Diary of a Tiger: Thu 29 Sep 2022

Image by Jan Barkmann from Pixabay
Chapter 34: Thursday 29 September – or ‘there should be a “portable garden this week” post here, but we’ve not done anything yet…’

I managed to get some ghostwriting done on Tuesday and carried on after the poet got home until tea was ready. Then I went in to send an update to the client and saw that I’d promised him Part 2 on Wednesday and not Tuesday, which was a bonus.

A quick job I did was update the gallery for the drafted final post in my publishing challenge. I only have a few more weeks to go before the challenge is completed and it meant I created the covers for the last 2 books that didn’t currently have covers. The Bonfire Party is the last book in the 54-week challenge, and I already had the cover for that.

I made it a 54-week challenge because the gallery grid worked better that way at 9 full rows x 6 columns rather than the 9th row only having 4 books in it. This means there are only 5 weeks to go and I don’t have to write anything new between then and now, but I do have one story to finish for Flash Fiction 3.

Last job of the day was when I realised I’d made the wrong cover for Five Slightly Sinister Short Stories. The collections of five stories are a bit different to the other collections as there’s a coloured bar along the top and the bottom, rather than a full page image. (If the images aren’t working properly on your hand-held device, try turning it on its side into landscape mode.)

I went in and changed it – I did it a lot quicker than I thought I would – then changed it on Draft2Digital. First thing Wednesday morning, I also changed it on Wednesday’s blog post. Off I pootled to see if the change had taken effect in any of the bookstores yet, and it had. That’s pretty amazing.

Then I had an email off the ghostwriting client asking for an update, and when I went in to reply I saw that I’d read a previous email promising something by ‘Wednesday’ and not the latest one, which did actually promise it to him by ‘Tuesday’. So I had to send an apology.

This week seems to have been a week of errors so far…

During the house move I somehow sprained my left thumb hinge-joint. I first noticed it a week ago last Monday and by yesterday it was still paining me. Honestly, you don’t know how much you use your thumb until it’s injured, even on your non-dominant hand. We found a wrist strap that went around the thumb. It didn’t really immobilise it a great deal, but it did remind me not to use it.

I wore the wrist strap all day yesterday and hope it had an effect. It was only a little difficult to type and I only made a few typing mistakes.

The poet spent some time sorting out the office. While I like working at the dining table, I do miss having a full-sized keyboard and monitor to work with, and my neck was getting stiffer and more achey from peering DOWN at the screen instead of straight ahead. So the sooner I could at least work at my desk, even if the office wasn’t actually complete, the better.

This is how the office looked before the poet started to get stuck in.

I’m currently reading Organize Your Writing Life by me ol’ pal Devon Ellington. Devon has been an inspiration to me for a very long time and reading this topic workbook right now, as we get the office up and running again, is a huge help and a big kick up the bum. I was itching to get going on some of the exercises, but knew I couldn’t until I was back at my desk again. That’s my real desk, not one end of the dining table.

A couple of times I helped with organising the office, mostly because I could hardly wait to be in there but also to help find a certain something or two. We changed the curtains over, because the temporary ones were too long once the desks were against the wall, and I was delighted to have found a pair that actually fit. The red, shiny curtains that worked are a pair my good friend Sharon made for me for the house, 11 or 12 years ago.

So that’s 2 pairs of curtains we brought with us that fit somewhere – the office curtains and the dining room curtains. We just have to fix the tieback hooks and both those rooms will have finished windows.

The poet needed his desk to be workable too, for work. So it was a priority. By the end of the morning, we at least had us both in there and working. Things still need to go on shelves and on walls, and the curtain tiebacks need to go up. But look at those curtains for a good fit. I might still turn them up a couple of inches, but with the tiebacks they might be perfect as they are.

By the end of the day, at least we could both work in the office.
This is my view of the garden from the office – that hedge is a storey high and is filled with things like hawthorn and holly. There’s even a conker (horse chestnut) tree there.

It was great being back at my proper desk again but for most of the day I worked on the ghostwriting, finishing at gone 11pm. I called it a night with a plan to start early this morning and plod on throughout the day. It should be easier now I’m back in my office.


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3 thoughts on “Diary of a Tiger: Thu 29 Sep 2022

  1. Glad you just about survived the house move! I got fed up seeing boxes everywhere, so bought about ten ottomans, all foldable, small and large, different colours for different rooms, emptied boxes out, just a temporary solution but stuff was out of sight and seats everywhere, which the cats love! The office looks nice now it’s finished!

      1. wow! that’s a while back, we have since bought another one which is better, compatible with hubby’s mobile, so you can either keep it if it of any use to you or sell it and donate the money to Barnsley Hospice? 🙂

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