Excuses excuses!

So why haven't I written on my blog recently...? Well I have a myriad of excuses - in fact the amount even impressed me! ;-) Truthfully I've been working - not just my City job but all my home jobs too - anyone who knows me will testify that I have a difficulty in saying 'no' - so when that telephone rings and I'm asked to tutor a pre-school Christmas craft group I say... 'of course, love to!' I then, thirty seconds later think 'oh crap!' and spend hours lesson planning, making crackers out of toilet roll middles and finding Pritt Stick in places where it really shouldn't be... you get my gist. I love it really, their cherubic faces light up when I open my box of goodies and I feel as popular as Santa - well for a short time anyway.

Which leads me on to the subject of Christmas ... do you love it or hate it? I adore it - I get silly excited from the end of November and begin to plan the tree, the outside lights (the VT (Victorian Terrace) has never looked so glam!) Much to the annoyance of my sons I start playing Christmas CDs in the car and I get a real thrill out of wrapping the gifts and popping them under the tree (even if Darcy cat has taken to chewing them to the point that they look shredded!)

Which leads me on to the subject of Darcy cat ... and another reason I haven't been writing .. just cannot reach the keyboard... see photo! :-) xx

House-Sitting, Hamster and Heating!

On average three times a year I give up my little Victorian terrace (VT) to house-sit for my sister in the country. I find myself 'discombobulated' - (a word an American friend of mine uses frequently - basically 'confused' and 'out of sorts'). After a day or two I settle but for a Victorian terrace gal this sprawling place in the country is (a) dark, (b) too quiet and (c) not near any shops! Each day I drive back home to check on my little menagerie which is where I discovered Harriet (the hamster) had curled up and died alone - silly I know to get so sentimental but then I discovered my central heating had stopped working so I taunted myself that she'd died curled up, alone and cold! I gave her a fitting little burial (the cat watched on suspiciously!) and vowed that was the very last little rodent pet I would own - I mean my sons are teenagers now!

So in the midst of all this how is my writing going? Badly is the best answer - I take a laptop to the country house but it's just not the same - it's far too 'tippy tappy' - my words do not have 'oomph' - to write, I need to bash my keyboard - (unsure what should be read into that!) I do have a plan - come Monday morning I shall be back in my VT, back in my routine and more importantly back to my beloved keyboard :-)

Headfirst - Sylvia Fletcher

I got up extra early to deliberate my outfit today - I am going to a book launch this evening. A very good friend of mine (she is also part of my writers' group that meets monthly) has written a wonderful book - Headfirst - 'A glorious amalgam of her couture millenary poems & prose'. The launch is at the shop where she works Lock & Co - Hatters of St James's, a building erected in the 1700's. Amazingly this shop still stands albeit the floors are at alarming angles and it most definitely helps if you're only 4' tall! We are promised champagne and cup cakes. It is all so very delightful but it did make me ponder... her venue is perfect - it obviously suits the subject matter of her book, it is also in a grand part of London. If I were to ever get to that wonderful 'launch party' stage what would I do? I live in Gravesend - (yes it is as dire as it sounds) my subject matter is disastrous dating - what sort of venue ideas does that conjure up? Grotty pub, Lambrusco and tepid doner kebabs perhaps! Oh I do hope not!! ;-)

Re-read or not to re-read and tweaking!?

I find myself posed with this problem daily - when I have written say 2000 words a little imaginary road block pops into my head and it says 'just go back over that, re-read it, tweak it' and then the next couple of hours I hone, improve and all but manicure my words into perfection. And then I feel lost, my plot plan is buried and I've deviated once again. Momentum has ground to a halt. I make a cup of tea and what do I do? ... I re-read it all again and think 'wow I bet I could shape that into a super short story'! :-)

Lists and the one item that never gets ticked off!

For my sins I'm far too organised - I write lists for everything, I get a buzz from ticking items off, a thrill from re-writing yet another list and I awake each day to a list entitled 'Today' (meticulously prepared the night before!) For the last few years there is one thing I cannot tick off my list 'finish novel' - those two words get transferred onto a new list every single day - the day I strike it through I will use my golden gel pen in pure celebration! But today I do not feel quite so guilty - I glance at those two words and smile because I've taken a step closer to actually finishing my novel - I've joined Novel Racers and now I am responsible for writing and making sure those thousands of words count - the golden gel pen is shivering in anticipation! ;-)

Suspenders!

Picture the scene - nine women working in an open plan City office, chattering, gossiping, making tea (or lack of it in my case!) It is not unsurprising that when we all stroll back to our desks after lunch if one of us is carrying a shop bag brandishing 'Next', 'Monsoon', 'Marks & Spencer' we are all but frisked to see what the purchases are! Today one such lady was 'frisked'! With a cheeky smile she held aloft a black lacy suspender belt. Now the responses SHOULD have been 'have fun' or 'enjoy' all said with a salacious wink - instead the responses WERE 'that's not going to be comfy', 'a woman wouldn't have designed that', 'couldn't keep one on all day' - oh dear! Does this mean we do not make the effort to be sexy? We're forgetting to embrace our femininity? Well I refuse to be down hearted because I actually think we do and I certainly work with a lady who is putting lots of effort into keeping the female race sexy! Go girl! ;-)