'The Swordmark'has gone to Bloomsbury,'Changeling' is with another publisher, I meet my supervisor on Tuesday and I start teaching prep next week.So in the brief moment when i don't have to write anything in particular, I have enjoyed myself reading four YA novels today. They were all good and it is sooooo much easier to read than to write.
I read the 'Hunger Games' (Suzanne Collins) Fantastic and ' Uglies' (Scott Westerfield) earlier in the week. Yesterday I read 'Pretties' and today I read 'Specials' to complete the trilogy there is a fourth too which I may read later. I also read 'I Coriander' (Sally Gardner) good, but I thought the ending a cop out, 'How I live Now' (Meg Rosoff) a bit fuzzy on the war that lies in the background which might have been the point but I found unsatisfatory, and 'The book of Dead Days' ( Marcus Sedgewick) a bit disappointing in plot terms. All were excellent in some way and very readable. I suppose I ought to have made notes but I will leave that for later, for now I'm just catching up on some good stuff I've missed.
I rejoined the library after a hiatus of many years - wow free books! How great is that!
I have had a bit of a cold/fluey thing so haven't even walked the dog today though I did make it to the library to get more books.
I gave a talk last year on how I was the little girl who loved reading - how could I have forgotten that I still am? (just less little and a bit too wrinkly to be a girl)
From now on I may have to work harder than usual so today was a kind of innoculation of pleasure against too much serious work : )

In case you are interested.

http://awfullybigblogadventure.blogspot.com/

I didn't get my chapters and synopsis off today mainly because my Mum's eye appointment which we thought might take an hour took nearly three as they were short staffed. It wasn't anyone's fault but my whole week has been like this; real life not fiction.
Anyway I could post the whole thing on homeplanet for feedback as there is now no point in sending it before Tuesday.
I am not going to be cross about my lack of progress this week as the whole reason for my being self employed is so that I can be around for my family.

I have found it hard to work this week - there is just too much going on. Anyway in between times I have done the second chapter.

How do would you describe the behaviour of terrified horses? I'm not sure I know the right words and I'm not sure I've ever seen a terrified horse except in Westerns and in the stage version of War horse'.

I managed the synopsis of 'The Girl with Four names' and then, trawling through old files, found the first two chapters of 'Swordmark' and came up with a synopsis for that. All good.
My husband like GWFN and didn't like the opening chapters of Swordmark. Homeplanet response to Swordmark was OK but less so for GWFN. So I think that tomorrow I need to rework both. In each case the second chapter worked better than the first and in both cases my attempt to write something different probably displaced my normal intuiteve sense of what works. GWFN is first person but deliberately archaic/elegaic - a memory of a golden childhood time. In Swordmark the tone is also distanced. I think I am trying too hard not to write Alavna again. This 'historic' book cannot be default twenty first century action, but it still has to have those qualities that make you read on.
I am mildly pissed off that I haven't got there yet.I was hoping to get stuff out tomorrow but yanno if it isn't good enough, it isn't good enough and I'm actually genuinely grateful when people let me know. It was the plot that was causing me problems now at least I have the plot and the time and the place. I don't usually rewrite first chapters but I am happy enough to adapt my approach to necessity. At least I know what I'll be working on tomorrow : )

'A' level results today.My son did well but between taking him and his friends back to Reading ( a round trip of four hours in traffic) where they are all working after coming home to get their results, walking the dog , going out to dinner and drinking with other mothers of 'a' level students - no work at all has been done. I have had slightly too much to drink tonight and I had a too little sleep last night so I am not really able to catch up with the work I've missed. I'm very proud of M and a little disappointed in me. Tomorrow is another day!

I sent off my tax return stuff yesterday and have made some progress with the story today.
I finished reading the helpful book and have written about 1k - not great but something.
I also have a bit more of a plot - almost enough to make an arc. I had hoped to have finished this yesterday, but sorting out the car put pay to that. I may get this done tonight but it isn't that likely as M is home for the night so that he can pick up his results tomorrow.
I am trying not to think about results... very hard.

