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I was telling Matthew that I haven’t found my groove yet. I’m currently grooveless.
Last post was from London. I don’t think I’ve ever walked so much in my life. Even using the tube and so on, there’s always a walk and those steps add up. This was a good thing because it helped with the weight gain. Lot’s of nice but expensive food to be had in London.
We also discovered the river bus (ferry), expensive but so much better than being crammed into a tube train. And there was coffee.
Biggest takeaway was how to ordinary people live-it’s so expensive. And why are there so many obviously wealthy people.
After two weeks in London we went to Malta for about five days. Why Malta? It was on a list of the possibles (Spain, Ireland, Italy) but what it had in it’s favour was one flight direct, warmer and dryer than the UK, cheapish flight and lots of accommodation to choose from. We loved Malta. We stayed in Sliema, with views of the beach (St Julian’s Bay I think) and we did tours as you do. Not quite warm enough for a swim for me. We even took a day trip to Sicily, which was awesome. It’s only 52 Nautical miles from Malta. Next time, more Sicily and Malta. Also, did my fan girl, Montalbano, visit to his police station. I didn’t pay to go in, just took photos.
Next stop was one night in London and the Hilton Heathrow Terminal 4 and then Singapore. We stayed with my son and his wife and my grandson in their apartment. We ate crab! Thanks Taamo! and did the Night Safari and the Amazon experience. Again more walking. We also did the Gardens by the Bay, which was lovely but Singapore is humid and hot. We caught up with some writing friends, Dev and Joyce and ate lots of yummy food and swam in the condo pool, well I walked in the pool, which was lovely and huge.
Sadly, all good things come to an end. We came home. For a few weeks we had started thinking about home, what we wanted to do, changes in our habits we wanted to make and thinking about our lovely granddaughter who started school while we were away. Nothing hurts more than those heart strings and she sent us messages that made us almost weep.
I started work on Monday (Day job) and today was meant to be a writing day. Alas, dr appointment, tradie, pool walking, Genius appointment because my phone is chucking a wobbly, and then meeting friends tonight, I can’t see where I’m going to slot even a solid hour in.
I am doing a novel crit group thing so I have at least finished this month’s novel and just need to write up my feedback. I guess that’s what I’ll be doing today because that’s not hard.
Jetlag I’ve been okay. I think the stop over in Singapore helped me adjust to Australia again, although I do zone out and get fatigued.
Weight I’ve lost 2.5 kilos since I’ve been back. Most of that would be fluid retention from the flight. But I found this neat and free calorie food diary thing and that’s helping me keep track.
I’ve also am trying a new self mantra. Instead of looking in the mirror and criticising myself, I’m going to say “Hey gorgeous. You look fantastic. You’re awesome.” I’ve read about two celebrities that I really admire and both have talked about how they have hated their bodies (Winslet and Thompson) and how every woman is unhappy with her body. I think this is mostly the body norms that are thrust at us constantly. For years I’ve had body dismorphia and I’ve hated how I looked. Now I’m going to accept it. That doesn’t mean I’m letting myself go. I get sick if I put on too much weight so I’ll keep my goals but I’m going to stop the negative self talk. Try to at least. Not easy.
Next post I’ll put up some photos. I’m currently backing up the phone so can’t right now.
We are renting a small apartment near the Imperial Wharf. It’s lovely and a 15 minute walk to the metro, but close to overland trains which is useful when we go to Hampton Court if the trains are not strike affected.
We are staying for two weeks because we wanted to get a feel for the place and do as many of things that we can. However, this is possibly the most expensive part of the trip just in accommodation alone. We had a lovely week in Kent with writing friends and we enjoyed every minute. Matthew was very happy to visit and, I think observing him and Dan together, that Matthew was nurtured and encouraged and mentored as a writer and fried.
The EV car is a gift that keeps on giving. Besides the scratch they have pinged us for lots of little things. No invoice as yet but Hertz had debited us $1200 so far. I don’t mind so much but an invoice would be nice so we can claim on our insurance. I wish Hertz paid as much attention to the EV battery performance as they do scratches on tire rims etc.
