Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Bit of this, bit of that

April started off well with the play. No news of the next performance yet. I've settled back into my quiet evenings at home. The beginning of the new season of Game of Thrones has eased my mind a little ;-)

Driving is going absolutely fantastic. Don't get me wrong, I still hate it, but I'm getting more proficient. I get in about three hours practice every week and keep up with my EDT lessons once a fortnight. I have completed seven EDT lessons so far. I need to do another five before I can apply to do my practical test. I really hope to pass first time! Then, it will be plain sailing, hopefully.

Easter came and went. So far over the school holidays, we have gone swimming, fed the ducks in the park, had late movie nights and visited Blackrock. Not very eventful, but we still have half a week to go. Going to squeeze in a few play dates!
Ice cream at the 'Rock'

We're very excited about next weekend. We are going to Bellurgan Park for Vantastival. We are camping for the whole weekend with another family for company. I was just doing my list of essentials today. We camped once last year, you can read about that here. So, I have most of the gear already. We are camping for three nights, but there will be loads of facilities and shops on site for anything we need. 

In writing, I'm out of the ABNA contest. I got two decent reviews from the Viners, so I'm not too disappointed. I have queried a few more agents with DITC. Fingers crossed for a positive result!

I have been working on Allie's Return for Camp NaNo but it has been slow going with distractions from DITC. It still feels unfinished and I keep going back to edit. My brain says to leave it rest and continue with AR, but my fingers click into DITC every time my laptop powers up and I get lost in it!

Time for more coffee and get back to Allie's Return!

Hope you all had a great Easter!

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Good morning, from sunny Ireland!

Well, it's over, the play I mean. I had such fun and can't wait till the next time I have that opportunity. Being a single mum means I'm pretty much tied to the house after Beth goes to bed. She stays with her dad one night at the weekend, so the rest of the time I'm on my own. Luckily, my Mum is there for me if there's something I need to do. Of course, I wouldn't be asking her to do that every week (Mum babysat five nights last week, my brother did one). It was liberating to do something that was just for me.

Now, I'm back to normal. Sunday night I didn't really notice as my sister called over, but last night, I was really feeling stuck. It can get awfully lonely. Most of the time I don't notice it. I like to have the remote control to myself. I suppose I'm feeling it more because last week I had the chance to do something different. I forgot what it was like to do things in the evening. On the first day, I walked home at around 7pm, still bright, but with that definite evening feel to the air. It felt wonderful, like I was breaking the rules.

I'll have to go back to writing in the evenings, just to escape this trapped feeling.

Camp NaNo is now a week in and I've no word count to speak of. Going to try to change that today. I've drafted a few ideas on where I want to take the characters, but need to get writing. I want to finish Allie's Return by the end of April. My goal this year is to self-publish both Devil in the Clouds and Allie's Return. DITC could be on Amazon by June, AR by October. Then I'll leave myself free to start a brand new book in November's NaNoWriMo. Sounds straight forward, eh? Hmm...

Right, time to write :-)