I've more or less done my tax and I've read a great book that is really helping me with my plot. I would have achieved much more but for the need to take O to training. I don't mind working in random fields and club houses my problem was the journey.
My stress levels were sky high as I had a dental appointment which meant that I was pushing my luck in London traffic to get him there on time but then I discovered I had a slow puncture and had to find a working pump. I followed 'tom tom' which took me some lunatic way that had me at the wrong side of the Hangar lane gyratory - with four lanes of speeding traffic to get across. I got him there but I think I said some bad words.
I managed to read a bit in between the necessary rugby chat but then coming back again at that bastard roundabout a very large artic took out my wing mirror in its entirety and dented my passenger door. My son was sitting next to me so we were lucky it wasn't worse. The lorry did not see me. I was in the correct lane, but I must have been in its blind spot. The driver did not stop and neither could I. You just can't in rush hour traffic. I then had to drive for a further two hours to find a garage that could deal with the damage - body shop required. The part has to be ordered - ironically I had just had a new wing mirror case for the same wing mirror but this contact pulled the whole thing off and took some of the door with it.
I'm going to have to claim on my insurance as it promises to be very expensive but I didn't get the reg or even the type of lorry.
It could so easily have been so much worse - the noise was incredible - those things are huge and it could, if it were just a centimetre closer, have ripped off the door and killed my son. It could have been a full blown accident and although it wasn't and we were both OK my hands were shaking a bit on the wheel for the rest of the journey and I felt stupidly tearful, particularly as there was just no place to pull over.

I'll have to waste an hour or so on the phone tomorrow and I have a banging headache but
it's OK. A near miss is still a miss.

Had a wonderful time in the Cotswolds - the hotel was really good, the weather was fantastic.The kids went wake boarding - I bottled because I hate falling in, going fast, being out of control etc etc but W managed a circuit of the lake and P went round a couple of times of water skis. The following day we had stupid rowing races, played rugby water polo ( in rowing boats) and went out on canoes. The hotel had a pool and a gym and very nice food. We dropped M off in Reading, visted my Mum on her birthday in Wales and spent last night in Oxford. It feels like we have been away for a week at least. Strangely enough the work is still here waiting for me : )

W is back from China and we had the first family meal together for months. We have maybe two days before M is working at Reading festival and O goes to Dorset. I hope it stops raining so we can enjoy them. The purchase of board games is looking increasingly necessary; the main road outside my house is beginning to flood.

P's on holiday and as the kids are still all over the place we are only going to manage a weekend away. We went to see 'War horse' last night - all of us except for W who is still in China.I have to say it was brilliantly staged with puppets for all the horses. They were beautiful, life sized and their movements were so well observed you forgot about the puppeteers even though the one who manipulated the head was in plain sight the whole time. It was a wonderful production, though I didn't think the acting was particularly great.
In the day I met friends for coffee and had my roots done. I think my (peri) menopausal blonde is OK, but is high maintenance. I'm not sure how long I can be bothered with it - high lights and base colour two or three shades lighter than my own. I have friends who do it themselves but I am so mal-coordinated I get more dye on the floor than on my head. I also have a lot of hair, the coarse, thick stuff that is quite springy and awkward. Anyway for now I have gone the colour all middle aged women round here go and I am letting grow a bit as I hate spending money on colour only to have it cut off: )
I might try and take a picture - then you can judge for yourself.
Oh and my degree certificate just arrived - only twenty six years late.</p>

Scalzi was blogging about giving up one hour of
tv to write - no further sacrifice required. He is right really. If I did that I would get a lot more done. I remember my son saying to me once,'Mum if you actually worked a bit harder you could be really good.'
I suppose since the kids have got older I have got in the habit of doing less and less.
I am still not sure how you get better as a writer. I never have known though I have observed it happening to other people. Doing more of it or doing it more regularly is not on its own enough, though it probably doesn't do any harm.
I have never written every day. There are times when I haven't got a book on the go, or when I can't do more until I've done some research, or some actual thinking or when I'm waiting on something and there seems little point in doing something else, but they are all excuses. Maybe that is after all the way forward just write every day whether you have anything to say or not.

