Library

Today should have been a day in the office, but as we're not in production yet and as my deadline for the confidential job is Tuesday morning, I moved today to next week. I'll have 2 x 4-day weeks on the trot.

On Monday I spent most of the day finishing the gig list for November. Today I'll take some library books back and then crack on with this big job.

I have about 15 books to donate to the library but being a natural hoarder I'm dithering about those I haven't read yet - decluttering the bookshelf so I can put my writing, reference and text books in there. The ones I've not read are historicals and I want to read them when I'm writing my own. I keep telling myself they'll still be at the library when I need them, among hundreds of others.

Yesterday I ordered 4 books, 2 used that I can't get from the library, and 2 new for my own reference library. I have my next Stephen Booth and Reginald Hill coming (Hill wrote the Dalziel and Pascoe books but this isn't one of those), plus a book on travel writing and another on psychic development for beginners.

Quite a nice day ahead I think.

Bring them home

*** PERSONAL OPINION ALERT ***

Yesterday six soldiers made their final journey home to the UK from Afghanistan. One was just 18, another was a TA volunteer. As I watched footage of the six funeral cars carrying their coffins, I couldn't find the words to express how I felt.

On Remembrance Sunday one of the guests of honour at the Cenotaph was a young soldier who'd lost both legs and an arm. This should not be happening.

Today, on Armistice Day, at 11am we pause for 2 minutes silence. Today the only words I can find are: Bring the rest of them home before more are killed or maimed.

Bring them home.

(Today's pic came from here.)

Can you see my word meters?

I seem to be having a problem seeing my word meters. Sometimes, at work, this is due to an over-enthusiastic firewall. Usually, at home, I can still see them. At the moment, I can't. At either place. Our firewall may be over-performing today, tomorrow I may be able to see them again. At home, I may need to reinstall a version of Java or Flash or something.

Please let me know if you can see them or not. If nobody can, then it may be Writertopia.

EDIT: Ah, this could be due to NaNoWriMo. I've done some research and, apparently, word meters aren't offered in November any more, and existing ones fall over due to the excess and sudden rush. Fingers crossed it's only temporary. (10:30am)

Big thanks to one of my workmates for pointing me in the direction of our home version of MacAfee. We get a few packages like this in case we work on our home computers and I suppose it's in the company's best interest to ensure we're also virus-free. I've located the file, saved it to memory stick, and will load that next time I fire up the laptop at home. Then I can cancel the one I pay for via my phone/broadband bill which is obviously complete rubbish.

I had a good trip to the dentist yesterday. He let me off a filling this time, but I may need to have one, or two, next time.

Today I'm in the office. I have 3 articles in for the magazine already and I'd like to get those off to the designer so he can start on layout. We have a tight turnaround on our Winter issue as it needs to be on everyone's desks in time for the Christmas break.

I need to write a story that features Tucker's Funfair.

Wharncliffe Woods

Saturday morning I drove "over road" (across the M1) to meet the new walking buddy. We drove into Wharncliffe Woods where we parked up and then spent the next 5 hours tramping along the crags, through the woods and over the ridge. I didn't take my camera with me because the battery needed charging and we were travelling light anyway. So this time I've pinched the picture from here.

Here comes the science bit. I pinned on my pedometer and it recorded 17,886 steps, 536 calories burned, 10.73km walked - which converts to 6.6 miles. I'm quite proud of that.

We saw around a dozen different kinds of bird, 1 mammal (grey squirrel), at least 4 different kinds of fungi (toadstool pic from here), and we had a bit of competitive fun identifying the trees from either the bark or the leaves on the ground.

There was some gorse about, but nothing else was really in flower any more.

The highlight for me was watching a kestrel from afar as it hovered for several minutes, was bombarded by meadow pipits, before dropping to the ground and then coming to roost where we could watch it through the binoculars - and even with the naked eye - as it sulked at missing its prey. I nicked this picture from here.

Next time I'll take my own camera with me, so apologies and thanks to all the photographers I've plagiarised here. Please take time to visit the links so I feel a bit better about that.