Yesterday after a late start we made it to the British Library for the fantasy exhibition: Realms of the Imagination. It was a lovely homage to the fantasy genre, with a focus on fairy tales and folk lore as origin, and featured some neat stuff. I have some new books to track down. Not comprehensive but a bit hard to do that I think. The exhibition was full of nerdy people like us who took ages to look at things so a bit frustrating for me, the whizz kid. Matthew took his time. I checked out the store and wept for the things I could not buy due to postage costs.
We went for a drink in a nearby pub then decided to go home and cook for ourselves. A quick shop and Sainsbury’s at the tube station and we had a heathy dinner except for the icecream. We have enhanced our supplies for breakfast and soon will be off to the Natural History Museum which isn’t far away. We will be taking the tube though.
Because we are here for two weeks, we get to fully unpack. I think I’ll have time to read and write but who knows. Sometimes I’m just so tired from walking around. I am averaging 9500 steps per day this last month. Of note, the weather is currently mild. I nearly died of heat in the tube with my coat on but no room to take it off. Today is set to be 13-14 degrees which is crazy warm. Where are the blizzards? I’ll probably jinx us.
We are scheduled to fly to Malta after this but now there are strikes in Europe so who knows. Watch and see.
Since Lincoln we have moved around a lot. We went to Newcastle upon Tyne, staying mostly out at South Shields. We loved this place. My Hanson grandfather was born in South Shields and it was lovely to get a feel for the place, where his father and his grandfather live. I went searching for the houses where they lived. Alas, the Long Row had been demolished and the Long Row now is only part of the original with new buildings, but they lived in these tenements along the river. They were seaman, steveadores etc so lived close by. I went looking for two other addresses. Catherine Street I found was now a library and the other place still existed but the house they lived it appeared on Apple Maps in someone’s backyard so no longer existing. We went looking for St Hilda’s cemetery and it is now a car park. I sort of gave up after that. I was going to go and look where my nana was born in Washington but her street didn’t exist and it was a suburb’s name now. Besides it snowed that day. We did one day in Newcastle and did my Vera thing, including Whitley Bay and the Holy Island on our way to Scotland.
In Edinburgh I caught up with a second cousin on my mum’s side. He and his wife were very interesting people. One of the things they do is medieval music. Fascinating.
We stayed in a lovely hotel, Holyrood with views to Arthur’s seat and very handy to the High street etc. They were so lovely. We left something behind and they posted it to us, charging us only for postage. Food was good, room was large and warm. We did a day trip to Perth to visit Farah and Edward and had a lovely lunch, talked about books etc before heading out to walk through the town/city. It’s quite big Perth. It was also quite cold with barely getting to the high of 1 degree C.
It was time to turn south and we stopped in Lancaster for the evening, meeting up with Patrick and Julie for dinner. Lancaster is a place we’d like to come back to as it seemed interesting but we couldn’t really look around as we were headed south.
In Knebsworth we stayed with my cousin and had a fab time. She took us to Windsor for the day and spoiled us rotten. Now we are in Maidstone in Kent also being spoiled, but today is chill day so I can blog.
It’s kind of sad as I have lots of photos but here are a few.
Windsor castle
Windsor Moat
Matthew in front of St George’s chapel, Windsor Castle.
A snap taken in the Undercroft Cafe with my cousin, whose treat it was for us.
The castle ruins in Rochester, Kent. We went for a day to check it out.
Medway River at Maidstone, we did a long historical walk around the town.
A Tudor style house in Maidstone. Then we went to lunch at La Villetta, enjoyed some great food and company.
We went to Aylesford to visit to Friars again and it was misty and moody and very serene. We enjoyed it so much.
The peace walk lookiing back to the gatehouse at the Friars. Note, to Ruby Heart/Emerald Fire fans, this is the priory I used in the book. It was a great setting for a secret society of magicians.
That’s all for now. Stay tuned for more photos. We head to London for two weeks on Thursday. The sand in our hour glass is running down. Although we are going to Malta and Singapore before we see our cats and family again.
We have an EV at home in Australia and we love it. When we planned our trip to the UK we decided an EV would be the right thing to do. Guilt free travel and better for the enviroment.
