Time Out and a Submission

Hello everyone!

It's been several weeks since I was here so, sorry about that, but I've come to realise that sometimes life just gets in the way of all our plans and that just has to be accepted, mostly by me. I'm getting better at that, but that isn't to say I don't still find it frustrating when health and stuff gets the upper hand for a while.

Still! I haven't been totally resting on my laurels - although resting was something that took up a few weeks, unfortunately. Firstly, I'd been having some pain and numbness in my hands and knew this as a sign than I needed a trip to the osteopath. True to form, there were some pretty big knots that had built up and so a fair amount of squashing, twisting and crunching went on.

I usually feel a bit off for a couple of days after these sessions but this one was particularly bad and I was pretty ill for about a week. Just as I was picking up from that, my ankle decided it was time to have one of the worst flare ups it has ever done. Perfect timing. Just as we book a real holiday for the first time in nine years, I can't even walk on it! There was nothing to do but rest it as totally as I could in the hope that it'd be ok in time for the trip. I was so stressed as it was so bad, we really were unsure as to whether we would be able to go. The holiday involved a certain amount of walking and hopping on and off trains, so crutches wasn't exactly an option.

Long story short, a perfectly timed check up with my surgeon meant that he was able to whack a steroid injection in to help settle it in time. I'm not a big 'trainers as fashion' girl but I could get my ankle supports in my boots so with a bit of fudging about, as much resting as possible, and a stock of painkillers, we were ready to go!

 

The flower garlands we were greeted with

 

Finally at the top after five hours on the UNESCO 'Toy Train' from Kalka to Shimla

 

Last time we visited here, it was dazzling in midday sun. The sunset visit this was just as amazing

 

The incredible sight of the Palace of the Winds, Jaipur

 

We took the trip through Great Rail Journeys and whilst it was great to visit, and sometimes for us, revisit the sights of India, the schedule was pretty full on. I'd taken my writing pad for any ideas and scribbles on our days off, and a journal to record thoughts in, but I only got a few days journaling in and never even got to look at the pad! It was literally up, breakfast, trip, dinner, bed. And there were some very early starts (4.50am in the foyer, anyone?!). Hence, very little inspirational writing took place.

 

On the other hand, I did have a couple of ideas and one of which was to twiddle and then send off a short story that I'd had written for ages as part of the Writers Bureau Course - an assignment I still haven't finished. Oops. And guess what, I actually did it! Off it tootled in an email. Whether anything comes of it, who knows, but at least I have tried. Short story writing isn't something I've done a lot of at all so I'd be over the moon if it did get published!

 

And whilst time to ourselves was very short, and brain and body was generally too exhausted to even think of picking up a pen, I've stored all the sights, sounds, and yes, smells (!) away for reference purposes in the future. That's the good thing about being a writer, no experience, big or small, is ever wasted.

 

I hope all of your projects are coming along well, and good luck to anyone tackling NaNoWriMo this month!

 

Happy writing!

 



Picking An Idea

I currently have several ideas bubbling around in my head. I spend time just staring into space, turning over story arcs, character possibilities, time periods, and imaginary locations. Of course, whilst we all know I am 'working', to others it does indeed just look like I'm staring into space! The trials of a writing life...

But my question is, when you have various ideas pulling at your brain, which one do you go with? How do you choose? Should you always finish something else before you start to write the new idea that is bouncing off the inside of your cranium? And yes, I realise that was several questions and not just one. Sorry.

I'm in the above situation now. I have one novel that is fairly complete in a First Draft (Very Rough) way. Should I continue on bashing that one into shape and put this entirely to the back of my mind or should I get this one spilled out onto paper (or screen) asap, or perhaps a mixture of both? The 'idea' at the moment is set a little after the Second World War. I wasn't around then, my parents were tots and I don't have grandparents to ask so I have a fair bit of research to do when it comes to getting the setting right on that. So I have been thinking that perhaps I could work on the research of that one, and when it's writing time, save that for the 'official' WIP.

Any ideas? How do you handle these dilemmas?

Happy Writing!

