Waiting… with bated breath

I am due to have this baby any day now, and to be honest – I need to. It’s too hot, uncomfortable, and I just think it would be better to carry this child in my arms now, rather than in my body. I am completely over the fact that I can no longer move properly, my muscles don’t seem to work the way I want them too, and the fact that I need to use the step ladder just to shave my legs at the moment. And while pregnancy and I haven’t agreed much with each other… I probably wouldn’t have it any other way.

I guess this is a little like waiting to open a Christmas present, (only you know what it is.) The major difference is that you don’t know what it will be like. You don’t know how it will eat, sleep, cry, or even what features and traits it will inherit from us. This is not like designing a character. It’s predetermined by mother nature. And not knowing these things is just like unwrapping a present at Christmas – although – you don’t know when the present will arrive.

Anyway, while it’s kind of exciting, because little Bump could arrive in any day at the moment, it’s also nerve racking for both of us because this is a new adventure for us as parents. Neither of us have had children before, so it’s going to be an awesome journey that we’ll be sharing with little Bump. When it decides to make its long anticipated appearance – that is!

Every little twinge or pain makes me wonder if it’s Bump coming or not. This is only to be expected at this stage though, considering Bump was ready for hatching a couple of weeks back. The days seem longer now that I am not working, but my husband seems to be rather pleased with himself now that he has a dedicated housewife. Haha. (Dreams are free, dear husband, because when Bump arrives on the scene I highly doubt the house will be nearly as spotless, or that dinner will be on time each night.)

So here I sit in this little house, writing away, and waiting with bated breath for our child to arrive on the scene.  One day soon, Bump will embark on its journey.

 

A quick update

I know that it has been a couple of weeks since I last posted, but life has been busy!

I am nesting, and trying to get this house in order before Bumpkin arrives on the scene… which isn’t that far away now, and believe me when I say this – getting the house into tip top shape is a very big job. I am also still working my Evil Day Job… and trying to make it through that each day during the week, even though I am working from home one day a week from now till I go on maternity leave. I’m the size of a large baby elephant, incredibly tired a lot of the time… mentally unstable during other times… I can’t sleep properly… and I’m pretty much living on the edge. And… just to top it all off, I have started writing a new book.

Oh my god. Yes, I know. I’m nuts to think that I can do all this at once… and this is possibly another reason why I haven’t blogged in a while.

But, the world hasn’t stopped rotating just because I’m about to have a baby, and have a lot on. No… the creative mind is a strong one, and I best be using it to its full potential while I can.

Writing Tijuana Nights was always on my agenda for 2012. I didn’t quite expect it to happen this quickly into the year… as I thought that I would still be doing research at this early stage of the concept. But after thinking about this book for the past 18 months or so, I figured that a lot of the research and plot development, I had already done. There was really no need to delve hard into research when I knew how to start, I knew my characters already, and I knew how I wanted this book to end.

This will be the first book in a long time that I am not going to completely plot out. I have a lot of it already… except in the ‘inbetween bits’. So… I’m going to wing it. I’m already writing chapter three, so the ‘winging it’ seems to be working for me right this moment.

On the other side of life, I have been painting our unborn child little animal pictures, and just today, we have been painting its room. It’s going to look really good once this room is sorted out, and everything is in there. And to think that it will all be done and dusted by the end of next weekend. Scary stuff!

I’ll make sure I post photos of it once we have completed it for you all to see. And on that note – I better get cracking. I have skirting and doorframes to paint before dinner, and then a second coat to paint after dinner. Where on earth do I find the energy?

Insanity. I’m telling you.

As an end note – I found quite a good article on Writing while Pregnant, that some of you may find interesting. Au revoir!

 

 

2011 – Over and Out

Goodbye 2011!!

A friend of mine wrote a ‘wrap up’ blog for the year, and I thought it was a great idea – so here is my wee wrap up blog post for 2011.

