0 201  2 Comments on Friday 5 July 2024: Distracted
Posted in writer at work

Friday 5 July 2024: Distracted

I was very late to my desk yesterday. Two hours late. Not good enough. I’d had another rough night, but still. Perhaps if I get up at the right time…

0 151  4 Comments on Thursday 4 July 2024: General Election
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Thursday 4 July 2024: General Election

We had a naked prawn linguine for tea on Tuesday, which was delicious, followed by meringue nests with fruit and yoghurt (for me) and ice cream (for him). While he…

0 196  2 Comments on Wednesday 3 July 2024: Productive day
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Wednesday 3 July 2024: Productive day

After a bit of a rough night, we were up relatively early to take the poet to the dentist. He was full of cold (hence the rough night) and secretly…

0 186  2 Comments on Tuesday 2 July 2024: The month ahead
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Tuesday 2 July 2024: The month ahead

We had a lovely Friday/Saturday with grand-doggy #1. We took him for a stroll on Friday night and returned him to his humans at around 11:30 the following morning. We…

0 172  2 Comments on Monday 1 July 2024: June wrap-up
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Monday 1 July 2024: June wrap-up

Ohmygosh, I forgot to post my June wrap-up on Friday! That’s what happens when the first and/or last days of the month fall at the weekend! Here’s a quick run-through…

0 193  3 Comments on Friday 28 June 2024: Executive decision
Posted in writer at work

Friday 28 June 2024: Executive decision

I was at my desk fairly early on Thursday morning as I had a dentist appointment in the middle of the day, for which I had to factor in travel…

0 196  2 Comments on Thursday 27 June 2024: Success!
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Thursday 27 June 2024: Success!

The plan was to step away from the newsletter for a day or so and get on with some other work. However, there was one thing I wanted to do:…

0 180  4 Comments on Wednesday 26 June 2024: Newsletter imminent
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Wednesday 26 June 2024: Newsletter imminent

Last few pics from Poland. Again, only for illustrative purposes. I started Tuesday by finishing Monday’s jobs, the first one being yesterday’s blog. Once that was done, I forced myself…

0 187  4 Comments on Tuesday 25 June 2024: Back to work!
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Tuesday 25 June 2024: Back to work!

I’ve included a few more scenes from Poland today, but only for illustrative purposes. It took me a while to get going on Monday. First of all, it was the…

0 225  6 Comments on Monday 24 June 2024: Poland
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Monday 24 June 2024: Poland

We got up on time on Tuesday morning last week and headed south to East Midland Airport. It’s not the nicest of airports and we didn’t have the best experience…

0 157  2 Comments on Thursday 20 June 2024: More writing!
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Thursday 20 June 2024: More writing!

After a late night on Sunday submitting the cosy mystery for the anthology, Monday started later than usual. Over breakfast, though, I dealt with emails, one of which had come…

0 194  2 Comments on Wednesday 19 June 2024: Busy weekend #2
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Wednesday 19 June 2024: Busy weekend #2

Sunday was Father’s Day and I had up to 2 stories to write and a blog post. One of the stories, THE KNIGHT OF WANDS, had to be in by…

0 156  2 Comments on Tuesday 18 June 2024: Busy weekend #1
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Tuesday 18 June 2024: Busy weekend #1

Gosh, Saturday was a busy day. The bank account took a bit of a bashing too. At the top of the day I received a reply from DEADLINES FOR WRITERS,…

0 237  2 Comments on Monday 17 June 2024: Seem to be getting there
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Monday 17 June 2024: Seem to be getting there

Friday morning began with the client edit pdf proof landing. This has also gone to the author and to a proofreader. Once we’ve all had a look, I’ll consolidate the…

0 183  2 Comments on Friday 14 June 2024: Re-subscribe
Posted in writer at work

Friday 14 June 2024: Re-subscribe

Before reading any further, if you’re a subscriber to the blog (not the newsletter) and you’re not receiving your email notifications, I think you need to subscribe again. You can…

0 229  5 Comments on Thursday 13 June 2024: Starting a routine
Posted in writer at work

Thursday 13 June 2024: Starting a routine

Having identified no fixed routine as a possible problem when doing my work (or not doing it, as the case too often turns out), I started to make a plan….

