Flaming June or flaming tempers?

It's June, and the start of Summer, so what have I been up to?

Well, our two sons are slap bang in the middle of (a) a PGCE and (b) first year Chartered Accountancy exams.  Both difficult and demanding courses.  

Revising, marking, early starts, late nights, short tempers and the banging of doors were becoming all too frequent.  

No more, we said. Us oldies can’t cope. So - luckily, and just in time to save our sanity - DH had a course to attend, so I went with him.  

And we had a great old time. In-between dodging the army of cleaners who insisted on battering down the bedroom door, even though I’d clearly hung the DO NOT DISTURB  sign on the outside - three days in Bristol had me typing THE END on the WIP.  

Fantastic.

We then went to Bath for a couple of days, where we chilled in the sunshine, lingered on the Georgian streets, and drank and ate delicious food. We almost felt revitalised, until the journey home.

We’d seen a bit of traffic on the way down to Bristol but thought nothing of it. On the way back, the same journey took six hours.  Six hours to travel 200 miles!  Apparently, replacing the whole of the M6 central reservation is going to take until 2018, so because of that, we crawled, we stopped, we crawled, we stopped, and I’ll tell you right now, we never deviated from that pattern.

What is amazing though - is what you notice when you’re crawling along with the windows down.  Ignore the diesel fumes wafting in your face - if you need an idea for a book - then a motorway - I promise you - is the place to find it. 

We saw bikers with horns and dreadlocks. Bikers with rucksacks so large (on their backs), they drove leaning over. 

Lane-hoppers. You know - the people who perpetually try to save a millisecond of time. Why can’t they stay put? 

A barbecue disguised as a steam train - yes, really - and more to the point, where on earth was it going? Caravans that you couldn’t possibly stand up in.  Or swing the proverbial cat in. Mmm.

What else? Loud music, of course. A man playing a game on a console whilst driving. A horrid two-tone car (apologies if that was yours) that reminded me of the trousers I wore in the seventies, and lanes so narrow we could honestly see the whites of the eyes of the passengers alongside us. Scary. 

DH had a whale of a time. Two of his favourite pastimes are looking at registration numbers and grumbling about other cars, so he was in his element.

  

Me?  Well, I couldn’t wait to get home. We’d had a lovely five days, and peace and quiet is all very well - but only in small doses. Despite what I say, we’d missed the two bread-snatchers. 

And from the state of the fridge, I think they’d missed us. 

Until next time.

Kim x

Living the life of Riley

So - here we are - almost the middle of May.  

It’s been a month since I’ve blogged so I thought I’d better get cracking.

When I changed my working week from three days to two in March, I was determined to leave Wednesdays free.  Wednesday was going to be my writing day and nothing else.  No housework, or gardening.  No popping out for a latte or two with a friend.  No visiting a nearby garden centre browsing the plants with my sister, and then having a delicious lunch afterwards. No swanning off to get my nails or hair done.  No enjoying a pub lunch with DH who just happened to have swapped his working day that week.

You can guess what I’m going to say, can’t you?  All those things have happened.  And not all of them have been my fault (well, some have). But what on earth’s going on with your writing - I hear you say?  What’s happened to you sitting down - laptop in hand - with your nose to the grindstone and finishing your ms?

Mmm. Well - I'm ashamed to say - it’s gone by the by - completely kaput! So - from now on things will be different. After all, the whole point of giving up a day for writing purposes was to do just that. Write. There will be no more of this gallivanting here, there and everywhere.  I don’t even care if I sit in my jim-jams all day.  I’m going to finish this story. And until that's done, I can't think about the next one.  Well - I can - and I have - but you know what I mean!

What I’ve just realised - you see - is that I’ve forgotten to factor in my holiday. As you all know manuscripts have to be submitted to the NWS by the end of August, so this gives me - what - ten weeks?  Oh, and we mustn't forget the extra little break we’ve booked the week after next.

Heck.

I’ll do it - I know I will.  After all - I’ve never submitted a partial yet, and I don’t intend to start now.  The ms will be finished.  For definite. 

Until next time.

Kim x

My blog ain't real - apparently.

I read yesterday on Twitter that a 'real' blogger needs to blog at least once a week, otherwise it is not a blog.  Oh dear.  The fact that I only blog once a month - if that - and hardly ever make that weekly target probably means that this applies to me.  Okay, I'll admit it.  I'm pretty darn useless at it.   The fact that I also talk about the weather in most of my blogs is another matter to consider.  Note to self: -  must try harder.