A Reading Suggestion

I've just finished reading a really interesting book called The Housekeepers' Tale by Tessa Boase, and I wanted to pass on the recommendation to read it.

The book takes five different housekeepers, of varying periods and tells of their lives below stairs, the sometimes complicated relationships between them and their employers and what happened to them if they fell foul of these employers. It really shines a light on how hard their work could be, especially when hired as a cook slash housekeeper, which wasn't uncommon when the gentry were trying to tighten their belts. What surprised me is the age that many of these women worked until - and no extra consideration apparently thought of with their age in mind. Yet many of these women continued to work for the house for decades, even though they may note their frustrations in their private diary. It is easy to see how servants could be almost institutionalised within the walls of the house when you think that they lived in, working often seven days a week, with time off only for church attendance, and perhaps one afternoon a week. With the ease of travel today, it is easy to forget how limited movement was the servants of these great houses, which were often situated miles from towns.

I was especially interested to read of one of the housekeepers of Uppark. We know more of Sarah, this housekeeper, perhaps because she was mother to H G Wells. This grand house is now in the hands of the National Trust, and one we visited several years ago. It has a run of underground tunnels, lit by skylights, for the servants to go about the house without the fear of bumping into one of the family. It was chilly the day we went and the tunnels felt a little dank, despite the light streaming down. A great fire tore through the house in 1989, destroying much, but the 'below stairs' area was pretty much untouched, with thoughts that the dampness of the area made it much harder for the fire to gain any ground here. And yet this was where people lived and worked every day - it makes you wonder for their health, both physical and mental. Having read this book, I am now keen to go and revisit the house with this extra insight into Sarah's life.

This book was a gift, and I think it is always wonderful to be given a book that you then thoroughly enjoy. I am a lover of visiting these great houses, so it was intriguing to read about the people who haven't got their paintings on the wall, (for the most part - some families had a quirky tradition of having some of their staff painted), and how a life could depend on the whim of a mistress.

I really recommend this book. It is an enjoyable, and interesting read. My only quibble was that the author did occasionally drop in her 'imaginings' of what the housekeepers were thinking, etc, but it was only on occasion and not enough to ruin the book by any means. Should you be writing any sort of historical novel, I think this would be a great read to get a information and a feel for how servants were treated, and also an insight into the lives of those employing such staff. The trials and tribulations of trying to find a good housekeeper are in fact illustrated in one of the chapters.

If you do get a chance to buy or borrow this book from the library, I do hope you enjoy it and I'd love to hear your opinion on it.

Happy writing!

Pondering and Procrastinating

These two could probably be one and the same thing, albeit not intentionally. But when it comes down to it, I still haven't got any further with sending my latest finished novel off to anyone to take a look at, and immediately get into a huge bidding war with several publishers vying for my literary affections. Ok, so not exactly, but we all have to dream a little (lot?), don't we?

I had all good intentions of sending it off a couple of a month's ago, heading out to the most local Waterstones to snap up a copy of the recently released Writers' and Artists' Yearbook 2015 with the plan to look up a couple of direct publishers, to see what I could glean about them. I also wanted to take a look at which agents might be looking for novels in my genre. I was a little surprised therefore, not to find the original publisher I was thinking about listed. I wasn't too worried about this but still thought I'd like to take a look at some agents' listings before I made my final decision. And this is where things rather stalled.

I had all good intentions of doing this but I just haven't got around to it. There always seems to be something else to do - helping out my parents with a few things, something I always want to do as they have done so much for us in the past, and continue to do so, it feels good to be able to repay the favours whenever we can. We also had a friend being deployed so wanted to get together with them, before he flew off, dealing with some ongoing health issues and just the day to day, ins and outs of this thing called life.

I know that people say you have to just sit down and write and I know that - and I try and do that as much as possible. The health issues mentioned mean I rarely have as much energy as I could really do with to get everything I need to done. Some things have to get sacrificed. It took me a long time to realise that, and it's still hard and I don't always get it right but the important thing is to try. And try I will. I have to admit, the thought of traipsing metaphorically around the agent list once more doesn't exactly fill me with glee. I remember all those rejections last time. Although, I do take heart in that quite a few of them did have hand written notes on them saying nice things.

