Some days are better than others…

Some days really are better than others. So here is a quick update of my news over the past couple of weeks:

Since I have been back at work, I have been trying to settle in. Some of my colleagues say that it doesn’t even feel as though I have been on leave for six months. There is only one new person at the ooffice… but a few of the old staff have left, so I miss their presence.

I also miss Abby! But she’s having such a great time in care, that I really needn’t of worried like I did. But I do feel as though I’m missing an appendage of sorts. I’m pleased that she did have a good routine already set in place, and that with the help of my Mother in Law – we taught her how to take a bottle. She seems to be happy as to be away from me during the day.

Abby has been the utter centre of attention for everyone as we have had lots of family visiting over the past couple of weeks. Was really lovely to see them all, and for them to finally meet Abby for the first time. I can’t believe she is now five months old already! Motherhood is sweeping by very fast.

I had my very first car accident yesterday morning… What a great start to the week! A chap was pulling out of his driveway, and didn’t see me driving past, and smooshed my passenger doors with the nose of his great big Mercedes. So this afternoon I have to go and pick up a rental car to tide us over while ours gets fixed. (What is really annoying is that we only just sold my husbands car on Sunday, so I could have been using that!)

I have started catching the train to work, and each time I feel utterly elated at the amount of writing work I am accomplishing again! After 6 months of basically having a break from it, I am now immersing myself into my writer’s world for at least an hour per day. And it is FABULOUS! I’m smashing through my editing during my dedicated train time. Feels amazing.

One of my Critique partners has moved to China, so that’s a bit tough. Gonna be awesome for her – and it will start to feel a bit better when she’s back up and running online again.

Another Critique partner is about to release her next book, which is exciting!

Anyway – I better get back to the Evil Day Job (which is actually going quite well) and earn my keep.

P.s. Can’t wait to get this damn book off my desk and onto the desks of publishers.

 

Monday Musings

I know that I’m a little late getting this post out – but it’s technically still Monday. A few things have been happening, that definitely have me musing away.

• My husband was incredibly productive over the weekend, and managed to get through a huge list of tasks that he had set himself. He re-gunked up the skylights, (so hopefully no more raining in my living room)… fixed my glasses… put the rubber thingees in the windows so I don’t have gale force winds coming through the house… he did about 3 loads of washing, and changed the sheets… installed some fancy-pants heating unit thing in our room that heats the room in hardly any time at all… and he did a few other things as well, that I just can’t recall.
• Mother in law’s partner is staying at the moment, and he has been putting the handles on our sliding doors. Nasty finickity job, that he seems quite happy just pottering away at. Another dreadful task around our house getting done. All in all, it was an incredibly productive weekend around our house.
• Editing and revising is happening on my book. I forgot how much I seriously love revising and editing. Analysis of the storyline, the characters, and all motivations really gets my mind ticking over… and this is happening. Slowly but surely. You can’t eat the elephant all in one gulp, and I’m chewing away at this mammoth task, working solidly through it. I’m not joking when I say that this is one book that I never really want to heavily revise and edit again. I can’t be bothered as I have a lot of other work that needs to be done on the writing front, and it’s about time that I let this one go and fend for itself out in the real world.
• Speaking of revising and editing, the post that I wrote yesterday on that seems to have been generating some interest. Always good to know that every now and then my blog posts are meaningful to someone out there.
• Lotto was won in the weekend, and by someone who is reasonably poor, with a good community spirit. I know that it’s a shame that it wasn’t me, but I’m pleased that it went to someone deserving of a break. :-) The chap is a forestry worker from the middle of no where, with a very humble sense of self opinion. Now that is the sort of person I want to win lotto.
• I’m sad to discover that my neighbour has Liver Cancer. He has done a lot for us over the years that we have been living next door, and I know that this is an incredibly tough time for him. I had a good cuppa tea with him yesterday, and his faith is one of the things mentally getting him through. He finds out today whether or not its terminal. For someone so positive and active in life, it’s sad to see them fall to pieces like this.