Immediately, though, we had issues, the first thing was charging in the suburbs of Brighton. There are a huge number of providers and apps, but some of the key apps can’t be downloaded to an Australian phone. Admittedly I was sick with a lurgy and it played on my mind and I was saying just take it back and get a hybrid, but my partner didn’t want to. If we had we might have found out that UK Hertz charge way too much to drop a car to a site that isn’t the orginal hire site. Like some 200 GDP.
After a few days we were able to charge on the motorway services using Gridserve, which has lots of chargers. However, the cost per kw is quite high in comparision to Australia, even though in Australia it is rising. So on average 79 pence per kw so that’s about $1.60 per kw so nearly what we pay for a litre of petrol at home. But consider I kw is not equivalent to 1 litre in terms of distance. Anyway we were just grateful to just to be able to charge. Eventually we worked out our favourite chargers and also our least favourite. Scotland Charge Place is our least favourite because can’t download the app, and they were everywhere in Scotland! So to charge in Edinburgh it was a hunt and then a long drive to charge, in the opposite direction. We almost always needed fast charging because the slow chargers were not accessible without RFID cards or apps.
The next challenge was that the car we drove a Corsa E did not go as far on a charge as advertised. It would say 219 miles on a full charge on the dash and it barely went 100 miles and so on average one and a quarter to one and a half hours before having to charge. We became very cautious because it was unreliable and we didn’t want to get stranded. At times it was cold and that affects the distance a battery will take you and having the heater on. We tested it without the heater on and it still fell very short distance wise. So when we planned a trip to move from Lancaster to Luton I added an additional three hours for charging. I was very pissed off at this stage. The reason we surmised was because this car was a rental, it had been slammed and only subject to fast charging which depletes the battery. So not only were we paying heaps for charging we were charging a lot more often so it was double the cost. It sucked big time.
Then if your plans change or you don’t want to drop the car at 8.00am at Heathrow try to find an alternative. Phone numbers not answering. Finding someone to talk to and eventually finding out that dropping the car anywhere than Heathrow was going to cost an addition 200 GDP so $400 in Australian money and that is ridiculous. When we picked up at Heathrow they said it was 200 GDP to drop at Marble Arch and we assumed that was because of congestion charges etc. But no, it is what they charged for any drop off other than Heathrow which I assume we are also paying a airport fee. We really like Hertz Australia, so efficient and helpful but alas the same cannot be said of Hertz UK.
We ended taking the car back to Heathrow early the day before it was due to save getting up early, getting caught in peak hour traffic etc. When we dropped it back the bloke assessing the car was not interested in how the battery sucked but he was interested in the scratch on the car which we didn’t know was there. Fair enough, but really he should have noted down and expressed some concern at the crap battery on this car.
Also, did I mention they charged us extra for the electric car. We had found that car at that price in Australia but they didn’t honour it because we didn’t take a screen shot. So lesson learned if you are looking find something but can’t reserve it take a screen shot. We had issues with our Aussie credit card not being accepted on the UK site (various cards over days) that we had to book from Australia using Australian Hertz.
Interesting to note that our last charge on a Tesla supercharger was cheaper than any on the other chargers we used. Go figure that.
That said, some of the charging at services was really brilliant. Ten or so fast chargers and a separate bank of Tesla chargers. Only a select few of the Tesla chargers allowed non-Tesla charging. To do so, google Tesla superchargers UK, then un highlight everything but non-tesla superchargers, then if you are actually at that charger just press on the charger on the map, find the number, add your credit card details and you are away. I found that worked with BP Pulse too, using a map etc, much to my partner’s surprise.
Just a quick post to encourage you all to come along to the ARRA book signings. It’s a great opportunity for romance readers and fans to meet authors. The signings are all over, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.
In March 2024 I will be signing at ARRA’s A Romantic Rendezvous in Sydney and Melbourne. These multi-author signings will be held in four cities and will feature up to 30 authors at each event. You can find the full list of signing authors here: https://australianromancereaders.com.au/events/arr2024/. Tickets are now on sale: https://www.trybooking.com/1123090
Another great bit of news is the ARRA awards are going to be hosted in Brisbane this year. I really like going along to support ARRA and the nominated authors and it’s a fab time too.
