Category: writer at work

13 July 2023

Thursday 13 July 2023: I wrote a short story set on a ship

The very last thing I did before going to sleep on Tuesday night was plot out the storyline for The City of Glasgow. I used Story Plotter on my phone. It’s not the best plotting app/program I have. That’s by far and without doubt Plottr. but I don’t have Plottr on my phone as I haven’t yet been able to...

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12 July 2023

Wednesday 12 July 2023: Multi-tasking

I had a really good start to the day by remembering the People’s Friend writing hour on Twitter. So I got up and dressed in record time instead of languishing in bed. Over breakfast I read another chapter of set book 1 for the fantasy thriller writing workshop before moving to the office. I did a few admin-y things, but...

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11 July 2023

Tuesday 11 July 2023: A bit behind

The poet was up with the lark on Monday morning because he had a long drive south for a two-day business conference. And he really was driving to the bottom of the country almost. I did get up with him to see him off, then I went back to bed and set the alarm from just over an hour. I...

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10 July 2023

Monday 10 July 2023: Down came the rain

We were both really tired on Thursday night. Probably the previous few weeks catching up on us. I struggled to get up on Friday and was Very Late to my desk. I did catch up on social media and emails over breakfast, as well as read another chapter of one of my set books for the fantasy thriller writing workshop....

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7 July 2023

Friday 7 July 2023: 200 words a day

Wednesday didn’t turn out to be one of my better days. I hardly had any sleep Tuesday night and after my emergency run to the vet, I came home and crashed out on the bed. I didn’t wake up until the poet came home from work. It was already quite late by then and I hadn’t done any work. All...

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6 July 2023

Holly

This is tough. I’m not writing this for sympathy or for loads and loads of comments. I’m writing this so that all the lovely people who cared about Holly disappearing know that she came home. I’m writing this so that all the lovely people who shared my FB posts or who looked for her or who offered support and advice...

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5 July 2023

Wednesday 5 July 2023: Cranking up the machine

I was having a slow and leisurely start to Tuesday, until I remembered it was the People’s Friend writing hour on Twitter at 11am. Usually I’m late or in a rush to get there or I completely forget about it. It *is* in the diary now, as a weekly event. But if I don’t check my diary, I still forget...

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4 July 2023

Tuesday 4 July 2023: Happy Fourth of July!

Happy 4th of July to all of my American friends and readers. Have a super day. Saturday On Saturday morning I hung out some washing, wrote our meal plan for the week and the shopping list, and off we went to get the shopping. We started at the butcher and moved on to the supermarket. When we got home we...

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3 July 2023

Monday 3 July 2023: The month ahead

What a lovely, sunny, cheerful flower. I think yellow is my favourite colour. Friday I knew Friday would be a busy day as it was the day I had to do all the old month/new month stuff. As usual, I checked social media and emails over breakfast, and I read another chapter of the NetGalley book. I’d finished the writing...

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30 June 2023

Friday 30 June 2023: June wrap-up

I was pretty much up with the poet on Thursday morning. He was off on another longish drive to one of his sites, but it was an hour later than the previous two days. So I was pretty much up with him. Over breakfast I did my usual social media and email catchup. I exchanged a couple of texts with...

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29 June 2023

Thursday 29 June 2023: Lots of reading

There was one thing I was struggling with on Affinity Publisher that I really wanted to sort out in my head. I couldn’t get the background of my magazine cover to go translucent. I’d found the transparency slider and an opaque slider, but nothing was working. Overnight, while I slept, I must have had a bit of a brain murmur...

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28 June 2023

Wednesday 28 June 2023: The machine worked but the tech got me

I finished playing with Affinity Publisher on Sunday evening just as Elton John was finishing his set at Glastonbury. I will definitely use Publisher and I have used Affinity Photo in the past, when it was still called Serif. I’m not sure I’ll get much use out of Affinity Design, unless… I can use it to create maps of my...

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27 June 2023

Tuesday 27 June 2023: A shiny new toy

Friday was a bit of a lazy day in which I didn’t get through a lot of work, but I did do some things. Like hanging washing on the line, putting crocks in the dishwasher, that kind of thing. Friday I started to read the next book for NetGalley, alongside the Fiction River Pulse Pounders anthology I started for the writing...

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23 June 2023

Friday 23 June 2023: A bit worried…

I was starting to get a bit concerned about the Brevo thing. They didn’t respond to my last email. The email they sent before that was threatening to close my apparently inactive account. And the email I sent them first thing yesterday morning didn’t even garner an auto-response. Call me a bluff old cynic, but I’d say there’s something going...

