Love Is All Around

Well it is the week of St Valentine’s Day? 

Hope you had a warm day, in your heart if not in reality.  Don’t know about where you were, but it was freezing here.

Anyway, the theme of my week does seem to have been love.  Not all heats and flowers, of course, but love all the same.   Though in all honesty, there was a bit of the hearts and flowers.  Not only was it the week of St V’s, it was also the week of my husband’s birthday, but it’s only today that his present arrived.  Better late than never.

I’ve loving the way my life is at the moment.  Despite the fact that I’m changing jobs when the month changes I’m still enjoying the work-life balance that I’ve found since I was made redundant last year.  Before work, the nine to five kind not the scribbling kind, used to intrude on my time off.  That happens now if I have a particular deadline is looming, but so far it’s been four evenings in five and a half months.  Other than that, I’ve been getting back to writing which brings me back to my theme.

There is more romance in my writing this week.  One of my resolutions this year to to write another romance, and I’ve been working on that this week.  Got a good few scenes down on paper and thought up a couple more, it’s really going well.

One other item on the theme is that, strange and sad as I can be, I enjoy cross stitch and have been working on a large panel piece.  Truth be told I’ve been working on it for about four years and I’m only about a quarter of the way through it, but mostly because other things have been getting in the way.  But given the work life balance thing, I’ve been giving one hour a day to it and I’m seeing some real progress on it.

It’s a difference I’m comfortable with, it’s the annoying advise that I used to get when I was a kid.  A little and often.  Keeps the mind alive and active.

Well, got scenes to write, so bye for now.

What's in a Title?

Well actually, quite a lot.  In the office, it’s all about status, position and power.  In the literary words it’s the hook to bring a reader in.

And titles in both areas have been absorbing my time this week.

I’m currently working as a temp, my job title ends is “Analyst”, and on Monday I had an interview for another job, a one year fixed term contract, but that’s more security than I have right now.  On Thursday I was offered the job.  I accepted of course.  It’s not a writing job, but the mantra of mortgage two kids comes up, and there are still bills to pay.  And a job is a job, right.  This one is Investment Strategist, good title huh?  Sounds impressive than Analyst too.

On the writing side, I have been making in roads into the romance story I’ve promised myself to complete this year, and I have submitted two more short stories to competitions.  So I’ve kept up with three of my new year’s resolutions, which isn’t bad.  On the way with another one – reading WM every month, but though it arrived last week, I’ve barely read a page because of the distractions else where.

The pain with the submission of the competition is the difficultly I had finding a title for one of the entries.  The remit was a short story which opens with dialogue of no more than one sentence.

So I wrote the story last month, was happy with it, except for the title. Just couldn’t think of one.  At all.

Titles matter.  And not only in the jobs market.  So I’ve spent some hours trying to come up with a title on this latest entry, and all to no avail.  Been through every synonym I could find for dialogue and gunman to see if there was anything jumped out at me, but really struggled to find something that felt right. Today I had to find the right title, and I had to do it quickly as I wanted to get the submission in.  So I ran several options passed my husband, he didn’t like any of them.  Finally I gave a three word title, and the enthusiastic response was “yeah, that’ll do”.  Not the greatest praise ever, but workable.  It was certainly the best title I could come up with and it’s the one I used.  So fingers crossed it hooks the judges in.

See you soon.

Red All Over

Last week was all white, this weeks been more red.

Red to match the colour of my streaming eyes, over wiped nose and the frightening colour at the back of my throat.  After swimming and geocaching last Sunday, the cold that had been niggling but not developing for months, decided to descend with a vengeance.

           

Having been made redundant in July, I’m now a temp and despite the changes in the law, I still think of it as, if I don’t work, I don’t get paid.    Therefore, despite being ill, I worked all day every day this week.  To add to the misery, I couldn’t sleep well because I couldn’t breathe properly.  So I’ve pretty much been exhausted all the time,and by the time I got home from work, I couldn’t see the laptop screen in focus and my concentration was shot.  So there hasn’t been much going on writing wise this week, I’ve barely written a word. 

I even had to renege on my promise to my daughter to take her to see “Les Miserables” at the cinema because, frankly I’ve had no energy to sit through three hours of a film.

Thankfully, I haven’t missed any competition deadlines, so no major losses.

In fact the only thing that hasn't be 'red' is any book, though I did have a £10 voucher from Waterstones, so I did treat myself this week to "Death Comes To Pemberly" by PD James and "Belfast Confidential" from Colin Bateman.  I'm likely to start on the PD James when my head is back in place, but tonight I've got a job interview to prepare for.

