And here we are already, in the last few days of July.
I have a calendar on the wall over my desk. It’s a Christmas gift every year from the poet. Usually the pictures were of dachshunds, but this year it’s donkeys. I use it every day. Every Single Day. I write on it, I mark things off on it, and I stick stickers to it, stickers that remind me we have a dental appointment or a Monkey Dust gig or when we have one of the dogs for a few days.
Earlier in the week, when I was suffering with and getting over Covid (did I mention we both had Covid last week?), one of the faffy things was to order some new stickers. Stickers that will remind us which bin needs to go out on a Tuesday or when to order and/or collect our repeat prescriptions or when I have an assignment due.
Little things please little minds, and I like the touchy-feely colourful sensations I get, plus the reminders help.
On Friday, my order arrived 2 days early. And I spent a little time at my desk adding those little coloured wheelie bins to the calendar to the end of the year, adding in a couple of Monkey Dust gigs I hadn’t put on yet because they’re new, adding some ‘holiday’ stickers and some ‘bank holiday’ stickers, that kind of thing. It was nice and relaxing and made the calendar look even more colourful.
My next job was Friday’s blog post. I’d started it on Thursday, but then fell down a *writing* (for a change) rabbit hole working on Catch the Rainbow. So I quickly finished it (it was short and sweet), chose the picture, and posted it. I must remember this week to add in the latest Magic Bakery posts too… [toddles off to add the extra bit at the bottom to this one and to tomorrow’s draft post]
Gosh, I hadn’t done it since 9 July! And as there were 2 more chapters, not 1, I started tomorrow’s post as well and amended the link at the bottom.
Today should have been publication day for the bookazine, but as I lost a lot of time last week, it’s been pushed back to Thursday, so it still, at least, lands during July. I had a few last-minute changes to Catch the Rainbow, which is the 4-part serial from this issue. So I dedicated time on Friday to that, moving everything else along to today.
We should have been away the weekend before the one just gone. There was an annual national fishing competition in Lincolnshire we were going to. But the poet had tested positive, and we had to cancel the campsite at the last minute. We couldn’t cancel our tickets to the event, but they were only £9 each, so no huge loss there.
It was televised anyway, so we were able to watch it, on and off throughout the day, with the poet wrapped in a blanket. It didn’t stop raining for the entire day and the site was like a quagmire, so we were glad we hadn’t been able to go and instead able to watch in the comfort, warmth and dry of our own home!
We’d originally booked the August bank holiday week off, but we hadn’t decided where to go. And then the poet realised he didn’t have enough holidays left. So we decided to cancel the week away. I booked a hair appointment for during a weekend close to the bank holiday. But there’s another annual national fishing competition in Evesham for the same weekend. So I moved the hair appointment to the following week while the poet looked for campsite availability.
Both the campervan and my car have their MOTs due at the beginning of August. So the next tasks were for the poet to check the exact dates and for him to let me know when we can follow each other up there. Once he’d done that, I made the phone call. My car goes in first, and it needs the air-con looking at again. Then the van goes in, and we already know that needs the handbrake and the passenger door seal looking at.
Everything was then added to the diaries and I carried on with Catch the Rainbow.
The poet made us both something to eat, then an hour or so later he asked if I wanted a piece of freshly baked bread! I did say in reply to a comment that he was full of beans on Friday!
I asked the sticker creator on Etsy if she could do me a set with ‘PUBLICATION DAY’ on. She replied by return that she’d give it a go, and within minutes she’d sent me an example. What a breath of fresh air to finally see some actual good customer care. She got the order too.
Weekend update will follow tomorrow.
The magic bakery
A few years ago I stumbled across a book called The Magic Bakery by Dean Wesley Smith. Originally written in 2017, this book turned on a lightbulb inside my head and enabled me to see copyright in a whole different glow.
One of the first things I did, after reading this book, was start my own magic bakery. And in one 12-month period, I published around 56 books: short stories; collections; novellas; novels; and non-fiction books. Fifty-six of ‘em. I’ve added to them since, but those books now provide me with a steady trickle of income. Passive income.
Well, the magic bakery is back, but this time Smith is updating it, chapter by chapter, first on his website, then in a class, and then in a new and updated book. Here’s chapter thirteen.
I’ll carry on linking to the chapters, as they appear, so that you guys have some understanding of what I’m banging on about when I persist in talking about my magic bakery. And I’ll repeat this bit of blurb every time for first-time readers.
For those of you who’d rather read them as Smith posts them himself, rather than when I get around to it, you can go straight to his website here.
Isn’t that lovely when it comes together! That’s why individual creators are often so much better than corporations.
And it sounds like you both are recovering well, which is also good.
If nothing else, she’s ensured she’s always my first go-to now for stickers.
We do feel a lot better, thank you.