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22 June 2023

Thursday 22 June 2023: Bumbling along

I slept really well on Tuesday night, and so did the dog. Which is probably why I slept so well. I had to wake him up he was in such a deep sleep. Once I’d done the usual social media and email stuff over dinner, I started to read the next book on my pile. I’m not allowed to discuss...

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21 June 2023

Wednesday 21 June 2023: More rain

Yesterday began with me checking social media and emails while I had breakfast, and then I went straight into finishing the current book for NetGalley. I really enjoyed this one and I’m looking forward to the second one in the series, which I also have from NetGalley. The night before I’d spotted a big black cat eating the chicken I’d...

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20 June 2023

Tuesday 20 June 2023: A thunderstorm at last

We had thunderstorms forecast for the entire weekend and, naturally, I was keeping a close eye on them all via my app. Saturday On Saturday I wanted to go to the Murder in the Rhubarb Triangle crime reading event in Wakefield. We even tentatively arranged for the MiL to look after the dog. But with the new bed arriving on...

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19 June 2023

Monday 19 June 2023: New bed, new bedding

We had to get up early on Friday because our new bed was coming. I asked if they could give me an idea of what time, and they said any time between 8am and 5pm, adding that it might actually be 8:30am onwards. So we got up early, stripped the bed, hung the bedding on the washing line to try and...

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16 June 2023

Friday 16 June 2023: New bed day

I was at my desk on time, having caught up on social media and email over breakfast. I also read another two chapters of the NetGalley book and I shared the gig list post. But I did go out and change the dirty washing hanging on the line. Hopefully if Holly’s wandering in the vicinity, she’ll recognise the smell and...

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15 June 2023

Thursday 15 June 2023: Long night ahead

The weather is a lot more bearable at the moment, despite the storms never arriving. There’s a cool, fresh breeze and that makes a massive difference inside the house when the doors and windows are open and the curtains closed. We have rain forecast next week, all week. But as the thunderstorms managed to go around us every day this...

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14 June 2023

Wednesday 14 June 2023: I found a writing podcast

I don’t know how I did it. I think a Twitter pal has been taking part in their 200-words-a-day challenge and I followed the link from there, tripped slightly, and fell down a rabbit hole… The challenge is three years old, now I’ve been looking for a UK-based podcast for a while, and when I followed the link to their...

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13 June 2023

Tuesday 13 June 2023: These storms keep missing us

I don’t have a ‘my power board this week’ post this week. This is because it looks exactly the same as it did last week. And it looks exactly the same because, quite frankly, the plan went to pot when I woke up with a streaming cold last Monday. I had Tuesday off and much of Wednesday was spent on...

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12 June 2023

Monday 12 June 2023: Editing, editing, editing

I didn’t work too late into the evening on Thursday and when the poet called to say he was on his way home from band practice, I finished the chapter I was working on and caught up with my online workshops for another day. We had takeaway for tea. I didn’t eat it all, but we also had chocolate. I...

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9 June 2023

Friday 9 June 2023: Full steam ahead

I didn’t think I was very hungry on Wednesday at tea time, but the poet made the dinner we should have had on Sunday and I ate it all. All of it. Then we had raspberries and ice cream for pudding, and all of that went as well. That was followed by a few munchies. And then he made us...

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8 June 2023

Thursday 8 June 2023: I’m so retro

Here’s how the rest of yesterday panned out. I put on my big girl pants, got in my own darned car, drove to a real, bricks-and-mortar bank, and paid in real money. Then I went to a real, bricks-and-mortar post office, and sent some real letters. How retro am I? I got home seconds before the poet. I thought I...

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7 June 2023

Wednesday 7 June 2023: Too much red tape

I left everyone dangling on Monday. Here’s how that day went. Monday Monday started with me waking up feeling rough as $h!t. (Excuse my language.) I’d spent most of the night coughing or drowning and caved in and had two flu pills at about 5am. Those seemed to work and I at least got some sleep. I felt so bad...

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6 June 2023

Sombre day

I was going to write up how yesterday went for today’s post, but it didn’t seem fitting. So I’m going to save it for later in the week. Today is the day of our mother’s funeral. We have arranged pet cover and will be driving down to the midlands, where we’ll meet up with my sister and brother and their...

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5 June 2023

Monday 5 June 2023: The power board this week

Friday was a fair day, work-wise. The poet had a LOT of meetings in the morning, and a few in the afternoon too. When I realised that I wouldn’t get anything creative done unless I put my earphones in, I decided to something mechanical instead. I wrote up a meal plan for this week and a shopping list. Well, it...

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