The truth is - blogging is hard work.  But then so is writing.  It's like pulling teeth at times - and especially at the moment.  I'm some 30,000 words into my second novel - A Baby for the Barrister - and it's not flowing well, believe me. I'm filling in the gaps - trying to expand my story - and it's hurting my brain.

But that aside, as I sit and write this on the 29 March 2016 it's snowing.  Yes, snowing. The problem is that, later today, DH and eldest son need to travel over to the airport  to collect my son's girlfriend who's been visiting her family in Lithuania.  News filtering through from the Baltic States is that it's been unseasonably warm over there this Easter.  So warm - in fact - that on Easter Sunday they had a barbecue!  My youngest son also works in Manchester so with all this going on this morning, I start to worry if he has got to work safely.  Just had a text back - what snow?  Maybe it was just our little pocket of Lancashire that got it.

I shouldn't be surprised at waking up to a white-over scene, as a freezing cold Easter used to be the norm when I was a young girl.  Many a time we would skip off to the Easter funfair dressed in our thermals.  We didn't stay long as I recall.  And the price of the rides probably had something to do with it too.

But this snow won't last for ever - will it?  And Spring is in the air for definite.  When out on a walk last week I took the photograph of this beautiful bud  that was about to burst forth into the world.


The other snap below was taken last year on the 18 April - so a few weeks further on - but what a fantastic sight it was in our garden.

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter.

Until next time.

Kim xx

The mad month of March!

Easter is almost upon us.  Yes, we're officially in Spring, and typically March has brought us some of the most diverse weather of the year with four inches of snow being dumped on our road on Friday the 4th.

It's been a good few years since the weather has stopped us travelling to work, and as DH and I work ten miles away, it was always going to be a tricky journey.   We eventually got to Preston around 11.30 - three hours late - and as ever when we arrived, there wasn't a flake to be seen.

Ever since then in the North West, we've had a lot of sunny blue skies and crisp, clear weather.  The photograph below was taken in Arnside, Cumbria last week where we spent a happy afternoon doing some walking and then drinking copious amounts of tea in a cafe afterwards.

We arrived too early for the tidal wave known as the Arnside bore but even if you're just passing through, the village is well worth a visit just to witness this.  A siren is sounded around 20 minutes before it arrives and it is certainly an impressive, if extremely dangerous sight.

Parking by the shoreline (below) is free and  offers fantastic views across the Kent estuary to Grange over Sands.  Further on you can see the start of the Lake District where we noticed that some of the peaks were still covered in snow.

As well as getting out and about I've been doing some more work on my new book after the fabulous weekend I spent at Fishguard in late February with Kate Walker and Writers Holiday
This was the first time I'd done the Advanced course and it was very intense - I kid you not - but I came away having learnt a great deal. Spending a wonderful few days with some very special people was marvellous.  We worked hard, but also laughed hard. What a great weekend we had.

Until next time
Kim x

February musings!

The long, dreary, dull and dour month that was January is over.  Thank goodness.

It's over a month since the shortest day, and with the skies getting lighter with each day that passes, the journey to and from work doesn't seem quite as onerous. The bulbs are poking their heads through the soil - I saw our first crocus yesterday - so there is light at the end of the tunnel it seems.  But as we move into February, what can I tell you about the month coming up? The last meteorogical month of winter?

Well - February is my birthday month - and that's always a bonus - but not so much age wise - because I am conscious I am only two years from the big 60 - eek - and that's a bit worrying in my eyes.  Sixty? Where the hell have the years gone?

February is the month too when we have the Oncologist appointment for my eldest son. But as he reminded me only yesterday - it wasn't last year he had TC - it was the year before, and that made me feel a whole lot better.

I'm also preparing for Kate Walker's Advanced writing course which takes place later this month.  I'm slightly apprehensive as this is my first time at Fishguard, but I know Kate - and the other friends I've made on Kate's previous courses - will put me at ease and make me feel welcome.  They always do.

Harlequin/Mills and Boon are keeping me on tenterhooks too.  I submitted Tethered by Twins for consideration on 30 October last year so biting my nails about that one.  In the meantime I'm getting on with my current WIP as yet unnamed. This is the manuscript I wrote during NaNoWriMo in October.  I'm now back at the beginning starting my edits.

But the best thing of all for February? I'm counting down the weeks until the day job drops to only two!  For five days out of seven, I should be able to concentrate on my writing for part of the day at least.

Roll on 1 March!