Well, that’s it, short and not very sweet, but there it is.  See you next week.

All White

Well this week has been dominated by the colour white.  Mostly from the snow that blanketed us here in Wales.  To be honest I was beginning to think this week’s blog was going to be nothing but a white page too. 

One day was so bad with the snow that I had to work from home, no getting my little car out in that.  But like a lot of conscientious people that actually meant I ended up working more than my allotted hours.  But it was a couple of days later that was the  much more interesting, that day I had to drive to another of the companies offices in one of the Welsh valleys,  it was raining when I left home and then  as I travelled up the valley, gaining altitude, things got worse.  Things were getting a little, well, interesting, then I reached a stretch of road, I can only describe as a roller coaster, big dip, then a climb.  I made it about three quarters of the way up the incline, only to have the police turn me around having closed the higher section of road because it was too dangerous to pass. The return trip was actually harder than the outwards one because by that time the snow storm had returned and I was driving in near blizzard conditions.  I'd been able to drive in the 20s going up coming back it was 10 to 15 mph.

This doesn't sound like much of a blog about writing but it actually is.  I've been reading a lot about show not tell so while I was driving I also took a mental image of how I felt during the drive. What did I feel about being in a car in that weather;  what were my physical reactions to the effort of driving; how did I feel when I saw 4x4s over take me; what did I think when non 4x4s started having trouble in front of me; and why oh why did the guy behind have to drive quite so close to my back bumper?

All valuable knowledge if I ever have to write a scene of someone driving in bad snow.

More generally, I've lost the way with the romance I started this year, but I did write a completely separate scene which looks like it'll turn into chapter one of a book.  Unusually for me, this one, while still a romance has twisted into a bit of a fantasy tale with hidden truths which could go a number of ways so I'll just have to see where what happens.

I worked on the Pride and Prejudice update for that competition I thought I’d missed.  And I hated it - derivative drivel.  I still have two weeks to try again but it's not looking good.

Anyway, a million things to be getting on with, so I have to go.  Thanks for reading.

Technical Trouble

It’s been a very busy week, loads to do and loads done.  I’ve caught up with a lot of typing, a story that I wrote on holiday in August 2012.  Well the start of a story anyway, I’ve still some research to do before I can finish it.

            This week I’ve read a whole book, which doesn’t sound like much, but for the last few months I’ve not been about to settle on anything, I’ve about four books on the go, a Stephen Leather, an Ian Rankin, a Zoe Sharp, and a couple of others that just haven’t caught my imagination enough for me to get into reading them.  I’ve worked on a couple of shorts.  I’ve also been loosing time to geocaching and swimming, both in an effort to be more active and lose weight.  And in an effort to secure a work life, I’ve been applying for jobs.

            It was the applying for a job that gave me a little bit of a panic attack this morning, and the technical trouble. 

            Just before Christmas I brought OfficeSuite Pro for my Android phone.  This means that I can write
and edit while out and about without having to take my laptop.  Now my laptop’s great, but it’s a 17 inch screen with a full numeric keyboard. Great laptop, works well, does everything I need it to do, couldn’t be happier with it.  Until I actually have to pick it up and be mobile with it.  It quickly becomes heavy and awkward.

            When I brought the OfficeSuite, I stumbled over a great little gadget.  I have a Samsung Galaxy and the gadget I brought is a 4 in 1 Connection Kit, so I can connect my phone to a standard UBS or various SD cards.

            This means I can keep all my files on a memory stick and update them anywhere.  Great.  The bits arrived, they were all compatible and they all work together.  Fantastic.  Proud of this, I went home, told my husband who kindly pointed out that I could use Google Drive, then I wouldn’t need the gadgetry.

            There was a little grumbling about telling me sooner and my not mentioning it before.

            I gave the Google drive a go and it’s been great.  I do stuff at home on the laptop then I put it on the drive and can pick it up on my phone to edit at work in my lunch hour.

            Thing is, this use has been limited to open, amend, save, close and pick up somewhere else.

            So last night I completed the job application and saved it to Google Drive so I could pick it up in work and email it to the to the HR department.  It’s an internal vacancy obviously.

            But here’s the thing.  The company I work for is very security conscious and had restricted access to certain sites.  Yeah, you guessed it.  Google mail and therefore Drive, is one of them, except certain unrestricted PCs, but mine isn’t one.

            The application had to be in by noon, so I thought, no problem.  I’ll go to my phone and email from there.  But the weird thing is, I couldn’t find a way, either from OfficeSuite or my email to send a document.  So there I was, deadline looming and no access to the file.