0 243  2 Comments on Wednesday 12 June 2024: Durham
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Wednesday 12 June 2024: Durham

My jolly to Durham wasn’t quite as productive as I hoped it would be. In fact, it wasn’t productive at all. There are a few reasons for this, but the…

0 255  4 Comments on Tuesday 11 June 2024: A turtle dove!
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Tuesday 11 June 2024: A turtle dove!

As ever, we had a nice weekend, starting with a successful Monkey Dust gig on Friday night. We had a lot of fun and the band itself filled the venue…

0 244  4 Comments on Monday 10 June 2024: Playing with covers… (again)
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Monday 10 June 2024: Playing with covers… (again)

While we were on holiday, I received an email every day from Jetpack telling me that my site was unresponsive. Usually less than an hour later, I had another email…

0 266  4 Comments on Friday 7 June 2024: Whoosh!
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Friday 7 June 2024: Whoosh!

And there we have it. Another week gone by in a flash. I didn’t do a great deal yesterday other than cogitate all day over cosy mysteries. I had a…

0 257  6 Comments on Thursday 6 June 2024: D-Day
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Thursday 6 June 2024: D-Day

It’s the 80th anniversary of D-Day today. The picture above is one I took of the Commonwealth war graves in Finningley. We have a Commonwealth war grave here in our…

0 294  8 Comments on Wednesday 5 June 2024: Travels with Peggy
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Wednesday 5 June 2024: Travels with Peggy

The last week of May was our annual Whitsun or late spring bank holiday. We always tend to take the whole week off, regardless of if we’re doing anything in…

0 208  4 Comments on Tuesday 4 June 2024: The month ahead
Posted in plan for the month

Tuesday 4 June 2024: The month ahead

Yesterday was my first day back at work following a week’s holiday. We had a good rest, and a good break. But I was itching to get on with something,…

0 248  2 Comments on Monday 3 June 2024: May wrap-up
Posted in plan for the month writer at work

Monday 3 June 2024: May wrap-up

We took the last week of May off as a holiday, which means I didn’t do very much work. In fact, I didn’t do any. I’m not beating myself over…

0 281  4 Comments on Friday 24 May 2024: Editing all day
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Friday 24 May 2024: Editing all day

It was almost 10pm by the time the poet returned home from his 3-day business trip. He’d left the house first thing Monday morning, and he got back just before…

0 279  6 Comments on Thursday 23 May 2024: The bells
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Thursday 23 May 2024: The bells

I had a much better night on Tuesday. I left all of the inside doors open in the house and kept a window open in the bedroom, so I could…

0 219  2 Comments on Wednesday 22 May 2024: Magpies are clever
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Wednesday 22 May 2024: Magpies are clever

I’m not used to being in the house on my own yet and during the night on Monday/Tuesday, I woke up at about 3:30am thinking I could hear noises. I…

1 272  4 Comments on Tuesday 21 May 2024: Busy weekend
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Tuesday 21 May 2024: Busy weekend

Gosh what a busy weekend we had. Saturday We were up early on Saturday because we had a lot to do, and while the poet was getting something out of…

1 268  4 Comments on Monday 20 May 2024: A little friend
Posted in writer at work

Monday 20 May 2024: A little friend

I did a lot of faffing on Friday morning and before I knew it, it was time to go and get my hair cut. When I got back, I went…

1 244  2 Comments on Friday 17 May 2024: Too many people. Again!
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Friday 17 May 2024: Too many people. Again!

I forgot to add one more thing to my list of things I could do in Durham for the day yesterday. I could have an editing day. I think the…

0 244  2 Comments on Thursday 16 May 2024: My first jolly!
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Thursday 16 May 2024: My first jolly!

We had a really nice time on Tuesday evening in Sheffield. We had our tea at Ask Italian, which is just like Pizza Express, and we hung around for a…

0 254  2 Comments on Wednesday 15 May 2024: Customer no-care?
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Wednesday 15 May 2024: Customer no-care?

Once upon a time, back in the day when I worked for a living, I was poached to serve on a S.E.C.R.E.T. committee: Satisfy Every Customer’s Requirement Every Time. I…

0 245  2 Comments on Tuesday 14 May 2024: The days are getting busy
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Tuesday 14 May 2024: The days are getting busy

The weekend was very full and busy, starting with a packed Saturday. We started with a visit to the mother-in-law to pick up something for Son #2 who’d had an…