Until next time.

Kim x

Sulking - moi?

Since the 1 January I’ve probably wished a Happy New Year to lots of different people.  What I haven’t done though is update my blog since goodness knows when.  So here we go.

As I write this, on a freezing cold Saturday in January, snow is falling - and has been now for almost four hours.  Not heavily - but steadily - so it’s getting to the stage where the view outside our window is starting to look a little softer around the edges.

So - what have I been up to since my last blog?

Well - in early December I spent a wonderful five days in Bristol holed up in a hotel bedroom.  Sounds peculiar - I know - but my DH was on a course with work - so I decided to go with him.  We breakfasted together every morning, then he took an early train to where his course was.  After that I was free to write - to get on with my second book - as yet unnamed.  During that week we also met up with a friend I used to work with - one of my very best friends.  She and her husband have gone back to their roots in Devon after spending several years in the North-West.  I don’t blame her - there’s nothing more wonderful than returning to where you were born - and I should know - as DH and I returned to the North thirty years ago after living in the South for a while.  I loved my work down there - I made life-long friends - but I was homesick - terribly.  Luckily, my DH could transfer back, so it all turned out for the best.

Anyway, I digress.  Just before Christmas my RNA NWS report came back from my reader.  In the interim,  between sending it in and receiving it back, the first chapter of my story - Tethered by Twins - had been placed in the Harlequin/Mills and Boon SYTYCW15 top 55.  I was on cloud nine, and even though I didn’t progress further in the competition, I finally felt as if my writing might be getting somewhere. Unfortunately, my reader didn’t think the same.  He or she thought there was quite a lot wrong with my manuscript.  

Devastation was not the word.  In fact - for a while - I couldn't even switch on my laptop.  My confidence plunged to an all-time low.   I’d also booked on to Kate Walker’s Advanced writing course in Fishguard in February, so straight away I cancelled my place.  What was the point of doing an advanced writing course when I couldn’t even get the basics right?

I’ll admit I sulked for a while.  Then I sulked some more.  But - eventually - after emailing Kate and other writerly friends - I’m now back on the course - and looking forward to it.  Being knocked down - Kate said - and picking yourself up - is all part of becoming a successful writer.  

As I strive towards publication - this sort of thing will happen - I know that.  But giving up is not an option, so this year I will keep on blogging - and writing - and see what 2016 brings.  

Wish me luck.

Until next time.

Kim xx

Coming down like stair-rods

Usually Autumn is one of my favourite seasons but over the last two days in Lancashire there’s been nothing but hard, incessant rain coming down like stair-rods.  In case you don't know stair-rods are the straight metal rods that hold stair-carpets in place on each step.  So - essentially it means rain which is so heavy it looks like falling stair-rods.  As you know I’m a northern girl and we do like to use our little expressions! 

Today, whilst out travelling with DH we’ve had to contend with spray, crazy drivers, and flooded roads. The drains are so clogged up with fallen leaves that the excess rainwater has nowhere to go.  I was relieved to get home in one piece, I can tell you. So - that’s the weather - which recently I’ve realised I talk about an awful lot.  

So - what else have I been up to since my last blog?

DH and I have been on holiday again.  This time to Berlin in Germany where incidentally they were experiencing the most beautiful Autumn.  The colour of the fallen leaves lying in the parks and on the pavements was like nothing I’d ever seen before.  No rain - just perfect blue skies and cold, crisp days.  But now we’re back in the UK I feel as if I’ve nothing to look forward to.  Oh, I know Christmas will soon be here - with all the delights of the season - but after that we’ve at least two months of horrid winter temperatures and dark nights to look forward to.  And yes - I know - I’m talking about the weather again.

NaNoWriMo will take my mind off all this.  My writer friends all know the aim of this is to write a novel in a month.  As I’m aiming for Harlequin Mills and Boon I need to pen around 1600 words a day and even if this doesn’t come off and I don’t make my target, I know it’s going to be far more than I’ve ever written in a month before.  So maybe I should aim to do NaNoWriMo every other month? Just a thought.

Oh, and the most marvellous news of all - well, I think so anyway - is that in the new year I’m hopefully going to reduce my working hours to two days a week.  I had a chat with DH and he agrees that it’s now or never with regard to my writing.  I’m no longer the spring chicken I was and as I’m hurtling steadily towards retirement anyway, it’s time to take a step back from the day job.  This will, of course, give me much more time to write.  Exciting eh?  I can’t wait.

Until next time.

Kim x