Taters! And other stuff...

Spuds are in the allotment; tomatoes are in pots (and cloches) in the garden, along with some spinach, and a lot of weeding / de-nettling of areas has taken place.
There're still a number of spinach / cabbage / chinese cabbage plants to go into the allotment, but now that I've found the fleece I can protect them from any frosts we may still get in the next month.
Will it get warmer; colder; wetter? Usually if it's nice in April we get huge amounts of rain after that with the odd frost - hopefully it won't be enough to kill any of the veg off.

I planted a lot of hundred-weight pumpkin seeds, as well as a whole tray of sunflower seeds, so we'll see how many of those come up and can be transplanted. I've still got beans to plant along with sweet peas for pollination and I have a packet of tagetes that I can put in around the cabbages etc. which should encourage pollinators and (hopefully) keep most of the munchers away from the food plants.

We live in hope.

The chap with the allotment next to mine has moved his ferrets & polecats down from his old plot. They look sweet and are apparently very friendly and don't bite, so I may end up holding one at some point.

Joy for yesterday: My car passed its MOT (eventually - needed a few things fixing) so I can keep going for at least another year, unless something drops off.

Joy for today: a 3 1/2 hour meeting for work (interesting subject - all about student induction - but I hope there will be a decent break for coffee in there somewhere)

Joy for tomorrow: taking the day off so that I can have a long weekend to go with Bank Holiday monday.

[travel] Oxford jollification

Lots of jollification lately!
Went to Oxford on Saturday to have the extended tour of the Bodleian. We travelled from work so I had to leave home at 06:30hrs to get there for 07:15; we made good time and got to Oxford's park and ride at about 09:20 so we had a nice, steady walk to the Library.
The tour started off in the School of Divinity and headed off to Duke Humfrey's library - he was the person to first set up a library here in the 1400s; Thomas Bodley restored it around 1602. Duke Humphrey's library contains chained books and was used in the Harry Potter films. We weren't allowed to take any photos there, so here's a link to a picture of the restored ceiling.

I did get to see Convocation House where Parliament met during the Civil War:


and also managed to get into Christ Church cathedral to see some of the windows:


More pictures can be seen here

Bath Pic Spam

So, a bit late but, I was in Bath last week for a bit of a jolly and took some photos of interesting sculptures that were placed around the Abbey. I also took some of the buildings as a visual research guide for the Georgian WiP.

The Big Bull and the Big Hare were right next to each other on plinths.































The Hares and Dogs were outside the Pump Room (which does nice, but expensive, afternoon tea)



All in all I had a nice time despite being ill, and it was nice to visit the town again.

A few other pictures can be seen here.

Edited to add: Sculptures are by Sophie Ryder.

Sunny Sunday

Well, I've just had a gloriously sunny day which has more than made up for the grim hanging disease I've had over the Easter break. The cough is still with me, but at least I can go out in public without twenty boxes of tissues to back me up.
The spa was great. I had reflexology in the morning which was incredibly relaxing - I could've gone to sleep quite happily - and then went and did all of the water treatments & had a swim after lunch (after a decent interval, naturally).
The day after that I went down to Bath and had a lovely time wandering around and getting some pictures of the streets and houses. I also had a gorgeous, cinnamon butter Sally Lunn bun on one day, and a Lady's Tea on another - very nice.

Came home and spent a few days in bed with the chest infection, but got out and about in the last couple of days. Yesterday, I got a load of veg plants to go in the garden / allotment and today I weeded one of the beds and planted some peas, while a mate dug another bit over. There will be be fresh veg throughout the summer! Also, there will be fresh eggs as the chap with the patch next to me has chickens who are good layers and he has more eggs than he knows what to do with!Back to work tomorrow, and there will be a lot to do, so it will be busy, busy, busy but I'm hoping to get the second draft of Wish Child done as it does need tidying up, but at least the core is there.

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter break (of whatever duration it may have been) and that Spring has finally sprung.

Joy, joy feelings...