I had hope to have a new book out in time for the book signing. But naughty me went skiving off to the UK for a few months. I will have my newish releases available, Awakening and The Changeling Curse. And if I get a move on, I might have something else in the pipeline.
We’ve moved on from Nottingham and spent a lovely week in a village just outside Lincoln. Nettleham was so lovely. Lots of quaint stone houses, a beck and great, great company. We loved it.
This photo is Matthew on one of the little bridges over the beck. The whole village was wonderful.
The picture above is Lincoln cathedral. We really liked this and the city of Lincoln was an unexpected pleasure.
The remains of the city wall.
Now we have moved onto South Shields, where my paternal grandfather was born. My paternal grandmother was born nearby in Durham. These next few days we will explore. Today we walk into South Shields and maybe find the house where it began about 200 years ago. There are even some relatives nearby. Not sure I’ll meet them. The people are very friendly.
On BailWe did a big walk today down to Long Row but the house wasn’t the house but a 25 year old one. Later research revealed the Long Row had been subsumed into a wharf/ship building thing and the existing Long Row is just on the end of it. Also, Thrift Street was subsumed too and there was another relative there. We walked to St Hilda’s church hoping to find a cemetery but no graves were there. We walked to the churchyard and it was a car park (apparently the bodies were exhumed and it closed in 1855) and then went to another address but that was weird and I don’t think that house exists either. Then when we got back I did some research and the other place I wanted to find in Catherine Street is now a library. I should write a story about an unquiet carpark. Look, my relatives were poor so their houses don’t exist anymore. I was kind of sad. I haven’t give up hope of finding a grave but we will see.
This is a view of the Long Row but it is a newish construction and only part of the original, the original long row being absorbed into the dock expansion. It did give me an idea of how close they lived to the docks where by GGG grandfather was a stevedore in 1894. There is some historical photos which I’ll buy of these streets that don’t exist now.
A bit of trivia. My great grandfather was Alexander Hanson, but he was born after the other Alexander Hanson, his brother died at 15 months. Alexander is one of those repeating names because Elizabeth Erichsen and John Hanson who married in 1834 both had fathers named Alexander.
The above is the local church I believe my ancestors went to. As discussed, no cemetary.
Also, snow was predicted and we got a short film of it. I think it then turned to sleet but excitement.
A view of Littlehaven beach where we are staying. That’s the head of the River Tyne.
I’m tacking on the trip to Newcastle yesterday. It’s an amazing place. Too short a time to explore and we walked so much. I did my Vera homage, and we went to the castle, the cathedral, the Milenium Bridge and did a M&C cafe lunch.
We walked up the Longstairs on our way back from the bridge.
My friend Glenda Larke calls the chaos that surrounds her family when she travels being Noramlyed. Well we were Noramlyed on our trip.
We started out with a low stress start, getting to Canberra way earlier than we needed to to catch our Virgin run codeshare flight to Melbourne to catch our Singapore Airlines flight to Singapore and then Bali. We were so organised. I had purchased an airside hotel in Singapore so we could nap before taking our connection to Bali.
Alas, that flight from Canberra to Melbourne was over two hours late. Some weather we were told shut Gold Coast Airport. We sat on the tarmac for a bit too, wondering what was going to happen because we were pretty certain we’d miss our connection. We asked and was told that others were in the same boat and that they would call.
It wasn’t until we landed in Melbourne that we got answers. We arrived 6.05pm and our flight was due to leave 6.25pm. No time for us to get there or our bags. Virgin proudly informed us they had rebooked us on a direct Virgin Flight to Bali. We quizzed them on would we get fed? Of course. What about our flight from Bali to Singapore? Is that okay? Yes, it’s fine.
We had to buy snacks on the flight and it costs us around $70. The snacks were the same as when you fly domestic. We were so pissed off. Well I was.
We go to Bali and relax, get Bali belly, go to an amazing wedding and hang with family.
Then it becomes time to fly to Singapore. Again we get there early. The zip on my luggage is breaking so I have to buy an emergency suitcase. We queue to check in but there’s a problem. Of course there’s a problem. The ticketing guy gets called over and says our tickets were cancelled and the flight is full and we would need to contact our agent. Nothing they can do. I don’t take this well, but they insist nothing they can do. We explain what happened with their code share and rebooking but alas we are left to figure it out.
