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Lily how is your doggy? I hope on the mend. I've got a few pictures that I'll put on my blog later, but not many as a few are blurred.
I hope from this year until this point next year we will all go on to move forward with our writing achieving more moving closer to our dreams.
Helen, sorry we didn't get to see you in the morning, but I hope you had a fun meeting up with your friend.
Helena, you are a wonderful lady, full of enthusiasm and knowledge. Your book was a worthy winner of the trophy and I'm sure your future books will be just as excellent. Well done.
I have had a lovely sleep in this morning, but now am catching up with the household chores. I'm putting Sunday and Monday down on the calendar as my writing days - I wonder if I'll manage to keep to that.
Have a great weekend everyone.
It was a pleasure to meet you in person, Butterfly, Helen and Helena. Well done Helena on winning the self-publishing trophy for your fascinating book. Also well done Butterfly for reading the piece from your story so well.
Hope you all had a good journey home again. x
Congratulations to all successes.
Sorry I didn't get to see you and your friend Lesley too, Butterfly, on Friday morning. We didn't have breakfast included with our booking. Hope the food was nice! It was really good to catch up with my friend, and on Friday morning me and Ray my fiance treated ourselves at 'Betty's' and I had a full English breakfast - yum!
I have decided to have 3 projects on the go, and see how I get on. So I'm working on a novel, short story for magazines, and short story for a competition.
I will look out for all your future successes!!
Please keep me updated with how things are going. You too Lily and Helena, if you come back.
It was nice to meet you on authorsden too.
Good luck with the Winchester conference.
I have no writing news, other than continuing to make progress on my short stories. I've got 3 at final draft stage, all are over the word count I'm aiming for and I'm struggling to see what I can chop.
I had a look at your photos from Harrogate on your blog. Those 2 came out well, didn't they. I,m looking forward to seeing what the official ones are like when they publish them in the mag.
Gotta go now as I'm doing this in the library and have to deal with a few emails. Bye for now.
Sorry to hear your dog has been unwell, Lily, I'm glad the tablets seem to be helping. I do hope he is ok. I know what it's like, my cat Maisy had to get her eyes checked at the vets and I get really worried and hope she is ok. We have to use eyedrops on her still as she has dry eyes.
Good luck with your short stories!X
I wonder it they're going to put it on the photos on the website so that we can see them?
I'm off to edit a book now so see you two later.
I wonder if webbo could answer our question about the photo's?
On the order form for the photos I presume where it says individual photograph, that would be the one of you with the certificate. I am still undecided because of the cost, but it would be nice to have a decent picture from the day. The trouble is, without seeing them we don't know if they're decent pictures...
Butterfly, I had a root through some of my old magazines to see if I could find anything by your friend Lesley who came along to Harrogate with you. I found 2 stories of hers in Woman's Weekly Fiction Specials from last year. I particularly liked the one called Winning, if you'd like to pass that on to her when you next meet.
I got one of my stories finished this weekend ready to send for a competition. I thought I'd also finished another that I was going to try with People's Friend but there is something nagging me about the story that I can't put my finger on. Something lacking, but I don't know what. I think I'll hang onto it for a bit longer. Maybe when it's been in the drawer for a week I'll be able to see if it's really finished or if I can improve it in some way. Meanwhile I'm starting to brainstorm ideas for Christmas stories as it'll soon be time to submit those for the seasonal issues. So much to do, so little time...
Thanks also, Lily - I did get quite worried when the vet said to put eyedrops on Maisy. I just thought, "God, how do I do that!" As I'm on my own in the week. The vet showed me how to put eyedrops in, you have to hold the cat firmly by having your left hand under its chin, your thumb on its head. Then with your right hand, you use your thumb to kind of hold its eye back slightly, and use your little finger to hold its eye down, then use any two of your other fingers to squeeze the drops/cream. I did it on my own for a week and it was a nightmare, poor Maisy didn't know what was going on and I dreaded it every time. But now I only put eyedrops on her when Ray my fiance is here at the weekends. It seems to be okay just using them at weekends, and she's got a bit used to it now. So it's very easy to do it - Ray holds her just normally (with none of this holding her head back business) and I put the drops in. She's a sweetie. Animals are so clever, they begin to know about the tablets! I had the same problem when I tried to give Maisy a worming tablet. I now use drops. That's a good idea about trying different combinations of food, hope it goes ok.