This has been an awfully big year. I started the year forming a new team at my work, to take over all of the contract management and technical responsibility at my Evil Day Job. While it’s been full of huge challenges, it’s been great. Our team is humming along, and standing strong.

My husband and I at my 30th birthday

Then I turned the big three-oh. This meant having my enormous immediate family staying with us for a week, drinking a heck of a lot of booze in the hot summer sunshine, and generally having a blast. To top it off, we had a big garden party that raged throughout the night and into the late hours of the morning. It was a hell of a bash, and an awesome way to end my irresponsible 20s, and enter the 30s.

Straight after my 30^th birthday, I thought that I better get a little more serious about building my authors platform online. So I started my Parchment Place blog.

The big Christchurch quake rocked our entire world in February. Many dead, many grieving, and many homeless – including my friends, and members of my family. Some of whom are still suffering, due to another series of quakes that hit again on the 23^rd December.

When the February quake struck, two very special people had a big idea. Cassie Hart and Anna Caro put the word out on Twitter to compile a charitable anthology for all proceeds to be donated to the Red Cross Earthquake Appeal. So while our friends and family were trying to sort out their issues in a quake stricken zone, I put my hand up to help them find authors, rally support, and generally be supportive to them throughout this enormous task. And so – Tales for Canterbury was born. Eventually Cassie said that she expected me to submit a story into the Anthology as well… so before I knew it I was dragging an old story out of my dusty and very musty literary drawer, cleaning it off, and sending it through to her. And to my greatest surprise… they accepted it. So then I was officially published along with some pretty incredible writers.

The last time I had a hangover was in May, when I drank a little too much gin and tonic with my father when he was staying with me. Then I found out that I was pregnant, and so I stopped all intake of alcohol and nicotine immediately. Pregnancy wasn’t an accident… but I didn’t expect it to happen so damn quick either. I thought that it would at least take a few months… but I guess our little Bump was in a hurry to get the show on the road.

In the meantime on the writing front, I was busy trying to finishing off a novel, and start the editing of another one. But during this time, I was also quite unwell with the pregnancy, and that seriously hindered all writing ability… and eventually I stopped trying. They say that every single pregnancy is different – and no two are ever the same. It was a bad time for me. Emotionally, I was wreck… physically, everything was changing, and in the middle of all this I felt enormous pressure from my family. Each of them trying to give me advice… ringing/emailing me constantly… and with each passing day, I was becoming more and more reclusive.

Bumpkin's Big Foot

In the end, I didn’t want to talk to any of them at all. I just wanted to hide in my little hole, and wish like hell they would all piss off and go away. I just wanted them to let me be pregnant for a moment and get used to the whole idea that my life was irrevocably changing, and that both my husband and I had to get mentally used to it. But that’s not what families do. Apparently.

So you know what we did? Under the best advice given from friends, and our medical professionals – we ignored them. And this is the same advice I will give to all pregnant women who face the same issues in the future. While family is important… we are growing our own now, and it’s entirely up to us to walk our own pathway when raising a family, not the paths of those before us. I have learnt throughout this time that my wider family are never going to listen to me, since they will always know better (older and wiser, perhaps?), so I will just do my own thing, and learn from my own mistakes. This is the only way I’m only ever going to be fully satisfied as a parent, so this is how I’m going to do it. (Bugger the rest of the world. I no longer give a shit about their grand opinions and ways of how to do things. This is our family, and we will do it our way.)

When I finally realised this, my creative mind started to kick back into gear. I now know that it was the stress and pressure that stopped me from writing… and until I had actually dealt with that, I couldn’t release my mind from its little box and back into the creative world. But I eventually got there, and devised a NaNoWriMo plan to get an old manuscript – The Mediterranean Source edited into a more publishable state. (Don’t get me wrong, this book still needs further work, and hopefully over the next few days while it’s forecasted to rain, I’ll be able to do some work on it.) The point is… I managed to get there, and send it out to three amazing friends in early December for their final opinions on potential changes. It was a big goal, and while I ripped and shredded out more than twenty odd thousand words from this manuscript, I also rewrote just as many in some incredibly major plot alterations.