I get in touch with the agent. He says, your tickets are fine, your flight is confirmed. He’s not hearing me that they won’t let us on. I pass the phone to the ticketing guy. They chat. He hands my phone back and says the agent is going to issue new tickets. Then they ask us to sit well away from them in some pubic seating. I ring my agent back. He gives me the same ticket numbers. He says they are open in the Singapore Airline system from his end. We just sit there and slowly deflate. Eventually the ticketing guy says he will lets us on the flight. We have to sign a form acknolwedging we might not get fed. A lady who is helping said our tickets are fine but our reservations were cancelled because we were a no show. Singapore Airlines said it was automatic when we didn’t show that all our flights were cancelled. Interesting because when I logged on our flights were there so how I could have avoided this is beyond me. They advise us to check with Singapore Airlines at the airport.
We land. We were fed yummy food. We were happy. We checked with the transfer desk who said our flight home looked fine but maybe we should check again before we left. We enjoy our time in Singapore still suffering some Bali Belly and me an occasional cough still.
I bitch about Virgin Airlines on Twitter and happen to mention Singapore Airlines too. Someone supposedly from Singapore Airlines contacts me and asks for information. I say don’t worry. Singapore Airlines are fine. They write back saying “we need to find out what happened” and they friend me. I tell them our story. They ask for a phone number. They contact me on What’s app, ask for my receipts etc saying they want to help. Then I get the phone call and it starts again. My logic circuits are not functioning well. I’m wondering what they want to refund me and isn’t Singapore Airlines nice. We get to the part where he wants me to change the dollars to Kenya dollars and put a code in the field. Don’t worry he says. It says you are paying us but that’s not the case. My partner is listening in and saying “WTF” and I say. Nah not doing this. I’m calling Singapore Airlines in the morning. The scammer dude is like arguing but I just hang up, block and report. On Twitter meanwhile they have messaged me to say. Cooperate with our assistant. I tell them what I think. Then I search Twitter and find the real Singapore Airlines with a warning about scammers pretending to be them. I was so angry at them and at me. I block and report them on X/Twitter.
The morning we are due to fly out, I get the urge to check us in to our Singapore Airlines flight. I put the information in and it says no flights. I think the scammers might have tried to get a refund but that wasn’t the case. Noramlyed yet again. I ring Singapore Airlines and begged them to help us. It took an hour and half. They rung me back a couple of times, which I really appreciated. They wanted to know how we got to Singapore. I explained that Singapore Airlines flew us there. She found that hard to believe and I had to explain the whole scenario again, complete with all the boarding passes we had etc. We could not get on our planned flight and had to stay an extra night in Singapore. We were able to get the same slot on the next day.
This stuff up, not of our making, made us lose the hotel in Singapore Airline of $360 and the extra night in Singapore at walk in rates at our hotel, another $391.74. And we had to pay for shitty snacks on Virgin for $70. No voucher or anything. Stinks right.
And then we got back and got Covid on our trip to Tasmania. The gods they say are smiling on us, or sniggering or rolling around on the floor laughing.
At the RWA conference in Sydney (All that glitters) I heard that Romantasy is the hot sell these days. What is romantasy? Apparently, a secondary world fantasy where there is romance (and action I expect). Sarah J Maas was given as an example. Young adult/new adult readership perhaps.
Well I have a series that fits the romantasy bill, The Silverlands, Argenterra, Oathbound and Ungiven Land. It’s three rather long books, with three heroines and their loves. Sophie, Aria who pass through to Argenterra and Rae who is a native of the land.
Recently I found some reviews of Argenterra. This one is from KS Nikakis on Goodreads and I’m over the moon that she liked it. I respect her work immensely.
This story started in a way that led me to believe it was going to be a lot simpler than it was. A time slip adventure, I decided. However as it went on, the story became a lot more complex. Things that seemed one thing, slowly evolved into something else, with a lot of questions and doubts in between. The worlds became multi-layered and the characters’ motivations similarly so. The prose also gained momentum and power as the story progressed, and really hit its stride. By the time I reached the end of Book 1, I was reading a complex fantasy story up there with the best.
