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Posts Tagged ‘Nottingham’

I promised photos from the trip

Posted in A writer's life, am wrinting, Newsletters, Travel, UK, Warhammer, tagged , , , , on April 18, 2024| 2 Comments »

I feel like a slacker but I have been busy. There’s so much going on, so much to write about. We’ve been back six weeks. It feels like a short time and a long time. I’ve been back at the day job and writing.

Now writing doesn’t just mean writing. I’m doing a bit more than that and writing admin takes time. But the good news is that I’m getting there. My newsletter has been sadly neglected and I will end up losing most of my subscribers with the last one I sent out. But it’s my own fault because being a slacktard! Lesson-Don’t stop sending newsletters! Because you get restricted to only those who interact with your newsletter in the last 90 days.

Next thing is picking up subscriptions for Bookfunnel, setting up my store (in progress), reducing the price of Awakening to $0.99 USD (check out the link in my books) and then getting in various newsletters etc. I’d really like to write a sequel to this story but i’ve got no reviews and it’s not selling and I don’t know why. Mind you I don’t advertise but that’s crazy these days, particularly on Amazon.

What have I been working on? Sihem, now called The Founders’ Legacy has been revised, reworked and will go to the CSFG novel crit group next month. Meanwhile I’ll start trying to put it on submission. I’m also working on a kids’ fantasy, Grandma Neebs: Through the Pantry Door. I had some lovely and encouraging feedback on this book. This, too, I will put on submission. It’s middle grade and around 43,000 words. I have a couple of things in drafting stage. A paranormal romance that links into by two series, Spellbound in Sydney and The Cursed Ones. I am also writing something else for a new pen name. Plus there is a backlist of stuff that needs revising/restructuring etc. My next project will be Amber Rose, in the Cry Havoc Series. We shall meet with Jemina and Fulton yet again. This time they are up against evil machines. Meanwhile I’m rereading Ruby Heart and Emerald Fire to make notes for Amber Rose. I’m also picking up typos so will fix them soon. I’m thinking of doing a paperback version of these.

Now for the photos.

This is the River Trent, Nottingham, in flood. It rained a lot before we got to England and more while we were there and it was still raining when we got home. I thought the submerged bench spoke volumes.

While in Nottingham we took a day trip to Cromford and Buxton, because there were bookstores there. This is Scarthin in Cromford. Cute town too. Below is a pond and tree opposite the bookstore.

That’s me walking into Scrivener’s bookshop, Buxton. I’m wearing my very warm Macpac coat. It was a godsend. Pity I’d spent a lot of money in Scarthins.

My bad but I can’t remember which shop this was in. Forgive me, I’m getting old. Matthew will probably know as he has a functioning brain. Lol.

By the way, Buxton is a pretty town. Apparently, the Dukes of Devonshire was wanting to make it rival Bath so there is some amazing Regency architecture there. It is also very hilly so some great views. If only I could paint.

In Nottingham we visited Warhammer World twice. Matthew was trying to connect with his editor but we had no luck as his emails went to spam. However, we had fun. Bought stuff and went to look at the gallery. I’ve posted pictures from this before. Actually my most popular images in the life of my blog. It used to be free but now you pay a small amount. But it’s now huge and amazing. Here are some shots.

I took this shot of Angron, because it was cool, of course, and because Matthew wrote a story about Angron in After Desh’ea, appearing in Tales of Heresy. The final masterpiece was a huge room for one diorama featuring the attack on a planet.

I should mention we took my son and grandson to Warhammer shop in Singapore, Katong to be precise. My son has painted some awesome miniatures but then he’s artistic.

And finally for this set of photos, me with Marc Gascoigne at a restaurant in West Bridgeford, Nottingham. Matthew took the photo. I have no idea what Marc is doing. Oh well. We’ve known Marc a while and he first published Matthew when he headed up Black Library. It was great to see him again. The food was good too.

Of course, there are more photos and I’ll try to put more up over the coming weeks. We stayed in a delightful village outside of Lincoln. Now I’m using it in a story.

Next time!

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Currently in Nottingham

Posted in A writer's life, Climate, Travel, UK, United Kingdom, Warhammer, weather, tagged , , , , , on January 5, 2024| Leave a Comment »

There’s been a lot of rain hereabouts. Storm Gerrick while we were in Brighton and Storm Henk while we are in the north. The River Trent is in flood, but hopefully it has dropped from its peak last evening.

We are having a quiet, relaxing time with a few trips out. Matthew’s lovely cousins gave us the use of a room at the top of the house with an ensuite and we are cosy and warm. We sleep a lot but as I might have mentioned it is very dark here in the UK in Winter. Two hours less sunlight than Winter in Canberra. I did a bit of research. The flip side of that is that there is two hours more sunlight in summer in the UK than at home. I am very sunlight dependent I find. At home I’m awake with the dawn.

If we have something on I’m fine with being awake when it is dark, otherwise at 4pm I feel like it’s the middle of the night and I have this instinct to go hibernate. Weird. I can understand why some people get SAD in Winter.