First draft of Wish Child has been completed and comes in at 9,316 words so I'm pleased with that. I'm away at a Spa tomorrow - sort of a birthday present to myself for Monday - and then I'm down to Bath for jollification on Thursday so while I'm there (in between sight-seeing and eating) I can revise Wish Child in the evenings in the Youth Hostel. Ah, the glamour!

Next up
-- More research for the Georgian novel
-- More worldbuilding for the paranormal YA novel
-- Revising Sokoll's Hawks
-- Fairy tale re-telling of Beauty & the Beast (or Rapunzel - haven't quite decided)

On the (immediate) TBR pile

• Deader Still by Anton Strout (antonstrout ) (this one is actually on my desk at work, staring accusingly at me because the bookmark is still stuck in the back where I put it on Sunday afternoon - my excuse reason for that is that I'm really tired and looking forward to a few days off work)

• Gym Dandy by Storm Grant (storm_grant )

• The Immortal Hunter by Lynsay Sands

• Georgian London by John Summerson

• The Cipher by Diana Pharoah Francis (difrancis ) (a re-read in preparation for The Black Ship)

[Links] Link Salad: Writing

Almost, but not quite, caught up on the blogosphere after having been away at a conference for three days (leaving Cardiff ahead of the Wales-Germany match) and I've come across some interesting / useful links. Which you may have already come across as I'm a bit late to the party. But, hey.

valarltd talks about writing now, rather than waiting for that mythic golden (time) egg to land in your lap

seanan_mcguire talks in a similar vein about managing your time against the time-suck of life (and she has other useful / interesting opinion pieces of which this is #26 out of a proposed #50)

jimvanpelt has an interesting post on dialogue (and a lot of posts generally on writing which are linked at the end of this post)

And Melanie & Steve Tem have a post at Storytellersunplugged about fitting writing in, finding bits of time to write, and also making time for life as well

Haven't fallen off the edge of the world

I'm quickly typing this after breakfast in the hotel and hopefully I'll have a chance to upload it when I get near the university's WiFi network. I am at a conference for the day jobbery (Monday through Wednesday) so there isn't all that much opportunity to get online - especially when the hotel charge £15 (c. US$21.30) per 24hrs for the Internet. I'll wait for the free WiFi, thanks. So if I haven't responded to any messages/ e-mail etc. I *will*, it's just at the moment I have extremely small pockets of time to get online so most things will have to wait until Thursday.

I still have a fairytale to write as well as finishing the last scene of Wish Child, but with any luck I'll be able to do that on the train home on Wednesday as it's more direct. (so I won't have to keep turning off the laptop to dive off the train!)

TTFN

Flycon - Day 2

flycon2009 got off to a good start yesterday, although I didn't manage to join in until 3pm UK time - I took the afternoon off work but then had to pick up the dogs, have lunch, get laundry on etc. but then managed to sit down at the computer in time for the Panel on The Business of E-Publishing - it was interesting, with some very good comments going round. It was held in the forums on sff.net so should still be up there if people want to go along and see what was said/ add commentary etc. Check the Flycon community for links.

The next Panel I 'went to' was When is Young Adult not really for Young Adults - again, interesting and I'm definitely going to go back to that one to see if any more comments have been made on this topic.

Book Promotions: What works.. was the last one I attended (10pm my time) and what came out of that - to me - is that there are no glaring examples of what works, rather you try different things and build readers up that way. But, offering excerpts of the new work or a free copy of an earlier work are more likely to inspire people to buy what you're offering, because you're showing them why they should (through the quality of your writing.)

This morning, I've just finished attending a Panel on Is the Vampire the new Zombie? And while we didn't really come to a conclusion on that one, we did discuss a little the short-shrift zombies get in comparison to the vampire (with all their sexy, sparkly moodiness that makes them more human) although it was agreed that the idea of a 'sexy' zombie would be a hard sell - what with bits dropping off, the smell, and the whole trying to prevent them from eating your brains. But it was good, and interesting, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the Panels / chats I want to go to.

But now...Laundry! Yes. My life is that exciting. I may even get to hang it on the line today. \0/

Progress (& convention)

Another 947 words on Wish Child, which brings it up to 5,454 and we're on the downward slide to the finale. One and a half scenes to go and the first draft will be done! Joy joy feelings!