Part of the blurb
In a land where oaths can’t be broken, be careful what promises you make. To break the binding oath is to risk the very magic of Argenterra. Best friends, Sophy and Aria, are on a family trip in Scotland when they find themselves swept away to another world. The lush land of Argenterra is imbued heavily with a magic known as the GIVEN – but while Aria adapts quickly, able to use and recognize the magic as naturally as if she’d been born in this world, Sophy struggles to find her place. Far from discovering her own magical gifts, Sophy is unable to feel the GIVEN at all. Something about the magic has warped and changed her appearance and she’s lost her vibrancy, becoming a mere shadow of her former self. Previously the attractive, outgoing one, now she is ugly and unable to fit in, whereas Aria has grown in confidence. As Aria thrives, quickly falling in love with a dashing prince, Sophy fights to survive in an increasingly hostile and deadly realm.
Here is the link to the series’ page. I also have a free (or cheap) prequel novella about the discovery of Argenterra. Click on Argenterra cover image to take you to the books page.
I often get asked, which of my books is my favourite and that’s a hard question to answer. They are all my favourite. I might love the setting, the characters, the stories…I wrote them so of course I love them. Argenterra was the first fantasy novel story I ever wrote so it’s always going to have a special place for me. It’s quirky and when I reread it I get sucked in because I love Sophy and Oakheart so much. I love the land and the magic and I want to revisit the place again. I even have a title but I haven’t started it-Vorn reborn.
It’s been a year since my last post. That’s totally unforgivable, even in these trying times. A lot has happened. None of it writing fiction. I hang my head. However, I am writing again or trying to. Perhaps I’m just too precious but I am affected emotionally and mentally by world events. Like a number of author friends I’m finding it hard to be creative.
A short recap of the last year. My partner lost his job in April (made redundant) but it’s not as bad as it sounds. He inherited a farm and if we could sell that between his superannuation pension and the sale of the farm he could be a full time writer (Me Too!). This meant cleaning out the farm, doing some renovations to make it habitable and selling it. Of course, pandemics don’t help much there and we were locked down for nearly three months when we could have been selling. As well as painting, flooring etc, I started a job to keep us ticking over. I’m still working but now I’m only three days a week and that’s pretty good so far. Working and renovations did take it out of me and I had to put aside the sourdough baking.
We also took a couple of trips to NZ on family business mid year. (when the country was open and just made it back before the borders slammed shut). That did not turn out how we thought it would. Counseling and recovery later, we are getting there. Without going into too much detail, this really changed everything, our house, what we thought our lives would be and we were left going on okay but slightly damaged. Sorry I can’t be more explicit.
Locked down with my daughter and granddaughter in August/September and into October. That was so hard. Both my daughter and I working from home. Child care of a two year old. My partner was amazing. My younger son was here too. Lockdown was damn hard. The news is damn hard. I agree with mask mandates, lockdowns and staying safe and even then I found it very, very hard. I had to have more counseling to cope with it, particularly after lockdown when Omicron started spreading. I was beginning to doubt we would have Christmas. Then, dealing with ‘living with COVID’ was also another change. I felt as if we had been tossed to the wind to fend for ourselves.
It isn’t all bad you know. I managed somehow to submit my PhD thesis in December. Although it didn’t go out to markers until March, due to COVID, missing forms and I don’t know what else. I believe this is something to be happy about but emotionally I’m just drained. We had a great Christmas. We survived lock down and we are all still speaking to each other.
We sold the farm and are just waiting on settlement.
One of my daughters was able to move into a brand new townhouse which was delayed. She loves it. And it’s not too far away.
We bough an electric car (KONA EV) and we love it. At first we couldn’t go anywhere much but we are doing a little bit now.
Meet Ruby Red
My partner had two books come out in hardback and audible. We think the paperbacks will be out soon. He’s starting to get his writing mojo happening again. Those two books took him about five years while looking after two elderly parents, then losing them a year apart. Then you know, smoke, hail, fire, pandemic and things really haven’t let up.
Here they are. The paperback of The Serpent and the Saint comes out April 12.
