SueJEaton

For those of you who are interested in procrastination (and aren’t we all at some time or another) I have been working hard at perfecting this art.

Thursday’s are put aside for literature, either reading or writing or both. A bit of filing, book reviews, following leads, catching up with book fairs, competitions or ComicCons may be necessary as well. Filling in diary dates as well as crossing off thse completed.

This morning I sat down knowing I had a number of things to do so I started by planning my day. I mean, 30 minutes of planning can save you hours over the day can’t it?

I began a list – there was that word LIST.

Immediately I found myself lost in the satisfying world of list making. A well-ordered list looks so efficient. I won’t forget anything if it’s on a list. I can work through it, cross off each completed task (I have a special pen for that) and sit back with a warm glow of a job well done.

Only that’s not how it works. In reality any task begun gives rise to others which join the list. The list then has to be broken down into subject areas such as THE WIP, COMPETITIONS, SUBMISSION FOLLOW-UP, BOOK FAIRS/COMIC-CONS.

By now it’s time for coffee. After coffee I put the lists into Excel because they look pretty and I can colour each completed task in. I usually print the lists so I can pin them up and see at a glance what I should be doing if I wasn’t procrastinating.

Heavens to Betsy – is that the time?

As I said, last week I’ve been struggling with an ending for my WIP. I’ve come up with a solution – we’ll see how that pans out in the long run. That’s for the future.

However, I took chapter 2 to my writing group last night. I was happy with it to a point. As I read it out I felt it was a bit of a clunky info dump but I need the reader to understand where we are and what is going on.

Luckily for me the lovely people there, although feeling the same, were able to give me some ideas that hopefully will make it more interesting.

I’m not going to dump what I’ve written, that can be stored for another time. It may come in handy even if I never use it.

So – short chat as I want to get this idea down before I lose the impetus.

I have reached a bit of a conundrum regarding my WIP.

Initially, I intended it to be a novella in which a motley group of individuals escape from the tyranny of an alien race who invaded the Earth.

I’m not a planner.

I try to be but everything goes it’s own way one the fingers start typing.

I mean, Danielle was only supposed to be a supporting character but she’s pushed herself forward to the point of being the lead protagonist.

It’s not a problem to me but I’m now wondering how to finish this.

It’s over 43,000 words now and will most likely reach the 50,000 word mark – the novella length I was working to.

The motley groups have joined forces and are within an hour of arriving in Scotland and safety.

Do I –

a) finish once they are safe?

b) have them joining the resistance and continue the fight?

c) find a solution to the world-wide problem?

d) use b and/or c to start a new book?

This is not necessarily a rhetorical question.

Many thanks to the Renegade Writer’s group for helping me with this. Their advice is worth its weight in gold.

#dystopian, #dystopianstories #horror, #horrorstories, #scifi, #scifistories, #coronabooks, waterdragonpubs, #theceresillusion.

For some reason it has taken me until now to restart normal service after the Christmas hiatus.

Don’t ask me why. We’ve had a few family health problems so the year didn’t get off to a good start but I blame the weather.

Some decent snow, while cold and wet is preferable to this continual rain. At least snow is pretty and covers the state of the garden instead of ruining it further. Frosty mornings are beautiful and get rid of germs and pests. Rain just encourages them.

Anyway I am getting back on track. I’ve picked up my WIP ‘The Third Woe’.

#scifi, #dystopian, #scifistories, #dystopianfiction, #coronabooks, #waterdragonpubs

I’ve joined a book club in the village and met some lovely new people.

I’ve booked a table for the village car boot sale in March.

I’m back to the writing group I belong to.

I have also bought two coins for my collection now that Christmas is paid for.

One is a beautiful half farthing dated 1843 and the other a fine 1860 farthing.

The arrival of the farthing this morning has cheered me up despite the constant rain and the fact that I remember them being legal tender.

Long may it continue – the cheery bit, not the rain.

I have been eating differently for the past two and a half weeks. I hesitate to call it a diet because that now has slimming connotations but it is a change of eating habits. My daughter is using it to combat Type 2 diabetes and I’m doing it because it saves on washing up.

The first week was great. My overloaded stomach from all the Christmas food welcomed the change. It’s not terribly different from what we normally eat, just no starchy carbs and sweet desserts. The veggie soup has an assortment of herbs to help with diabetes/pre-diabetes and arthritis. I lost 8 pounds and am walking better already.

Week two and I was raring to carry on. I lost inches rather than weight and joints are feeling better. I also feel more alert and less tired even though I’ve been standing in the frozen rain on the school run for more afternoons than usual.

