Revisions update - the road goes ever on and on...

Wonder of wonders I actually managed to carve out about 45 minutes for revisions over lunch today. If I'm writing fresh I can usually do about 800 words in that time. Revising, I had a net gain of about 350 words and advanced 8 pages. However, my chapter six is now my chapter 2 (and chapters 1-4 have vanished completely. When I start in the wrong place I really start in the wrong place.)

Thanks to stephanieburgis I came across a post on Terri Wyndling's blog about Creative Burn Out - something I could relate to as the past 6 weeks of day-jobbery have been unbelievably busy and really the slow down isn't likely to happen until the last week of November. We will strive to write and revise despite that, but if there aren't enough lunchbreaks (or lunchbreaks long enough) to acheive that during the week then it may have to be the weekends that bear the brunt of any creativity my tired brain can dredge up. (I think I also need to cut back on the coffee and up my intake of water and fruit juice instead.)

In other news, I have been sleeping well due to my autumn-cleaning tasks on Saturday which involved the washing and putting away of the summer curtains and the putting up of the winter curtains. (Velvet - Mormor picked them up from a charity shop for next to nothing.) They're lined so going to bed is very much like hibernating in a cave because even the street light can't get through, hard as its little orange glow may try. Of course, the downside is that when the alarm goes off at 06:00hrs it's still like being in a cave and no-one wants to get up. Early mornings are traumatic in our household. The beasts don't like late nights either and start pestering for the entire household to go to bed at 22:00hrs thank you, very much.

In other, other news, a screech owl has decided that now is the perfect time to fly around. Screeching. The last time we went out in the evening, about 20:30hrs, we actually got buzzed by it. The beasts ducked and so did I but I think that if I'd stayed upright I could have reached up and touched it, it was that close. Fantastic. And on the positive side at least it didn't screech whilst doing the fly-by. I think the beasts would have legged it if it had.


(Cross-posted from LiveJournal)

A book at Halloween...

So, Chum #1 and I have decided to give each other Halloween presents this year of books, following on from Neil Gaiman's suggestion (last year?) that this would be a good and different thing to do and I've seen other people round the blogosphere saying they'll be doing the same.
Chum #1 has gone for The Signalman by Charles Dickens (she already has M.R. James who'd have been her other choice) and I was lucky to get hold of the story as part of a collection of ghost tales by CD so it'll end up being a bonus! edition!
I've asked for The Woman in Black by Susan Hill. I've never read it but people have raved about it and when I went to the pictures to see Tinker, Tailor they had an advert on for the film so that brought it to the forefront of my mind.

As Halloween's on a school night we shall have to listen to/ watch the M.R. James stories on the Sunday night I think. James' work is very good for creeping yourself out in time for bed; nothing really dramatic happens but there's lots of rising tension and usually a very creepy end to the tale, but still, you feel okay about going to sleep. Then you wake up in the middle of the night and you need to traipse down the dark landing, past the dark stairs and suddenly you're 10 again, making the mad dash from one room to another so that whatever's lurking at the bottom of the stairs watching you won't catch you as you race past. If a story can do that then it's doing something right.

What would/ will your Halloween book be?

Work, work, work...

Of the day jobbe variety. It's been absolutely mad at the day jobbe which has resulted in a complete halt on the writing front for the past two weeks as my life has been work, home, dinner, bed - rinse & repeat. And even the weekends are not free from day jobbery so I'm looking forward to the end of the month when things dial back to a more reasonable pace!

How's life, the Universe and everything treating you today?



Edited to add: there is bathing and stuff in there too, y'know. I'm not a complete slob :-)