Also, I plan to 'attend' the LiveJournal online convention FlyCon - take a look at the schedule; there's a fantastic range of panels to choose from (although I may have to cry off some of the early morning ones -- even though they look really good, I'm past the age where I can stay up till 4am, go to bed and then get up at 6:30am and actually be coherent.)

So...Wish Child



Now, off to swimming!

Technology...we loves it.

What is it about 2009?
My DVD player croaked. Then my video decided it didn't want to work anymore. Then, my housemate's stereo and PC gave up the ghost as well, so I've spent today getting a new PC and installing software etc. in between doing the washing-up, making dinner and feeding the Pack.

Touch wood, everything seems to be working okay - but honestly, it's like all the tech has been cursed to give up at the same time! Hopefully, that's it for tech trauma this year!

It's 1 minute away, so Happy St. David's Day!

[writing] Progress

Wish Child
Previous count - 1961 words
New count - 4507
New words - 2546
Woo! Except, I was aiming for around 3K - the story isn't finished yet and I'm already 1.5K over my planned limit.
Does this happen to other people? Do you aim for a story of a certain length, go over and then cut? Or do you manage to stick pretty much to the word count you set yourself? I must admit, I didn't plan this story out - no outline at all - but even with an outline I'm prone to exceeding my self-imposed word limit. ::blows raspberry at self::
Ah, well. Time for a bath and then the joy that is...Iron Man! yay!!!

Proof of snow! This is what it looked like last week when it first started on the Sunday / Monday.



And this is how we keep warm. Open fire heats a back-boiler which sends lovely hot water to the (4) radiators we have in the house. (With varying degrees of success - with only one radiator downstairs it will always be cold in winter.)

Got a good start on the dark fantasy / horror short 'The Wish Child'



I'll hopefully be able to get some more written (and maybe typed up) tonight as I'm not working late this evening. Yay!


Listening to: Wish you were here by Pink Floyd
Mood: Chipperly productive, dahlinks!

First draft done! (Finally!!)

First draft of Sokoll's Hawks is done, coming in at 13,212 words (as opposed to the 6,000 I was originally aiming for). So that's off to sit in a drawer while I:
~ plan another short
~ take 3's Company out of the drawer for revisions
~ look over Model of Perfection ready to continue with chapter 4

I worked from home today due to excessive ice on the road outside and had a very productive day there, and now I've had a productive evening too! All iz joyful.

Last day of January...already!

Well, it's been a little while - I've managed to keep up with reading friend's entries but with little else. (I shudder to think what my cumulated Google Reader entries number now).

I'm typing up some longhand I did on Sokoll's Hawks (God - when will it end? It was only supposed to be 6k long!). I did manage to write some longhand during the week, not as much as I'd have liked because my coughing has meant disturbed nights and therefore knackered days. Ended up with a migraine on Tuesday which probably had nothing to do with the cough, but certainly didn't help. :o(

And then on Thursday night I read Josh Lanyon's The Ghost Wore Yellow Socks. I was only going to read a couple of chapters before going to sleep but ended up reading to the end (at 00:50hrs) as every time I got to the end of a chapter I had to read 'just one more' (yeah, yeah - I should know better by now!)

Today I've:
Read Passage - book 3 in Lois McMaster Bujold's Sharing knife series - loved it. Want to read it again.

Recieved Jim Hines' Goblin Quest, as well as the I Do anthology today - so they've been added to the TBR pile

Made chicken stew and discovered we had hardly any potatoes, so then made dumplings with Tuscan herbs to with it (thank you interwebs for a 3 ingredient recipe)

Thought about doing the washing up but then allowed myself to get distracted. ;oD

Anyway, not a day of huge achievements - but I didn't spend it in bed asleep either, so it's not all bad.

Current word count on SH = 10,891 / 6,000. And it's in third person when it should be in first. ::Sigh:: That's a job for another day.

Update

I'm a bit behind in the cumulation of my daily goal of 2.5 pages a day minimum (although, in making up for not writing at all for four days I did manage to crank out 9 pages yesterday as well as doing some longhand afterwards (while watching the Dark Knight which my DVD player didn't want to let me see the last 10 minutes of ::grrrr::), so it's not all bad.)