This weekend is a bit crazy, as it's Air Show season in the world of UK aviation and Advance Helicopters will be exhibiting at our home base of Shoreham. Feel free to cross fingers, toes, eyes and legs for good weather as it really helps bring out the crowds (the good weather, not the eye crossing!) and proceeds go to a great cause.

After that, amongst everything else on my ever growing To Do list is to sit and go through the yearbook and make a note of any agents who deal in my genre. I suppose, in the back of my mind, there is a nagging doubt of 'is it worth it', when all we hear is about tv 'celebs' being asked to write books whilst those of us who don't have such connections or fame are lying untouched in an email slush pile somewhere. Or am I being too cynical?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the above and any tips you may have? It's quite a few years since I sent fiction out to do the rounds so I'm grateful for any helpful suggestions!

Happy writing!

Could New 'Snooping' Law Cause Trouble For Writers?

News of a controversial new 'snooping' law the Government is trying to introduce in Britain has caused upset amongst some who feel this is too much of an invasion of privacy. The law will give the police and MI5 the power to read peoples' email and tap into phone conversations. This new law is a reaction to the unrest in the Middle East and the threat of terrorism on home soil.

Personally, I'm not bothered. In the same way that I'm not against the many CCTV cameras that span our towns and cities. These have proved themselves in the past to be of use in providing evidence in crimes and really came into their own with the London Bombings in 2005. My view is that if I'm not doing anything wrong, then I've nothing to worry about. This goes for the emails and phone too. Perhaps that's a little naive but if someone wants to listen in on how well my tomatoes are doing, then so be it. I know this isn't the view of everyone, and that's fair enough. But I do have one slight niggle...

What happens if they look at browser history? I, like many other writers, use the internet as a research tool. And sometimes I'm researching how a person could commit a crime of some sort; if they did so and so, would forensics be able to track them? What is the least traceable poison? Looking at a writer's browsing history could give a very false impression of the kind of person they are! Let's hope the powers that be have allowance for us creative types.

Happy writing!

Finally!

At last! The final edit is done. It's definitely taken longer than planned due to a few other factors, but isn't that always the way with life?

As it is, it's done. I'm just letting it sit now for a few days when I'll go back through once more and just check that I've got the layout right. And then comes the scary bit - sending it out into the big wide world.

After that, there's not too much I can do but live in hope.


Wish me luck!

Nearly There!

Yes, I am still editing the novel. You may remember in my last post that my 'first reader' - also known as hubby, was now doing his thing and finding all the mistakes. Well, that plan which worked pretty well in the past now no longer really fits.

Once upon a time, hubby worked in London and had an hour's commute on the train. This allowed time for a kip on the way up and any reading I needed him to do on the way home. These days he no longer works in London and so doesn't have that commute. He also runs his own business which means that work doesn't stop at the door. So, whilst he did try and do some, it was pretty obvious that it wasn't going to be the ideal set up.

After some pondering, I took over the job and once more am going back through the novel trying to winkle out typos and 'am-I-entirely-sure-that-makes-sense' moments. I'm nearly there. Probably about 30% left to go through, according the Mr Kindle.

I downloaded (uploaded?) the manuscript as a pdf onto the Kindle to make it nice and transportable, initially for hubs, but it worked pretty well for me too. I have to admit it's a bit fiddly noting down the sentence and what it needs to be changed to in the accompanying notebook but I'll see how it goes when I get to the transcribing part. I'll let you know! 

So, no great news but I thought I'd just give you an update on things. I'm itching to finish now but almost dreading it too because then it comes to the point where it has to go out into the big old world on its own and possibly get maimed by editors. But what can you do? I suppose that's all part of the process. And I know that. And I know that people like John Grisham and JK Rowling were turned out a tonne of times, just as most of us have been, but it doesn't make it any easier or less painful, if we're being honest!

I'll be back - hopefully soon - to say I'm finished!

I hope everyone else's projects are going well in the meantime and wish you lots of luck if you're in the sending out stage already!

Keep writing!