So here I am now, nearly 33 weeks pregnant, with not far to go. I have just managed to get through Christmas, which we were completely unprepared for… however, we managed to sort it out. Both Mike and I were totally distracted by the fact that Bumpkin will be born very shortly. We are mostly organised now and pretty much have everything that we need (if Bump comes early!). Bump’s room isn’t finished yet, but it’s not far off. Mike and his dad are currently building the wardrobe. The ceiling went up yesterday. And before long, it will be plastered, painted, and ready to rock and roll. Then I will have somewhere to put all of Bump’s stuff, which is currently stored in boxes all over the place. It will be good. A great start to the New Year, and new beginnings in 2012.

Here are some things that I learnt in 2011 that I never knew before:

• Turning 30 wasn’t actually a major. It was more of a great milestone, and one that I have great memories of.
• I never thought that my 30^th year would be such a rollercoaster of a ride.
• Getting pregnant was easy. Being pregnant is hard. Older people forget what pregnancy is like.
• Being published is not a life changing event… but it’s a pretty good one.
• The world is no longer an enormous place. Two of my best mates have also moved to Australia this year as well… and despite them now being in another country – I’m not sad! Well… not really. I’m so damn chuffed that they are living their own lives and dreams, and I’m even more chuffed that by having the internet… it’s almost as if they are sitting in the next room.
• I can do anything as long as I block out the bullshit and focus.
• Stress and pressure are only good in small amounts.
• I no longer have any tolerance for bad or rude behaviour. This is not a tolerance that I ever want to rebuild either.
• My job has been really good this year. I’ve really enjoyed the challenges, and the new team we have. I no longer tolerate the rubbish behaviour from my colleagues either, and they quickly know when they have overstepped the line.
• The hormone – Relaxin – is a total bitch to deal with.
• Taking everybody’s advice so you don’t offend people is impossible. Picking and choosing what advice you take is much more effective.
• It’s lovely getting to know your child as it grows inside of you.
• Three of my unborn child’s godparents now live overseas, and I’m okay with that. I know that this will be a good thing in the future, as the child will have supportive people in its life who live their own life, according to what they want to do.
• Pregnant women are hilarious. They no longer hold back, or have any qualms about saying it like it is. I’ve met some pretty neat people though our parenting class, who I never would have met if it wasn’t for Bump.
• Owning a Kindle has revolutionised the way I read.
• I have met writers who have deeply impacted my life in ways that I never could have imagined. By being with these amazing and incredible people, it has seriously helped solidify the fact that I am on the right career pathway in my life.

So… I think that’s probably it for this year. December has been a slow blogging month for me. I have no doubt that with the continuing distractions of the final stage of this pregnancy, etc, it could get even more sporadic. But I’ll try and keep it up.

In the meantime… I’m really looking forward to starting a new book in the New Year, editing another… and writing on. On the other side of life, I’m really looking forward to meeting our child.

Remember to set goals, not resolutions. J

2011 – Over and Out.

 

Monday Musings

Dear God,

I would like to thank you for the creation of the Paddling Pool. It’s a lifesaver.

Xoxo Me 

Link to a very 'NZ' video clip

Seriously. Paddling pools were created for people like me who either don’t have the space or the money to drop an in-ground pool in. Ah… but someone out there had the brains to think of folks like us. Especially the use of paddling pools in the hot Summer months for pregnant women.