            That’s when I remembered the 4-in-1 was still in bag.  So a bit of rummaging on my pantechnicon of a handbag, and found the converter and a memory stick and was, thankfully, able to transfer to the PC and from there email to HR.

            The second panic attach came when I thought, oh no, it’s the 16^th!  I was sure the competition I want to enter ends on the 15^th.  Oh bottoms (well okay that wasn’t quite the thought, but I can’t put what I really thought) I’ve missed it.

            But I had to be sure.

            Again because of the restrictions on what sites can be entered, I didn’t try to go through the works internet, and instead connected via my phone.  The competition does end on the 15^th, thankfully the 15^th February, so I have a couple more weeks to get things done.  Phew!

New Year New Resolve

And I'm not talking about the hang over cure, which I could probably do with getting some in just in case.

Like a lot of people at this time of year I have made a number of resolutions. I'm not going to go on about weight loss, though yes that's one, but I am going to tell you about my writing resolutions.  I made six:

1. Enter at least one writing competition a month
2. Get a second book on-line
3. Read each Writing Magazine (hereafter referred to as WM) issue fully
4. Complete one romance novel this year (separate from and in addition to all other work)
5. Write / update my blog at least weekly.

Okay, before you start screaming, I know that's only five and I said there were six, but I'll tell you about 6 later.

So far resolution 1 is achieved for this month.  I submitted an entry to a WM for a competition where the opening line was given.  I'm nearly there with a submission I have to make by post and I've found a couple more competitions I want to work on.

Have come across another competition for female authors which is a bit sexist, but since it's in my favour I'm considering entering all the same.  I'm not sure if I should go for the "noir moderne" I've done, or a fluffier, more romantic, feminine piece.  Not going to enter two pieces as the fee is quite high. Need to think about that one.

I've nearly finished this months WM. I'm making reasonable progress on the romance and this update gets my blog done for the week.  All good news so far.
Resolution 2 may be the hardest one to keep.  I really want to do this but negatives from previous experience are leading to self doubt.  If I could afford editorial services I'd go that route and worry less, but on a temping contract that's about to run out I need to be highly cautious when it comes to expenditure right now.  Either that or I need to be a lot less cautious about my writing talent.

Finally to resolution 6. This one was to re-write a series I’ve started about a character called Autumn Raine, a private investigator bumbling around Swansea.  When I made the resolutions, I thought that this would be relatively easy.  But since making that decision so few days ago, I’ve wondered if it even works.  The stories are all written in first person, which is not my usual thing, generally I write third person. But three literary agents have rejected the manuscript saying that it was telling not showing, hence the re-write.  But now I’ve been thinking that I could blog it instead.  Want to look more into the mechanics of that, be certain that I can in fact do the conversion before I try it.  So while, I will re-write it, it may not be the book I originally intended.  Best laid plans and all that.

Well now that I’ve done this, I need to go and get on with work on other resolutions.

Ta-ta for now.

Four Days Three Pens.

            Hope you had a good new year and the only hangovers were good memories.  I didn’t stay up to see the new year in on account my husband was on a day shift on the first so was up at ungodly o’clock (04:30), we did hear the fireworks though, sounded like we’d moved to Gaza there were so many bangs, you’d think we were under attack from mortar fire.

            Well, anyway, one of my Christmas Presents this year was a subscription to Writing Magazine, and February’s issue arrived today, haven’t had time to open it yet, that's next on the agenda after I've published this blog.

            Since last I wrote, I’ve written a second story for a competition where the first line was given.  I enjoyed the story and do like it, but my test audience, yes I do mean the long suffering husband, tells me that the first story is the better one, so that’s the one I’m putting in.  Both shorts were about Mc and Mac.  The competition closes on the 14^th, so I’ll be uploading that over the weekend probably.

            The timetable of competitions has come on well enough, though I’m not sure I’ll keep up with all of them, but I’ll give it a go.  I put it into Excel, rather than Access, in the real world I tend to design databases, so Access is usually my first choice, but this time I just went for the instant results of an Excel.

            Have got up to chapter five of the new romance novel, have in fact, managed to run three pens out in the writing so far.  I don’t know what method other people use for writing, but me, I start with putting it down in long hand, then I edit as I type up the first time, then I read and edit and edit and read and so on until I think the story is ready.  I haven’t found a title for this one yet, still I guess that will come in time, at least I hope so.  Still looking for a title for the last romance I wrote, thinking that MisDial might work, but not sure. 

Will keep blogging, write to you soon.