Sunday Sunday

I’m making good progress with my next writing guide. I have half the basic skeleton done and plan to carry on working on it later.

Today’s been bright and if it wasn’t for the wind, taking the dog out would have been quite pleasant!

Sundays are an odd day for me. I often end up feeling a bit low. I think it’s because I see weekends as being a time when families to get together. Saturday’s not so bad as I can go down the shops, but on Sunday, that’s not as much fun as most of the interesting ones are closed.

I’m going to the bungalow tomorrow to have another look round and take some measurements as there were none on the estate agents details whatsoever. I hope I still like it. I’m only half kidding. I’m still having trouble coming to terms with the fact that I’m on my own, I don’t have to make room for John anymore. I can only be in one room at a time and nobody’s come to stay with me since 2005

I dug up the last potatoes this afternoon and noticed signs of a few bulbs making growth. Had fun chasing Raffy up and down, pretending I wanted his ball. It’s funny but the longer a dog stays with me, the fonder I get of them….

He’s due to leave on Tuesday. 

You know that saying about all work and no play…

That’s how I feel right now. It’s a winter thing. When the weather’s fine, I can take an hour or two off and go for wander round the shops, or into town. When it’s like this, it’s an effort just to take Raffy out for a walk.

Right now, I have no idea how many hours work I’m doing each week. I need to start adding them up. Why? So that I don’t feel bad about taking a day off!. The problem is, what counts as work? Should I include emails, tweets, time on other networks? It’s hard to know where to draw the line.

Lime nay people I can get to the end of a day and find myself wondering what I’ve actually done. That’s one reason  why I blog as it makes me look back over the day events so that I can see that yes, I have been working. Ideally I’d like to work for about 30 hours a week and have time for other things so I can get my life into some kind of balance.

Today I drafted a ne story which I will leave for  a few days before typing up. I find that way, some of the wrinkles in the plot will iron themselves out when I come to type it.

I managed to squeeze in one piece of marking, plus some time thinking about ideas for more stories. I want to get back to entering the FREE Writers News competitions. In the early 2000s I entered a lot of those, never won, lots of short listings, but went on to sell quite a few to magazines. I’m working on ideas for the first lien competition, about Jessica opening a door. I might even have a go at the poetry one about shadows as it’s free.

The other thing I did today was log on to ALCS and update my records. This wonderful organisation collects fees from places like school then distributes it to writers whose work may have been photocopied or used in some other way. In the last two years, they paid me enough to cover going to Swanwick, with plenty over. If you’ve had any stories, articles or books published, it’s worth registering with them. It doesn’t cost anything as they take the membership fee out of any payments due. ACT NOW as the cut off point for next year’s payment is the end of December. (www.alcs.co.uk)

Oh yea, and I also posted a great big bag full of critiques from the NAWG competition. More going off tomorrow.

Now I plan to do some more work on the next one in my series of writing guides, then it’s dinner, and some more reading. I’m WAY behind with magazines of all kinds. To be a successful magazine writer you have to read lots of magazines!

I’m in THE PEOPLE’S FRIEND this week, so I might as well read that too while I’m at it.

Tomorrow, John will be here, looking after Raffy while I go to Leeds Writers short story group. Weather permitting, I’ll get a look round the German market too.

Finally, re Sad companion of Paul. 

WellL done Linda for getting Blue Peter so quickly. That was the last one I solved  - just couldn't think of it. 

Time to gather some ideas together and get writing

Last night I watched Pretty Woman for the nth time. It still made me cry. No idea what that says about me.

NAWG has notified the winners of the short story competition which is great as I’m seeing the man who came second on Saturday and would not have been able to keep the news quiet. I also know the lady who came second as I met her at Swanwick.

John has sold the car that’s been on my drive so I won’ be seeing so much of him. If the weather’s not terrible, he might be meeting another woman from match.com (I’m still getting nowhere slowly). I’d love it if he could find someone.

I was working on the ghost story today, tweaking it so that it was OK to send to Ficiton Feast. That’s now gone off in the post.

IU went to crosswords and Jack, the leader, was there. So good to see him as he’s  been in and out of hospital so many times lately. I took the chocolates I won in the U3A quiz as I don’t eat them. I had to leave early as I had my six monthly dentist check up, I’ve had a morbid fear of dentists for many a long year and normally fret about going, something rotten. Yesterday, I gave myself a good talking to. Basically, the message was, why worry about it? That won’t change anything, all it will do is make me feel bad. So I didn’t worry, which meant I got some sleep, and managed to get some work done this morning. Luckily the dentist was happy and I haven’t got to go back (hooray).