I went swimming despite the cough that will not go away and I also did a load of laundry and swept the upstairs carpet, so I'm feeling productive in one sense, anyway!

I'm looking forward to properly light mornings, though. I can't quite get into the joy of getting up when it's pitch black outside and wazzing it down with rain. It just makes me want to curl up under the covers for another couple of hours - even the dogs don't want to get up when it's like that.

Anyway, past time for day jobbery. Onwards and upwards.

Update

Word count for today achieved - it's brought me back up to where I want to be; I skipped a few days so had to make up for that. 10 1/2 pages so that's good. I know it's technically Sunday, but as I haven't been to bed yet I'm still classing it as Saturday!

And now to bed, for there will be early rising tomorrow and the shopping of staple foodstuffs. (We haz no rize) ::mopes::

And then there will be the consumption of stew which was gorgeous. Nom nom nom. The collies thought so, too. Had to fight them off with my elbow while I ate. Tsk.

Anyway. Night night. Time for bed, said Zebedee.

Half the day gone and not a dish washed...

I did get stuff done today, even if it wasn't everything I wanted. The car's in the garage (the water pump is disintegrating) so I'm borrowing one of the garage's - a Peugeot 306, which is about 1/3 again bigger than mine. I will be driving very carefully to work on Monday.

The Allotments are paid for for another year (£50 this year - it's gone up £34 - which is a lot for a completely unmanaged, rural plot of land. Basically a small field.)

Stew has been made and is burbling away on the stove. I should have used a bigger pot, as I had to stop adding vegetables when I ran out of room. I'll wait until everything's settled down and add some leek.

The fire is lit (and didn't go out - it can go either way when I'm in charge of it) so the radiators should be heating up now. It was -1 degC at two o'clock - 2 hours ago - and it feels a damn sight colder now. Hot water bottles and socks tonight, I think. And China will probably stay curled up in the airing cupboard except for emergencies. Smart cat.

Right. Another cup of coffee, quick stir of the stew, and then more wordage - want to add an extra 2.5K today if I can.

Hope your day is warmer than mine!

Let it snow, let it freeze, let it snow...

Snow at 05:30 Monday, followed by lots of freezing and exciting driving to work (I have to drive up 2 1/2 un-gritted roads to reach a bus route that is gritted. Always an exciting prospect in icy weather!) Then last night it got down to about -10 (thank God for hot water bottles and border collies - bottle on the feet, border collies down one side, so nice and toasty!)
Tonight it's supposed to be a bit colder so socks will probably come into play at some point. It's not as bad as when we first moved in and were getting to grips with the fire / back boiler situation though - I haven't had to resort to the wooly hat in bed yet, although if it keeps up that night may come.

It's only the second day back at work and I'm looking forward to the weekend already. No afternoon off this week, in return for the late night, so I shall be flagging a bit by Friday.

But on saturday I have a mission! I have to clear out all of the non-essential / underused / never used pots and pans from the kitchen cupboards and restrict the contents to those that have a clear and useful purpose, as well as a more than vague chance of actually being used in the next decade or so.

Then I have to re-organise the tinned foodstuffs (mostly spicy mixed beans) into one cupboard, before heading off to a metropolis to stock up on all of the foodstuffs we do not have. And make stew. I will no doubt be persistently aided by collies and a cat. Such is life.

Goals for 2009

I've done a new plan for 2009, looking at the goals I want to achieve, so:

Complete Model of Perfection & revise (novel)
Edit & revise 3's Company (novella)
Complete Kieran's Kiss (novella) *
Do Sokoll's Hawks (short story)
Do Phelan's Fate (novella)**
Do Rapunze (short story)
Do Stranger at the Door (short story)

* & ** - it may be that these two can be blended into one novel, rather than two novellas with Kieran's story being at the forefront. I'll have to see when I re-outline K'sK and outline P'sF

And, as a new endeavour goal, I want to work on haiku and see what I can produce.

2009 got off to a good start with 3,301/ 6,000 words on Sokoll's Hawks done. If tomorrow goes well I may be able to complete it before I go back to work.