scared me a bit - well not scared because that's ridiculous - but what I noticed was that some of the stuff that I was writing on there that I was "going" to do I still haven't done. What am I messing about at?
We're having a few days away this week so I know that I won't get much done until after that but maybe the time has come to re-evaluate what it is that I am trying to achieve from this hobby of mine. If it is just an enjoyable distraction that I do for myself just because I enjoy it? That is fine but something tells me that that isn't all I want from it. I need to be honest with myself because if I can't be honest with me then there's no hope and do something about it. I think that I sometimes say to myself that even if I don't succeed at least I'll know that I've tried. But will I because at this moment it seems to me that I've just been messing about.