I felt so relived, I celebrated by buying something nice to eat (lamb shank with cauliflower, sprouts, carrots and new potatoes followed by wheat free almond tart with vanilla ice cream).

Now, the plan is to get some story starting points for stories together. I want to write four new stories a month, a lot less than I used to, until I get back into the groove. I write better in the morning so I want to get up early, walk the dog, and get down to some writing. I don’t want to have to waste that time finding the ideas to work on.

I bought a copy of the People’s Friend today with one of my Christmas stories inside (I’d forgotten I’d sold it to them which was nice). It still feels odd to be in that magazine as it took me so long to make a sale to them.

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two dos in one day

Yesterday was mostly a day off. I didn’t intend it to be, it just happened.

I had my first Christmas do at the U3A in Headingly. I don’t get to meetings they’re on the other side of the city, so it was a chance to actually meet some people, have a decent meal, and help my table win the quiz.

The quiz was one of those cryptic ones where you have to work out a clue. The answers to the first part were all TV shows. For example, where you might go to get crowned – answer – Coronation Street

The prize was a ginormous tin of chocolates which were shared out. I’m going to take my portion to crosswords tomorrow as I don’t eat chocolates. I gave up three years ago as my addiction was out of control. I get by now with choc ices, the odd cake, pudding  and biscuit.

I’d hoped from a call from the estate agent as the family who came for  a second viewing said my house was on a short list of two. I guess they’ve gone for the other one, but at least that shows there ARE people out there, so once Christmas is out of the way, I can make a bigger effort to find a buyer.

Last night, another Christmas do, this time at the WI which I’ve just joined. It was an odd evening. Nothing seemed to have been planned. There was tea and food, chat and carol singing. Quite nice in a strange kind of way.

A copy of Woman’s Weekly Fiction Special arrived in the post. They send contributors a copy when they have a story published. It felt really good to be back in, what for me anyway, is the best and therefore hardest magazine  to sell to. If you sneak a look when you’re in the newsagents/Tescos, you’ll see where I got the idea from – those daft quizzes you often see in magazines.

I’ve had an email from the Chair of NAWG asking if I’ll teach at the festival again next September. I’m more than happy to even though Warwick is not the easiest place to get to when you don’t drive. I’ve asked if I can have the Friday free of teaching then it won’t matter if I’m a bit late getting there.

I’ll leave you with this question from the U3A quiz – the answer is a TV show. 

Sad companion of Paul.

Monday Monday

Today has been spent mostly doing admin, which is not my favourite thing to do. I’ve been sorting the critiques from the NAGW competition and matching them up with their envelopes. The trouble is, quite a few of the envelopes people have supplied aren’t up the job so unless I write out new ones, the person will get charged excess postage.

I also made a major **** by somehow selling a story to two magazines, albeit with different endings. I emailed the second mag as soon as I realised what had happened then was on tenterhooks waiting to see what they said. Luckily they took it well. I have no idea how I managed to do such a stupid thing. It just goes to show that my head has been all over the place.

Today the family who viewed the house on Saturday came back with their children. It seems I’m on a short list of two, so I’ll know in a couple of days whether I have found a buyer. That would be such an amazing Christmas present.

About my ex…..

He’s the only close (geographically) friend I have and I wouldn’t want to lose him, but….

Sometimes he treats my house like it’s his and after a while, that really starts to get under my skin. Yesterday, for example. Once he left, I couldn’t even raise the energy to blog not even after spending an hour on the phone (that’s right, an hour) talking to Shirley, one of my friends who lives in Scarborough.

It will be better once he’s got rid of the second car that’s been parked on my driveway. Then he’ll have to arrange to come round rather than simply turn up.

Ideally, he’d live round the corner from me, in a house big enough so that I can pop round to HIS place, and he can feed ME, and I can drink HIS tea and coffee, and eat HIS cakes and biscuits. All I have to do is move, sell my house, buy a two bedroomed one  and rent it to him. Sounds like a plan.

Now back to work. I’m going to the club’s short story group next Saturday. Before that I have to read everyone else’s stories and do written feedback for three of them. I’m having huge trouble with this. Why? Because I haven’t a clue why the authors have written the stories. I’m so used to giving feedback which is market/competition related, I feel lost . There’s no point saying something critical if the story’s only been written for the author or their friends and family. I’m also just a tiny bit scared what they’ll say about my effort. It’s a Woman’s Weekly story with lots of emotion. Somebody who doesn’t read that kind of thing and maybe even hates that kind of story isn’t going to have much to say that’s positive. This is why I always tell people to take care who they ask for feedback. The wrong person can set you back. Believe me, I know