So far we went to the Broadway cinema and watched a Filipino film called Raging Grace. It was a great film screened in a lounge with an eclectic mix of chairs. We had dinner in the cafe first. Then last night we had dinner with Marc at The Botanist restaurant a short walk from where we are staying. It was great to catch up after so many years. I saw Marc in 2019 but Matthew has not travelled since 2014 I think. It is hard when you really enjoy spending time with someone but you live so far apart. Anyway, we ate, we talked and were chucked out of the restaurant as it closed at ten. Hahahaha. We could have gone to the bar but it was late by then.

Yesterday we went for a walk. First to grab some brunch/lunch and then cousin Bob suggested we walk along the embankment next to the river which was in flood. We did do that walk but kept on going until we walked to Warhammmer World. We had a look around and a drink in Bugman’s Bar. I think we are heading there again today. We caught an Uber back though as it was more than 10,000 steps.

Otherwise today I’m not sure what we have planned. Maybe dinner in the pub across the road. As we were travelling in Winter we hadn’t really planned to do touristy stuff. We planned on hanging out getting to know our family and friends more and maybe write and walk etc. This is what we are doing so all good.

We hadn’t planned too much ahead but now I’ve booked some accommodation in South Shields, Newcastle on Tyne, within walking distance of the great, great, great grandfather’s house and other things so that’s kind of cool. Then we head to Edinburgh for a few days, a day in Lancaster to meet up with friends as we break our journey back to Hertfordshire.

Trent River in flood
A quick view of how fast the river is flowing.

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Highlights from my trip to UK and Ireland part one

Posted in A writer's life, Travel, UK, United Kingdom, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 16, 2019| Leave a Comment »

I was away for two and a half months. I cannot put all the photos I took on the trip here. Maybe if I had blogged the trip I could. Alas, I did not do that. I put most photos on Facebook over the period.

So without much blather about this and that, I’m going to put some photos up here. We were located in Saltdean for the first part, not far from Brighton. We did a short trip to York and Nottingham, as well as a few places around Sussex, such as Scotney Castle (Kent) and Tunbridge Wells, Charleston House (Bloomsbury set), Monk House in Redmell (Virginia Woolf’s house) and the Burlington Gap.

We’ve stayed in Saltdean before but had not explored the bridle paths behind the suburb. The weather as you can see was amazing and I believe that is linseed/linen growing behind me.

 

It was so peaceful walking in the bridle paths and it seemed like we were alone forever. Here are some views of the fields and to the sea. See the poppies growing wild? I love UK for the wildflowers.This was a short kind of wheat growing here.

A lovely shot of the linseed, looking across to the rear of Saltdean, not far from Telscome Tye (the common).

A look along the bridle path. If you don’t know what a bridle path is, it’s a public right of way through private lands brought about by the historic use of these paths for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. Some are just walking paths. This one you can ride horses.

This is a shot from Burlington Gap of the Seven Sisters. It is being eroded at a fast pace as the cliffs and most of the Southdowns are made of chalk with flint in it.

 

The next is a shot of my daughter and granddaughter as they went down the stairs to the beach. We had good tea and cake here in the cafe. The rocks are the flint from the chalk.

A view along the coast from our walk to Brighton Marina along the footpath.

Just to break the monotony of these gorgeous landscapes! This is the largest internal waterfall inside a mall at Singapore. The mall is attached by a walkway to the airport. We broke our journey from Canberra in Singapore and stayed at the Crowne Plaza. We were totally spoiled and hung out at the pool. Sadly just one night.

A few local places we went to next.

A very old pub in Alfriston, the George Inn, where they serve the most amazing Welsh Rarebit. And next, Monk House in Rodmell Village, Virginia Woolf’s own room.

A bust of Virginia Woolf that was at Charleston cottage and Monk House.

A short trip to York, which was so great. Our apartment was right in York, near the river. We thoroughly recommend Jorvik and we also saw another place, Barley Hall. Here is me in a kids’ dress up.

Here is me at the York Assembly Rooms, which is an Ask restaurant. Ask is very similar to Zizzi’s so not overly expensive.

Here is the obligatory shot of the Shambles in York.

Two shots of Scotney Castle, near Tunbridge Wells. My second visit. This is an iconic shot of the ruins.

Scotney has a Victorian house and then the old castle was ruined to make a folly. This is a view from the front of the house down through the amazing gardens.

Nottingham. I don’t seem to have a lot of photos from Nottingham. I did a tour of the caves under the mall. My daughter got claustrophobia and couldn’t do it. This was my second visit. The tour guide was great.  The photo is from the caves, which contain the oldest tannery, from about the 12C or something. Nottingham was visiting friends and family and a spot of shopping.

After leaving Nottingham we went to Southwell for the morning. There is a cathedral there, a minster actually and it is said the least well known. We fell in love with this village. So quaint and lovely.

The Southwell cathedral is famous for a gargoyle that looks like Donald Trump.

There are a few walks around Southwell, one that takes you to one of Lord Byron’s houses.

Near Southwell, actually within walking distance, is the first workhouse. In later years it was for assisted housing, but this workhouse served as a model for others. It was seen as a way to save money in looking after the poor.

 

These are some of the highlights. Part Two will have to be Cornwall, Lyme Regis and a few great houses.

See you later for the next instalment.

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