So other than beaching myself in a paddling pool, this is what I’m thinking about at the moment:

• I am extremely grateful to a friend of mine who read through my manuscript in record time and gave me oodles of feedback. It was awesome. Now I just need to make a plan of when comes first…. and what I can live without doing. The feedback was great, and extremely constructive. Everything that she suggested potentially strengthened the whole storyline. Brilliant. I’m still waiting for more feedback to come in before I make any final decisions on what needs to happen. At this stage though… I’m rather happy with how it’s going, and I’m really really looking forward to getting this all completely wrapped up.
• I was to plan. I am feeling the urge to plan everything at the moment, from the amount of writing stuff I need to do over the next two months, to the things that need to happen in my house, to what I need to accomplish over the Christmas period this year. (And I would like it noted that I am SO not ready for Christmas, but damn do I need the break!) I’m guessing that all this planning stuff is in preparation of what I need to complete before Bumpkin arrives into the world in February, and completing commitments that I have already made. John Lennon once said that ‘life passes you by when you are busy making other plans’. Well – I don’t plan on planning for too long… I plan on spending more time executing the plan.

  

  Self portrait

• I’m at the nesting stage where my Mum would probably call me a ‘Broody Hen’. It’s funny you know… I have never felt this way about my house before. I have always been rather relaxed on how it looks (to a point) and have never really ‘stressed’ out over it before. But now I have the most insane urges to sort through everything, and rearrange everything room by room, and heaven forbid, if anyone gets in the way or in the middle of it. (I bite.Sometimes not as hard as I really want to, but I still bite.) Stuff is happening in my house that has needed to happen for ages, but we just haven’t ‘got around to it’. Now it’s all happening, and it’s great. I just need to make sure people stay well and truly out of my way so they don’t get offended by my natural maternal instincts.  This is just the way that women and all female animals for millenia have prepared for motherhood. “The act of nesting puts you in control and gives a sense of accomplishment toward birth.” The bizarre thing is… I instinctively know that if I cannot nest properly at home, or if I feel threatened… then I know that I need to go somewhere else where I can nest properly. ‘Broody hen syndrome’, I’m telling you. (Insane!!)  
• Speaking of my Mum… it’s her birthday today, and I really wish that I could be there with her having brunch and hanging out all day. However… life just didn’t deal me the winning lotto numbers in the weekend, so it couldn’t happen.

There are many more things that I could write about today, but I fear that I would probably just be rambling. So, for the meantime, I’ll leave you with a little chicken to fawn over. Have a great week!

 

Monday Musings

Achieving goals - one step at a time.

Well, today my head is swimming with all sorts of things. But the thing that seems to be taking up the most room in there is the fact that I have finished editing and revising The Mediterranean Source. (This is proof that deadlines work!)

I didn’t manage to get any editing done on Saturday though. For some reason my head just wasn’t in it, even though I wanted to do it. This sort of thing happens to creative people all the time, and it seems to happen without any rhyme or reason. Believe me, when it happens to me, I turn into this angry little hamster, and I am not a nice person to be around. Especially now with the fact that I am an overemotional pregnant wreck half the time, who generally just needs her own space to even try and think clearly!

But yesterday, I closed the door, plugged in, and smashed through the rest of the book. It took hours and hours. But I refused to move until I had it done.

So… some of my darlings are now dead, another darling is a depressed workaholic, and other darlings get to live happily ever after. Not all is rosy in the world… but it in the great scheme of things, life is pretty good for those darlings.

So… what am I musing about this week?