I'm not sure about getting the photos as they'll likely be printed in the magazine.
Oh, that must be a great feeling that you've finished another story, Lily. Good luck with it, is it for WN/WM or some other publication? I know what you mean when you sometimes feel there is something lacking, I tend to think of the structure of the story to see if I've covered everything.
Even during the course of the day I've thought of ways to bring the potential PF story I was struggling with to life. I've emailed a physio friend for inside info re treatment my character might receive for a minor injury she suffered. I'm really on a mission to make progress with writing projects this week as I only have 2 days work, but next week I have 4 so I won't get as much writing done.
The competition story I finished is for the Frome Festival short story comp. (www.wordswork.net/frome/) I entered the comp before and though I didn't win anything they forwarded my story to Woman's Weekly who subsequently bought it. It was the 1st story I sold, so quite a leap forward for me. Closing date is May 31, if you have anything you wanted to try, but entry is £5 so a bit of a gamble also! Oh well, que sera sera. What's £5 except a pile of chocolate?
I took one look at the giant swollen/bluish foot, bundled him in the car and spent 5 hours down in A&E. Thankfully it isn't broken but might have a green stick fracture which won't appear until the swelling has gone down. (Swelling helps project) ? So he now has a support on it from knee to toes and has to keep it elevated and weight off it as much as possible. Him being male insisted this morning on going to school on the school bus much to my disapproval. I am however picking him up at 11am after his exam and bringing him home.
I hope both Helen's and your pets are much better and soon will be fighting fit. I think I'll contact the charity and ask about the photos, they may have their own website with the photos displayed.
I'm off to write in this extra time I have. Have a good time writing ladies.
Hi Butterfly, so sorry to hear about your son, I do hope he'll recover very quickly. At least it isn't broken, like you said.
I have been working on my novel these past few evenings, trying to see where to start. I feel quite excited about it now, but I have no idea how the story will develop. Enjoy your writing!
Worrying isn't it, when you have to take them to A&E, and no matter how old they are they are still your baby.
But I suppose all this is just a part of parenthood.
Lily, good luck with the competition - are they apart of Chicken house, who are based in Frome, Sommerset? I only ask because it is the only publishers I know down there.
Helen, by now you will be well on the way with your novel - what are you calling it? I think if you are ready to focus on one project that is just what you should do. The others will still be there if you get to a dry spot and need time to let the current story work its self out before you get back to it. I do that often. It works for me.
I'm hoping to do writing, and garding this weekend. I've been given lots of bedding plants for my tubs and beds. They always look lovely, but it takes so long to plant them all. However it is very relaxing. I also need to mow the lawns if it dries enough and cut the front hedge to allow the light to the sitting room back in. And write!!! House work...hmmm I'll leave that, no one will notice.
Have a great weekend.
Got lots of writing done this week and need to tear myself away from the computer to give my eyes a rest. I must start gardening too Butterfly but we keep having heavy downpours here this afternoon.
Have a good weekend everyone.
My garden is looking like a garden once more, having spent hours out there yesterday. I've still got plants to put in, but they'll have to wait a bit longer.
I did manage to get a little writing done, but not as much as I would have liked.
Have a good week.
Good luck with the competition, Lily. I hope your dog is ok.
Now, this helped me. Not so much to start but at points where I felt 'stuck'.
Just set the clock for, say, 20 minutes and then just Splurge it all out. It doesn't matter how it comes out or whether spellings are right or anything as long as you just get what's in your head on the page in some form or another.
Try it. 20 minutes. Not much to ask, is it?