Sunday was chores day. I baked a farmhouse fruitcake, a banana tea bread and a plum crumble and I caught up on all the washing. The trouble with emptying the washing basket, though, is that the ironing basket becomes a mountain. I'll have to work my way through that.

Today I have the dentist this afternoon, so I'm not looking forward to that. I also have the first draft of a short story to write, and I want to spend a couple of hours on the confidential job. I've already carried out maintenance on the laptop. Having everything re-installed makes it feel a bit like a brand new machine, but the security I've been paying for via my phone bill just isn't working. So I've got the free AVG virus protection for the timebeing while I either sort that out or replace it with something reliable.

In a state of shock

I've been struggling with finances for such a long time and this year I decided to take the bull by the horns and banish all credit from my environment. I transferred into a financial management plan (FMP) and suspended all previous bank accounts, credit agreements, overdrafts, etc. I've been living without credit since June, and it's been very, very hard.

Just as I thought I'd control it, we lost our quarterly bonus at work and then quite a few unexpected bills came in that had to be paid and had to come out of my wages.

I vowed to replace the bonus and set about finding additional freelance work, then confidential job #1 arrived, for which I received my purchase order yesterday so I think that means I got the gig. (Yayyyy.) This one replaced the bonus all by itself, but I must NOT get complacent. Then we got offered a goodwill bonus from work. (Better than a kick in the teeth.) Then Father Christmas arrived early. (Thank yooooooooo.) And then - THEN - we received notification that we'd get a full bonus after all. (DOUBLE WHAMMY!)

In less than 3 weeks' time I'll be back in the black for the first time in ... forever. And big time. I still can't quite believe it's going to happen and keep asking people: "Did that email really say that this morning?"

I'm going to enjoy the feeling for a while, then I may get my car serviced and valeted, and then I'll up my FMP in the new year. At some point I'll also probably replace the laptop with a nice, shiny new one. (Thank you, Santa Claus.)

Other good stuff
On Wednesday the lovely virtual office buddy took a look at my laptop and agreed it was probably D. E. Double D. Dedd. He did take it away "for a few days" but warned that I "may have to get a new one".

Ten minutes later he was back. My laptop was fixed. It was something he could solve after all.

When I got home, Santa had been.

On Thursday I took my car in to have the rear end looked at but the chap that ran into me decided it was too much for him to pay cash so we are going through the insurance. The car needs a new bumper, a new bumper lining, it needed 2 new lightbulbs, plus the labour. My insurance company solicitors took over the handling of it and I'm to fax them the quote I got from my garage, plus my driving licence (all parts), plus 2 forms of identification for when they hire a car for me.

Later yesterday afternoon the purchase order arrived for confidential job #1.

This morning I dropped by on my way to work to get the lights fixed. I can manage with a dented bumper but I could get tugged for 2 rear lights out.

Not long after I got in, the email arrived from work about our bonus.

Day job
It's deadline day next Friday and already I have 3 articles in and a selection of photographs.

The weekend
Tonight I intend to work on confidential job #1.

Tomorrow I go for a walk up Wharncliffe Crags with the bloke I met last Sunday, then I’ll do more work on confidential job #1. I’ll also try and get some more gigs uploaded to the gig list.

On Sunday one of the blokes I used to rock and drink with 26 years ago in Birmingham is coming all the way from Worcester for a visit, I’ve not seen him for about 15 years. I’ll do a bit more work on confidential job #1, then Sunday night I’m going to see another of my favourite bands, Infinity.

This morning on my drive to work a truck came towards me with the following stamped above the cab:

TUCKER'S
FUNFAIR

I had to read it twice. :-/

Y'all have a good one.

Good news week

Well, after what could have turned into the weekend from hell, the week has certainly got better so far.

I have a new walking buddy, he contacted me this morning. A cheque arrived. I sold my dSLR camera. I pitched confidential job #1 and think the editor must have liked it as he forwarded it to the project owners and started to set up the BACs transfer. This job will replace the bonus we lost (fingers crossed). I'm back in touch with 2 of my best friends that I've not spoke to much for 5 months. We're getting a goodwill gesture regarding our bonuses. On Saturday I go walking. On Sunday a mate I've not seen for 15 years or more is coming to visit - I'm looking forward to seeing him. On Sunday evening I'm seeing one of my favourite bands that I've not seen since May. Another mate's going to take a look at my laptop. I sold some CDs, games and DVDs.