• I managed to edit and revise my way through nearly 60,000 words of The Mediterranean Source in 27 days. Not to mention… there was quite a bit of time where it was down time… and I wasn’t getting through much at all. But once I found my groove, I really rocked my way through it. Now, if I didn’t moonlight in the world of Contract Management, then I probably could have edited and revised my way through that in a much shorter period of time.
• The Mediterranean Source is now out with friends to completely nit-pick the shizzle out of it, and to double check my facts. Now I guess I need to think about who it will be sent to in terms of the publishing world, and I guess I had better write up a synopsis for it etc. (I have done this many times in the past, but never have I ever been happy with them.) 
• The second book of the Talent trilogy is still waiting in the wings for its final scenes to be written. It can stay there till I’m good and ready. I don’t think it will take me too long, but in the meantime, I have to try and think straight for a few moments on real life. Lots of planning and house stuff needs to happen in a very short period of time, and at this stage, nothing is going according to plan. If things continue to slide, then I’m going to end up throwing all my toys, and I will no longer take responsibility for my own actions.
• I’m tired. It’s official. I am starting to slow down (and it’s not just because I have finished this book). I really need a break from the EDJ, but that’s not going to happen for another few weeks. I have no tolerance for anything right now, let alone tolerance for myself when I forget things. But… I am trying to forgive myself, instead of beating myself up about it all the time. This child will come into the world within the next 10-12 weeks… and then it will be a whole new ballgame. At the moment, people are still expecting things from me… but they should really quit while their ahead. I permanently have a wriggling and jiggling child in me, and I can no longer maintain any sense of focus with that constantly happening. I would much rather not have any expectations of me right now, and to just kind of bounce along with whatever. Much less stress that way, thank you very much.

I think that’s it from me for the moment. I must admit, I am overly chuffed with myself for finally sorting this manuscript out. It needed to happen, and it’s needed to happen for a very long time. I guess I’m quite relieved that this part of it is over. (Until I get all the nit-picky feedback!)

Ciao for now. Hope you all have a super duper week.

P.s. Forgot to say. On the weekend, this blog was awarded for inspiration. But I’ll blog about that later on when I have a few moments.

 

Monday Musings

An interesting thing happened the other day. I was sitting on the train on my way into the city to meet with my husband to go to a 50th birthday, and I had my laptop open on my Nano novel. But for some unknown reason, the Nano novel just wasn’t calling to me like it should. I couldn’t pull my focus in the slightest to even remotely focus on it.

So I sat there, listening to music, day dreaming. After a few minutes, I slowly started to recognise the music in my ears as part of the soundtrack I had compiled together for my Urban Fantasy trilogy. The next thing I knew, I was opening up the second book of the trilogy (that I haven’t opened since July!) and I was reading the area that I stopped writing.

The Zen of sudden clarity in my world

With a sudden smack of clarity, I knew how to end this book. This is a concept that I have been struggling with since July. I’m not kidding. But I had turned my mind from it, and had been working on other things, knowing that due to my pregnancy – my creative side of my brain wasn’t quite functioning on all cylinders.

I actually still can’t quite believe that this has happened. I can’t believe that I now know how to finish off the second book. I knew that I had to raise the stakes, and hype it up for the lead into the third book… but there was so much going on that I just didn’t know how to do it. I had spent 80,000 words maneuvering my characters into the right positions… and then I managed to get myself stuck with no creative thought on how to get myself out.

I know that my critique partners out there are going to be rather chuffed that I have finally figured this out. It has been more than frustrating for me over the past few months. So… as part of the NaNoWriMo madness, I’m going to try to get the final 5000 words down to complete book II of the Talent Series.

So, this is what I have on my mind at the moment:

• My gorgeous sister is bringing her new dude to come and stay with us this week. Very excited to have her coming. I miss her a lot, and us siblings are very close, so I am reallylooking to spending some quality time with her. She also wants to be introduced to Bumpkin as well… so I guess now is her chance. She’s probably going to find it just a little odd that her big sister is pregnant. (I think that I would find that odd if it were the other way around.)
  

  S Dali - Persistence of Time

• I’m behind on my editing and revision of The Mediterranean Source. I really need to get through this hump that I am at, at the moment. The part that I am revising requires a crapload of focus… and I just need to really pay attention. But there are so many interruptions at the moment with everything else that’s happening… that I can’t seem to grasp a decent amount of time to pull my focus. I’m just going to have to keep trying.
• I had a big book clear out in the weekend. Boxes of them. It’s a seriously marvellous feeling to clean out your crap. I just love it. There is a lot to be said about this nesting business. I would like to tackle even more rooms if I can get the chance. Perhaps this Thursday when I take the day off. Will just have to wait and see. I should probably be ‘slowing down’ a little, but I just can’t see it happening.