Crafting has been a godsend. I just totally lose myself. I’m still learning. I haven’t been weaving because we moved my floor loom into the garage as part of the house changes mid year and we haven’t sorted that out yet. My craftroom is being used as a bedroom. I was doing a lot of crochet and other craft until I gave myself RSI. It’s better now but I’m limiting myself to a row of Matthew’s blanket a night.
Front side of French Braid pattern.
Reverse side has a Maori inspired design
The pink quilt was for my sister. Both quilts used Jelly Rolls by Moda. The pink one had to be completely unpicked and re-sewn. It is an easy quilt in theory but YouTube tutorials don’t always give you all the technique
In progress shot
Also, while we didn’t garden this year due to renovation on the farm, I did manage to buy in tomatoes to make passata earlier in the month. A year’s supply and tomato ketchup too.
The results and the mess
There is more obviously to be grateful for. My grandkids and kids are safe. So are my family and friends as far as I know.
What’s changed though for me is my attitude to socialising. I also wonder will we ever be the same again. We went out for my son’s birthday to a restaurant, inside, with other people. First time in a long time and it felt transgressive. We had been socialising two on two on our deck or in cafe’s without outdoor seating until then. There is still so much COVID around. Then again, I’ve been at the pool recently and that’s just asking for it I suppose. However, I have prepaid and the pool have been very good all year stretching my visits out but once the government opens things up, the clock starts ticking again. I have such big lock down belly. I swear we drank two gins and ate three bags of chips a night in lock down. We also ate a lot of takeaways and chocolate. All my hard work in losing kilos. I got down to 65 kilos in July and I’ve put 10 back on. That’s not good for my health or knees. We are trying to get some kind of routine going, walking in the evenings, the pool and eating healthily. (I just ate dahl and a pork bun not sure how good that is).
Writing encompasses a number of tasks and projects and plans. As I manage my own ebooks on market places and do my own marketing, that’s all slid in a heap. Books are still selling here and there but I’ve not done anything much at all to help things along. The only thing I’ve managed is to do my BAS and my taxes. So when I start to think about writing, it’s not just the writing part, it’s the whole, newsletter and promotions as well. I’m totally out of the game and things change in one year…I wasn’t doing much before then either. Two years is a better estimate.
To get books published, I have to write them, revise them, get them edited etc. I have a couple that are getting close. To be honest they have been close for two years. One is a Dani Kristoff title, called The Changeling Curse, an ex rated paranormal fantasy. I received two beta reader comments on this and one lot of comments requires me to think. So that’s in the too hard basket. I have an editor lined up. Have had for a year. Next cab waiting is Awakenings which is a SF kind of romance. It was very much a romance but my beta reader (thanks Nicole) convinced me to ditch the sex scenes and concentrate on the SF side of things. That’s getting close to being sent out again to beta readers.
I started a kids book for NaNoWriMo in 2020. (I don’t think NaNoWriMo registered in 2021 with work and pandemic). I’ve been tinkering with that so I can finish the draft and send it out to beta readers.
These are only a fraction of what I have in the way of projects in progress or on the to be written list. But if I did happen to knuckle down I could achieve quite a bit. Having a backlog makes concentrating hard because you know…choice!
I hope I’m over this slump. I will try to blog again to update on my progress. I can’t say I’ll be the same as before because I don’t think I am or will be. Cheers from me and Matthew from our High Tea at the Hyatt last Monday. (Don’t know why he’s focussing on the glass!)
Sorry to be so absent. I’m buried in PhD land at the moment. I’m hoping to get a break from it next week, when I send this draft up the line. There will be other drafts, but not as rushed as this. My supervisor is going on long service leave so I have a deadline. Covid19 sent me into a bit of a tizz and I couldn’t focus and so on.
I’m behind on saying things. Black lives matter!
I’m experimenting with different methods of sourdough, which is fun.
I’m staying home as much as I can. I was going to go to Ikea on Sunday to check out kitchens and then rethought that move. It would be crowded and so I postponed.
My major sin this week is forgetting my older sister’s birthday. First time in my life!
Donna Maree Hanson, Author, Phd in Creative Writing 