And when I arrived in my office I was greeted by a soldier ... what a treat.

Today I have to call my car mechanic to see when they can look at my rear end. I didn't think there was much damage but last evening realised I'd lost a nearside tail light and a nearside stop light, so I need to get those sorted before I get pulled by a copper ...

... but if it's a nice copper ...

Welcome back

Due to infection by virus and death by laptop the blog (and the gig list) was taken off air for 2 days over the weekend. Apologies to everyone that tried to hop on and found the temporary notice. I have to get my laptop re-formatted - or replaced - so now am restricted to what I can do from work. Much of my work is done in longhand first anyway, and I can borrow a laptop to do any electronic work. I'll just be limited to my internet work, which probably won't be such a bad thing after all and may do wonders for my addiction.

So, to the weekend ...

Friday started out very bad. Very, very bad indeed. I was called in the early hours and asked to change all my plans for that evening so I could give moral support, and when I got there it was chucked back in my face and I was accused of being a trouble maker. I couldn't be arsed to argue, it wasn't worth it. So I said goodbye and walked away. I reverted back to my original plan and went to see my mates, Heavy Load, over in Doncaster. We had an absolutely fantastic night and I got home on a high.

I did pull one of the finest nutters ever, though, before I'd made it the 4 feet from the door to the bar. Everyone in the room thought it was absolutely hilarious, but by then I was just about sick of loonies and nutters and other lost causes and I wasn't in the mood to entertain him. Fortunately the lovely sound engineer made a human shield of himself because he could tell I wasn't a happy bunny, bless him.

Saturday I had my viral problems and really didn't have time to sit and sulk or analyse or try and work out what I did wrong, and anyway, I didn't do anything wrong. I switched everything off via the mobile phone and had some me time. I also announced the attempted retirement of the nutter magnet ... I won't hold my breath.

Sunday, with no computer, I couldn't start NaNo even if I was going to, and I couldn't start confidential job #1 either. I could have stayed in and sulked that day instead, but I picked myself up and dragged myself over to my local RSPB reserve ... where I wore (amongst other things) a very sexy rain hat (har, har) and got chatted to by 3 different men. I'm meeting one of them again this weekend ... ;o)

I dashed back, had some tea, did a quick lick n slap-on, then collected the keep fat buddy so we could go and see our other mates, Rock Legacy, over in Ackworth. And what a belter of an evening we had with them.

Today I've snuck into the office to abuse the IT facilities. I want to sort out the stuff for confidential job #1, and then I'm going home again. If this job is confirmed, I'll be able to replace the laptop. Fingers crossed.

Apologies

This blog is temporarily suspended due to technical issues that will be resolved as soon as possible.

Apologies for any inconvenience.

NaNo already on hold?

Some of you will be delighted to learn that NaNoWriMo may be on hold this year after all, and all of you will be delighted when you learn the reason why. If confidential job #1 takes off, it has to be in by mid-November. [gulp] This isn't just one article, by the way, or a dinky little English short story. It's a biggie. A 72 page project. [gulp] And I need to work on my sample pages pitch this weekend.

To be honest, I'd rather be doing this. It's a lovely project, lots of fun, and - more importantly - I'll get paid for it. But I go into production on my own (dinky little, in comparison, but it is bi-lingual, and technical, and political ...) magazine on 17 November, which is about my deadline on this job. If I shift my alternate Thursdays off around a bit, after the weekend I can devote 9 whole days to the new project, plus what I can squeeze out of my normal working day and evening - all those NaNo 2 hours, eh?

But [gulp]. No, if I get the go ahead, I'll be delighted. I could do with something to get my teeth into.

Day job
My euphoria over getting my extra pages was short-lived when the 30 pages I was trying to squeeze into 28 became 37 pages trying to squeeze into 32. I lost 3 pages immediately ... I just haven't told all of the authors yet. Hopefully I've also lost the other 2, or moved them to the next issue.