I think that’s it from me at this stage. I only have three days in the office this week, so I’m rather chuffed with that. Hopefully being at home a bit more this week will allow me to sort a few more words on the page.

I hope that you all have a great week, and that those you are getting Nano’d, do so good and proper

 

Monday Musings

Welcome back to Monday. Was meant to post another blog last week, but due to my ‘baby-brain’ it didn’t quite happen. Might happen this week. I’m easily distracted by food and sleep. Surprise surprise…

I had a lovely weekend with my buddy Cassie Hart at her place in Taranaki. I met Cassie through working with her during the Tales for Canterbury period. Something just struck a chord between us, and we have been firm friends ever since. Met through a mutual cause, and maintained our friendship, which is done rather easily since we are both passionate about very similar things.  

As for my musings for this week – here they are:

• 

  A little Taranaki surf to whet our Summer appetites…

  Summer is coming, and I am more than aware of the urgent need to upgrade my wardrobe with clothes that will actually fit me throughout this period. This is happening though through the awesome donations from a few friends, which I am super stoked about. Being pregnant, and about to hit 30 odd degree weather at my house is not going to be too much fun. However, with a little help from my friends and family, I might just get though!

• I’m gutted there is no surfing this summer for me… however – there will be plenty of swimming at the beach next to my house. Gotta have something to cool me down a bit!
• Editing should be moving, but since my Evil Day Job is rather full on at the moment, the editing isn’t moving as fast as it should be. I need to throw more focus at it, and get it all out of the way. Starting tomorrow. *fingers crossed*
• I’m still mulling over ideas for NaNoWriMo this year. I think that even if I can get through 25,000 words this coming November, I will be pleased with myself. The lack of writing has been getting to me a bit, but I do also realise that all my thoughts are completely scrambled at the moment… so I’ve just been taking a bit of a break. I would really love to finish the Talent series though. I think that would be a worthy achievement before little Bumpkin is born.
• Christmas is just around the corner, and I haven’t even thought about what to get people yet – haven’t even discussed what we are doing for it! I guess this is a conversation we better have rather soon though. I have recently thrown all my outdoor furniture out – so I might need to get some more if people want to have it at our house.
• Totally LOVE the new chilling and reading space that we created last week in our living room. Its working really well. I sit there and read in the afternoons, and gaze out at the garden. It’s brilliant.
• One of my best friend’s is moving to Brisbane sometime soon… and while I’m extremely proud of her for taking the leap, and living her life to suit her and no one else, I know that I’m going to miss her. But I am extremely proud of her. Our lives are ours. And it’s completely up to us to change it if we don’t like the stagnant or mundane phase it’s in. She’s moving to a city where the sun shines happily, the weather is normally pretty decent, it’s warm… even in a southerly.

I think that’s it from me today. I look at the above thoughts and think that perhaps I had better put together a decent little list and start working through it!

 

Monday Musings

Before I get into it – I would like to apologise about the lack of my Musings post last Monday. I took the day off sick, as I’d had bugger all sleep… and kinda forgot about it!

I’m not sure what goals you all have in your life… but I know that with mine I have a crap load. Yes. Heaps and heaps of them. And I will keep pursuing these goals until I finally get there, not matter how long it takes me. Is this wrong? I don’t think so. I think that it’s driven, and it gives me something else to think about instead of the mundane everyday stuff that I have to put up with. I’m a dreamer… always have been – always will be.

But how is this measured?