Week three? We went to the theatre last night. I’d booked a table in the restaurant when I booked the tickets (last year). We were okay because we could have the ham salad which fitted in with the plan. The people around us? They were eating raspberry and gin cheesecake, gooey looking cream thingies and (my favourite) prawn cocktail smothered in Marie rose sauce.

It’s beginning to tell now. This morning I fancied toast. Malted seeded crusts, toasted in a hot grill to turn the outer surface golden while keeping the inside soft, ready to soak up the slabs of fresh butter and topped with a tangy glaze of marmite.

What did I have? Porridge with nuts, seeds and cinnamon. Nice but not toast.

The other good thing is, as I feel more alert I have now got over my writer’s block concerning my WIP, The Third Woe. I know exactly where I want it to go and just need to get on with it .

I know some people prefer a nice book to reading on a Kindle. I like a book too. They look lovely lined up on my brag-shelf.

However, as I get older I do find there are advantages to using a kindle. Kindles are easy to slip in your pocket or bag when going out. I can alter the print size to suit my needs and I don’t need to get up to turn off the bedroom light just as I’m falling to sleep, snug and warm and wrapped around a cat.

My very short novella, The Boyfriend, which is set around Valentine’s Day, is just too short to prompt a hard copy.

I am trying to write stories that will fit with its themes in order to have enough content to make publication viable.

Unfortunately, the older I get, the slower ideas seem to form. Add life (Don’t talk to me about life) to the mix and the struggle gets harder.

Normally, a bit of adversity helps as I find refuge in fiction but not this time.

What I need is some fine weather so I can lose myself in my garden. It’s the best place I know to think and create.

#horror #horrorstories #valentinesday #coronabooks #pschologicalhorror #psychologicalcrime

I know January is renowned for being a long month but this year it seems longer than ever. There’s a number of reasons for this but none of them really pertain to me, mostly it’s other family members. Although this does mean I am struggling to get back into routine.

For the first time that I can remember I have enough money in the bank that I don’t need to be constantly counting the days until pay day, we’re getting on top of things around the Eaton estate and there are fun plans for the immediate future. The weather is reasonably good and I’ve recently delivered our church magazine invoices without sliding about on footpaths and down drives.

I sold a number of my latest sci-fi book The Ceres Illusion at the Ellesmere Port ComicCon last Saturday and I have highlighted a number of writing competitions to enter so I’m going to get cracking and hope that this is my year.

#scfi,#scfistories#horrorstories,#horror#theceresillusion#waterdragon,#coronabooks

I write because I like making up stories. If my tales make other people happy then I am happy.

Of course it would be nice to make some money although I’m not convinced I’d like to be famous. I like to be able to pop to the chippy without any one giving me a second glance, especially if I’m wearing old tat and slippers.

As a child I wanted to have a proper book out there with my name on the cover. It was one of my goals in life. I had three, goals that is, – four if you count the dog.

1. I wanted to be a teacher, which I was for forty years. I wasn’t sure what age group I wanted to teach and ended up in special education and taught the whole range from 2 to adult.

2. I wanted a child, not so bothered about getting married but I did that anyway. I was lucky enough to have a girl and a boy

3, I wanted to write a book worth publishing.

4. …and own a dog.

I’ve achieved all of them …

                                           … now I need three more.

Well, 2024 has got off to a slow start. This is partly due to the fact that I am inclined to the Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian which everyone else uses.

To me the new year starts when the world awakes from the winter cold in March.

I never used to mind the winter, in fact I enjoyed the dark nights, sharp cold days and snow.

Thinking about it now reminds me of the endless Christmas parties we seemed to have as children.

We would be wrapped up in scarves, gloves and hats and hurry in friendly gangs through the dark ginnels to either the Parish Rooms or the British Legion for meat paste sandwiches, jelly and condensed milk, and sticky buns with lashings of diluted orange squash.

We’d play party games such as Oranges and Lemons and The Big Ships Sail and our only worry would be would Father Christmas bring us what we’d asked for.

I still enjoy the bright, cold frosty days despite the fact that cold gets into my joints and makes them ache. As for the party food – well I can’t imagine that being served up today.

My experiment to check out Douglas Adams’ theory that flying is easy left me struggling over the Christmas period.

For those of you who don’t know/have forgotten Adam’s suggests that flying is easy because all you have to do is throw yourself at the floor and miss. I didn’t – miss that is.

I hurt my right shoulder to point that it still hurts now in January and my arm refuses to do some basic tasks which I consider essential. These include getting properly dressed, opening doors and pouring a drink.

You are right in thinking that I could pour a drink with my left hand but rearranging underpinnings does require two unless you want the dressed-by-a-toddler’ look.

Typing is difficult as well, hence the gap in posts. Fortunately I appear to be on the mend and things are slowly getting back to normal – anything I still can’t cope with is therefore my own problem.