At the moment I'm doing a lot of gazing out the window and staring at either blank or crowded page plans. I'm doodling a lot too, with a pencil. I'm actually working very, very hard, inside my head. But to onlookers I must look like I have nothing to do.

Weekend
Again I have choices - 3 gigs tonight, 3 gigs tomorrow night, including a charity fest, and 2 gigs on Sunday. But I also have my samples to do. I'm feeling a bit Bah! Humbug! about Halloween this year, though, so I really, really will be out Saturday night.

Y'all have a good one.

Snoopy dance

I got my extra 4 pages, so that's 2 32-pagers on the trot. That will probably mean that we'll have to have 2 28-pagers on the trot, but it's less of a headache for me, although still a headache because I got a 3-line whip to include another couple of things, which is good in order to fill the extra 2 pages, but I still have 2 pages over ... Oh well, the joys, eh?

Hands up everyone that got the last-but-one sentence first time ...

See what I mean, though, when I say it's ok to let someone have their way if they have a valid argument? My argument was valid this time, and that makes up for the cover argument I lost last time.

The reference material arrived for confidential job #1 yesterday, a nice big package brought to me from goods inwards. I can't wait to get stuck into this.

I'm driving home in the dark, now, which makes it feel a bit more like winter. We woke to fog and drizzle one day this week, then the next it was glorious sunshine and frost.

Two pages too many

This is my current headache just now. I have 28 pages to fill, but material for 30 pages.

Before we started to "weather the storm" and try and cut costs, I would fight for a 36 page magazine and my boss would fight for a 32 page magazine, although I always thought the best by far were the 40 pagers. We'd take it in turns to win, so long as we had a solid argument. Then we cut the magazine right down to 28 pages to show that we too could cut costs - and it wouldn't be any more cheaper now to have it produced online as many of the costs are in production and setup.

The last magazine, the one that recently came out 3 weeks late, ran to 32 pages. I was delighted, my boss was gracious in defeat, but the deal was 28 pages for the Christmas issue.

And we have 30.

Because printing goes up in 4s, and preferably 8s, 30 is not satisfactory. It all has to go in. What a quandary.

Someone drove into the back of me at a traffic island this morning. We were hardly moving, so I think I'm ok. The car, however, has a bit of dent in the bumper so I'm going to get that checked and costed. He was quite a nice man, and now I have his number. ;o)

PS Alison R - don't be shy, say hi ...

Countdown

I think I've decided to go for it. There are only a few hours left on the poll and while some have passed comment but not voted, I think it's pretty obvious what the majority thinks. [gulp]

Honestly, I do think it will be good. I've pencilled in the diary, ensuring I have 2 hours every day including Friday evenings and weekends, while still maintaining the writing schedule, the day job, the non-fiction, chores and life. I won't like giving up my weekend. I know that already. But maybe at the end of it I'll have got used to writing for 2 hours Monday to Thursday evenings, and if I feel like it, I'll work on a Saturday too - daytime. But at the end of the month I'll give myself the weekends back, including Friday evenings. I'll still have Monday evenings and alternate Thursday evenings during NaNo, so maybe it won't be so hard.

Whatever else I schedule into the diary, during DianeTime, this past few weeks it's the writing jobs that have been crossed off, regularly and mostly on date. What's gone by the wayside has been household chores and the occasional gig. Week 2 looks like it will be hard, but I'm going to give it a go.

I can't take The Beast Within into NaNo. It's not allowed. But I am reading No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty as part of my prep work, and I am going through all the material I already have. Here are the options:

• Stevie Tarot 1: 0 The Fool (contemporary/mystery)
• Catch the Rainbow (historical/mystery - 1974)
• White Horse Farm (romance/intrigue/adventure/contemporary)
• something new and different - probably about pirates (romance/intrigue/adventure/historical)

Some others that really shouldn't be started yet, but are stewing away, include:

• Marcie Craig 3: Snowblind
• Stevie Tarot 2: 1 The Magician
• Hattie's Hotshots (historical/mystery - 1950s/1960s)
• Marcie Craig 4: Killer Queen
• Stevie Tarot 3: 2 The High Priestess
• Cider and Sympathy (historical/saga - early 1900s)
• Marcie Craig 5: Burn
• Stevie Tarot 4: 3 The Empress (you can see where I'm going with this, can't you?)