Well. I keep a Hopes and Dreams book, where I write down all sorts of things in it. (Yes, winning the lottery is written down in the dreams section!) But in reality… this is more of a goals book, with a little bit of fantastical dreaming mixed in. If the dreams come to the life of reality, then my world will be all the more richer for it. Another of my dreams, is to one day hit the Whitcoull’s Top 100 List. This has always been a dream, but more importantly – it also keeps my writing and goals in perspective. I’m not sure I’ll ever get there… in fact, at the moment I highly doubt it since it looks as though that particular bookstore is going under. But there will be another ‘bookstore list’ I can dream about some day. For today, I’ll stick with Whitcoull’s.

I also measure my writing progress in six month increments. I find that if I set goals and plans for a year – it’s too long. Six months feels about right. It goes fast, and you would be surprised at how fast it actually goes!! Then I can revise it, carry over some of the straggling tasks and goals, and continue onwards and upwards.

And why am I yabbering on about goals, hopes, and dreams you may ask? Well… because of all the editing and revising that has been happening in my world. With each page and chapter I complete – my dreams get just that little bit closer.

So, what am I amusing myself with this week?

Bedroom from the movie 'The Holiday'

• We need a new bed. I am not kidding. I have just about had enough of the bed we currently have. Every time my husband even sniffs, I feel it. And it’s killing me. By the time I get to Thursday or Friday of the week, I am freaking exhausted from not getting quality sleep. But it’s the same for him as well. We are constantly waking each other up, all night long. Not to mention… my back is killing me at the moment! The other day we were in a shop browsing around (dreaming), and we came across this bed. We both lay down on it, and just knew that even though it was situated the midst of a busy shop, we could actually go to sleep right then and there. Trust me… if I had the cash right now, I would be getting a new bed.
  Bugger finishing off building our wardrobe… a decent bed is our next priority after we sort the other room out this coming summer.
• NaNoWriMo officially starts on 1^st November. Good grief. I was just saying this morning that I am more confused that a chameleon stuck in a box of crayons at the moment over this. I have so many ideas, and yet, no idea what to work on this November. My big question is around whether I should keep writing the Trilogy over this November, or if I should pull out some fresh ideas and try my hand at something new? Bah. No idea. See? Still confused.
• I didn’t finish a short story I was trying to write in September. You never know though – I still might. I was enjoying it, and the processing of new and wild ideas. I also didn’t review the books that I wanted to get through, and even the books that I started reading were put down. My tolerance levels for mediocre writing has dropped significantly, and I just can’t be bothered wasting my precious time on them anymore. Now I am reading a stellar book and really pleased that I ditched the others!  

  

  My new space

• Yesterday afternoon, I decided that I was truly sick of my dining area that I never use properly. And I was also annoyed that there was one sofa in our living room that hogged the heater all the time, not to mention, I felt that our entire living area was centred around the TV, and if I wanted to sit and read, I would have to share my mental space with the TV as well. So…… I put my problem solving hat on, and switched a few things around. Now I have a lovely space at the opposite end of the living room that has one of our sofas, a nice big rug, currently an ottoman, and plenty of space to stretch out and enjoy a good book. It looks out over the garden, has loads of light, and I can open the window and enjoy a bit of the outside world as well. My husband sat there in this new space last night, and chatted to me while I pottered in the kitchen. It was excellent, and he could still watch the news at the same time. Much more family inclusive. And my cat loves it. Sorry about the quality of the photo! To give you an idea of what it was like before – well – the dining table area covered that whole rug – and I never used it! And the dark red sofa sat in fron of the grey rug facing towards the camera, and effectively, it was the heater hog sofa. I’m rather pleased with the end result!

On the writing front, there should be a lot more, but I’m still editing. Very slowly.

Bumpkin Big Foot

Oh yes, and for those of you who don’t know – my husband and I are expecting our first child in February. For the moment, we are calling it Bumpkin till it’s born. Exciting, yes… Challenging? Already. And another one of those reasons why my concentration is completely blown out of control. But I will get it back – hopefully through the participation of NaNoWriMo this year.

I really think that’s about it from me at the moment. Lots on, but at the same time, not much at all. Voila. Monday Musings is officially over for the week. Ciao for now.