So… I think that’s me for the moment. Ideas are flooding into my head at an alarming rate for books that I would like to write. But at this stage, I’m just taking them all as they come and storing them away for a rainy day. In the meantime, I have some revising and editing to do – not to mention a critique partner who is expecting the finished piece.

I hope that everyone has a super-duper week head of them.

 

Finally, I can breathe

I feel as though I can actually take a deep breath, and it gets the oxygen to where it’s meant to go.

The before photo - click to enlarge

The ‘library’ that I write in at home has been bugging the crap out of me for a really long time, and I just had absolutely no idea why. But then I figured it out. My back was to the door when I was working, and every time someone came in while I was writing, they would scare the bejeezus out of me. So, as mentioned in a previous post, this weekend I decided to pull my library apart to refigure it all out, so that my back wouldn’t be to the door anymore. This way, I’ll have a focused workspace, and will stop aging 10 years each time someone walks into the room.

My husband at least had the decency to warn me that he was standing there by playing with the light dimmer, as he knows that when I’m writing – I’m totally immersed. But everyone else would just walk in and I would jump and panic, and practically have heart failure. The next thing I am trying to do at this stage is climb out of my writing world and back into reality. And do you know how long it actually takes to get back into that writing groove? Well, depending on how pissed off I am at the person for interrupting me – it can take a while.

Reference books all lined up!

And now it’s complete. WOOHOO! Yes, I am dancing. I am just feeling so amazingly better about this space, than I have in a very long time. I know that I have put the bed kind of under the bookshelf – but it is bracketed, and ifthere is an earthquake and all the books fall off – well – I don’t think that’s such a bad way to die in the great scheme of things. Okay, I know, I know – death by books… time for my injection. I’m a little twisted.

Click to enlarge

But seriously. How gorgeous is this? It makes me feel wonderful. A great space to create new and wonderful worlds. I’m very lucky that my wonderful husband had the foresight to buy me the most amazing sound system, which is now completely hooked up, and mostly hidden from plain sight. Also – you will note from the photos that there are no wires anywhere! I know. Pretty much got rid of the acres of wiring that would get tangled up around my feet and annoyed me. Now they are hidden away nicely.

So, here’s to a new writing space makeover. I absolutely love to see other peoples writing spaces, so direct me to photos of your space if you have them online.   

Heart-attack prevention: Desk now facing the door!

 

Fever induced craze

Firstly I would like to apologise for the lack of blogging over the past week. I have been struck down by the flu, and a fever induced craze that has rendered me absolutely useless in the writing department. Even reading and watching TV is a hazard at the moment, just in case it brings on another throbbing headache to match the aches and pains already ripping through me. So, I guess that I had better get this over and done with as quickly as possible before some sort of verbal atrocity comes tumbling out of my mouth.

On Saturday I was trying to write a modern day fairy tale of sorts… but reached about 150 words and gave up due to my lack of focus. I just couldn’t commit to it to save myself. I ended up chatting to my critters online though, and every once in a while I would have to retreat to the sofa to rest. I eventually pulled myself together for a cocktail wedding on Saturday night… drugged up on painkillers, drank a lot of fluids, and very reluctantly got my party dress on for the evening. I didn’t really have a choice about going or not. It was the wedding of a really good friend of mine, who has done more than support me in my writing endeavours over the years, and I knew I couldn’t not go, since she has been planning this wedding for as long as I have known her. I managed to do my friend duty for a couple of hours, and then we got out of there.

So… officially no writing done except for this blog post… not exactly progressing my way to achieving my goal of finishing this novel by the end of the month, but however, goals can shift as swiftly as the wind. I’ll get there eventually.

So, that’s the extent of my update for the moment. It’s not much, I know, but at least it’s a little something. On the upside… I think I am starting to see light at the end of this hazy tunnel.