I know my friends are worried about me taking on too much, but I've been doing this for so long now, I really do think I should at least give it a shot. After all, next year I hope to be even more busy than I am this year with the new projects coming through.

Anyone fancy joining me at NaNo? Whip-crackers get ready.

I remembered the clocks

For the first time ever I remembered to change the clocks on the evening before I ran around like the proverbial fly the next day then realising I'd got the time wrong. I changed the clocks during the commercial breaks on telly.

I didn't do much at the weekend at all. My shopping came in at just over budget, so I stayed in for the rest of the weekend, having a no-spend time to try and claw some back. I didn't go to any gigs, I didn't go for my walk, I didn't leave the house. I had a lovely relaxing time, got lots of reading, sleeping and writing done, as well as the usual chores.

Today I started the gig list for November. I only did the venues so far and already it's taken an entire morning. The gig list is one of the things I'll be considering for the new year: does it stay or does it go? As it gets bigger and bigger, I meet more and more lovely new people, and gradually more and more start to rely on it. But it takes a huge chunk out of my working month every month. So it's time to reconsider, or maybe consider getting it automated or something. If it costs me less to pay someone to do it than it costs me in lost paid work, that's also a consideration ...

So I've also been doing some thinking at the weekend.

This morning it was my friend's funeral service. I couldn't make it in the end, but I'll remember her in my own way and think of the fun times we used to have.

Tall person required

Two of the 3 lightbulbs in my kitchen have gone and the ceilings are so high in my house I can't reach when I stand on a chair, and it's a major expedition to extract the stepladder from where it's stowed away. Every time I need the stepladder I have to plan it down to the finest detail.

So I'll make do with a tall person, i.e. someone taller than me, to stand on the chair and change the bulbs for me. They're dinky spots and are notorious for just working themselves loose, and that's really annoying when I've gone to all the trouble of getting the steps, but they might need actual changing this time.

Library
I didn't need to leave early to check my hair appointment. While hunting for my library ticket I found the appointment card and it was for 4:30pm instead of 4pm. The fact that it was "lost" was why it wasn't in the diary. That gave me an extra half an hour in the house, and a bit more time to explore the library.

I'm starting to fall in love with my library. The books aren't as tatty as I seem to remember them from childhood. Perhaps I should have given it a go again sooner.

Study
Yesterday was Exercise 3 of Devon's 5 in 10 (reprise). I've chosen 1 of 2 newspaper cuttings and need to come up with 1,000 - 1,200 words. The way I'm romping through my schedule at the moment, it should be easy enough to add this in, and my next "gap" is for a short story, so that's handy. Already there's something stewing, but I won't write anything yet as it needs to stew some more, and it's a "heavy" topic. I have made notes, though.

I had a think about my Writers' Bureau exercise hoping to identify an article I'm already writing further down the schedule. It won't fit, though. That means I have to visit a local fair, exhibition, or show and try and come up with 300 - 500 words, including quotes. Blimey. Then I have to write 150-word outlines for 2 more local interest articles, and write one of them up to 250 - 500 words. These are very short so should be easy. Finding the material is the difficult part.

Day job
Today I'm busy structuring the magazine, contacting contributors. I already have a cover this time, but I'm hoping the pictures will be fabulous enough.

The weekend
I can't believe it's Friday again already. That's what happens when you take an impromptu day off in the middle of the week. The working week suddenly becomes even shorterer. I haven't thought about what I'm doing at the weekend.

Today, on my way home, I need to shop. The freezer is looking startlingly empty and my list is HUGE. It's going to be a biggie. And on Sunday I want to go for a walk (and write a walk review). But aside from that, my weekend this weekend is anybody's guess.

Have a goodun.