P is on holiday now and O has just got back from NZ we're just missing W now and he ought to be back on Thursday. E probably isn't back till Dec. I don't like my nest being alost empty but the last few weeks have been a good reminder that things change and I need to change too.

Perhaps I should try 500 words a day even when I'm not in a book? Maybe.

I dropped off my Phd application today. I don't know that I've done a great job on it, but I may well have to play myself into a more academic approach...
I know I'm rubbish at forms so I checked I'd done everything I was supposed to with the administrator in charge and she pointed out that I was supposed to produce copies of my qualifications. I'm not sure I've been asked for them before. I have a file, and I could even find it - I have all P's, I have some of my sister's, for reasons which elude me, I have all my 'GCEs' and 'A' levels, my teaching cert and my MBA thingy but I do not have a degree certificate. I don't thing I ever have had one - apparently they never used to issue them automatically. I can't believe this is the first time I've ever needed one. Given how many people lie about qualifications, I am vaguely reassured that people are finally checking up - even if I have been claiming it unproven since 1983.

Anyway at least I have finished something. I didn't go and see my MinL as C wasn't well and I didn't want to leave her on her own for hours and I couldn't risk her passing on her bugs.

It is now a beautiful evening - just in time to walk the dog.

I haven't managed to make my phone work so that I could upload pictures which is irritating.
I also can't get my email on it though I should be able to. Wasted some time on that.
I forgot to meet some friends for brunch though I did manage to catch up with them ( after they'd rung me)in time to have coffee. Then I spent ages looking for a CD I absolutely had to listen to - something which never occurs when I haven't work to do.I didn't find it.
Anyway, in spite of my best efforts of avoidance I have filled in my application form and finished off my two proposals; the academic one is a little weak but I'll look at it again tomorrow after doing a bit of reading tonight and see it I can't beef it up a bit. It is supposed to be in by the end of the month so i have a bit of time and can always drop it off on Monday.
I'm not sure it I'll manage the book proposal tonight. Probably not. Still small steps are still steps and I have been so rubbish lately I'm grateful for all forms of forward motion.

I have tidied my office and done some filing. This was a BIG job. I filled five large black bin liners without freeing up any space, which does tend to suggest that the contents were heaped randomly around the room or squashed into corners. I feel very calm. I actually hate mess. I ignore it very effectively, but I think the energy involved makes me vaguely low level stressed all the time, it's like an irritating noise that you only really notice when its gone away. I like order and I like things to be beautiful or, at the very least, not ugly - so why the hell I am such a messy bugger I do not know.
I still have a framed poster for 'Shadow Web' and a collage that C made that ought to go on the wall and I did not find the disc that I was looking for that precipitated the clean up but still I feel like I can work now. Deep exhalation. Large glass of wine. Why didn't I do this earlier?

I've managed the first 2k of my first story proposal.It is in a slightly odd pseudo celtic style which I'm not entirely sure about but P liked it. I'm hoping to do a similar amount tomorrow and maybe some of my Phd proposal. I have not exactly been flying through it having spent some time pontificating on rasfc. I also went shopping for a memory stick and got horribly sidetracked by looking for a new desk. I don't actually need a new desk though my current desk is a bit dog eared. I just saw a large glass table on sale which I lusted after. Fortunately my husband brought me to my senses. I do need to earn some money before I spend it on unecessaries. It doesn't really matter what my desk looks like anyway as you can't see it under the pile of crap that covers it. I would really like to tidy it up tomorrow but I may not get time especially if I go to see my M in L.

The whole house is a bit of a bomb site and I need to get the washing under way. M is back from Greece. Two of his friends were hospitalised out there with suspected swine fever, but he seems Ok at the minute.Fingers crossed.